Guinea
10.0000°N -11.0000°W · Q1006
2 English words in this atlas trace back to Guinea. It sits in Guinea.
Named for one stretch of African coast, and native to most of a continent.
European traders met the birds through Guinea, their name for the West African coast, and the label followed the bird into farmyards worldwide. The same coastal name rides on the English guinea coin, struck from West African gold, and on the guinea pig, which is South American.
An Andean rodent named for West Africa and sold to Europeans as a pig.
The animal reached Europe from the Andes on ships that also worked the Guinea trade, and the explanations compete: the African coast, the Guiana coast, or the guinea coin it supposedly cost. None has been settled, and the pig half is only a nod to its squeal and its shape.