guariba

See also: Guariba

English edit

Etymology edit

From Brazilian Portuguese guariba, from a Tupian^[1] (Nheengatu)^[2] name. Other early European spellings/renderings of the same Tupian word include guariva, guariha, uariba, waariba, and in French ouarive/ouariue (which was misread as ouarine, giving rise to that word^[3] and, by anglicization of it, to warine^[4]).^[5]

The Century Dictionary suggests a possible relation to araguato and/or araba (an obsolete word for a howler monkey of the genus Mycetes); the New English Dictionary directs readers to compare alouatte and araguato.

Noun edit

guariba (plural guaribas)

Any of several South American howler monkeys with prehensile tails.
- 1865, The Boys' Journal:
  [He saw] ahead of him the carcass of a guariba. It was drifting towards them, [...]
- 1911, Jules Verne, The five hundred millions of the begum, page 261:
  It was not a man at all, it was a guariba. Of all the prehensile-tailed monkeys which haunt the forests of the Upper Amazon the guariba is without doubt the most eccentric. Of sociable disposition, and not very savage, ...
- 1963, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology:
  THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE GUARIBA MONKEY
  There was once a man who unknowingly married a guariba monkey in human form. The couple lived together until she grew pregnant; she then suggested a visit to her father.

Related terms edit

ouarine, warine

References edit

^ “guariba”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
^ America indígena (1974), volume 34, page 43: "Waariba o uariba en ñeengatú significa araguato."
^ New English Dictionary, volume 7, O–P (1909): ouarine
^ New English Dictionary, volume 10 part 2, V–Z (1928): warine
^ Jas. Platt, Jun., in The Athenaeum, number 3840, 1 June 1901, page 695-696