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   guinea pig

   /ˈɡɪnɪ pɪɡ/

   noun

   • 1. a tailless South American rodent of the cavy family. Originally raised for food, it no longer occurs in the wild and is now typically kept as a pet or for laboratory research.
   • 2. a person or thing used as a subject for experiment: "we were used as guinea pigs to test the effects of radiation on human beings"

   Word Origin mid 17th century: from Guinea + pig; the term Guinea was probably a designation for an unknown distant country. Use in guinea pig (sense 2) arose in the 1920s in reference to the animal's use in laboratory research.

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