Etymology

cavy

C3A1V4Y4

Today it means: Synonym of domestic guinea pig. Full definition →

taxonomic name Cavia ← Old Tupi saûîá
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cavy · noun1

  1. Old Tupisaûîá
  2. taxonomic nameCavia
  3. English todaycavy

From taxonomic name Cavia + English -y; the genus name Cavia was introduced by Dutch naturalist Willem Piso in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648), and the initial ⟨c⟩ was supposed to represent [s], but unaware of this, the spelling pronunciation became [k].

cavy · adjective2

  1. Middle Englishcave
  2. Englishcave
  3. English todaycavy

Blend of cave + -y.

cavy · noun3

Variant of cavvy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.