Chrysti The Wordsmith: Guinea Pig

Greetings I'm Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman. The little guinea pig is native to South America specifically Ecuador Peru Bolivia and Brazil in the wild. These rodents live in grassy areas moving about in small family groups proposed killer creatures. They tend to be active at dawn and dusk when they're least visible to predators. Guinea pigs were domesticated for their meat thousands of years ago and are still used as a source of protein by people living in the mountainous regions of South America in North America and Europe. However these little creatures are enjoyed as pets and have been selectively bred into several varieties. The label guinea pig is a misnomer as the animals are neither of West African origin as the first part of their name might suggest. Nor it related to pigs in any way. So whence the name. Facts on File encyclopedia of word and phrase origins by Robert Hendricks and advances one possibility. It says The creature was quote first brought to Europe on slave ships that

sailed from Guinea to South America to deliver their human cargo on the return trip from South America. So-called guinea pigs were brought aboard and May early on have been compared to swine because of their round rumps stout necks and edible flesh because the rodents are often used in laboratory experiments. The extended moniker guinea pig informally refers to a person used to test something new. I'm Christi the wordsmith Christy the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.