guinea

plural guineas

1. UKhistoricalA gold coin originally worth twenty shillings; later (from 1717 until the adoption of decimal currency) standardised at a value of twenty-one shillings.

   However, since there are 488 pages in all for a bargain price of a guinea one must not be too carping.

   1962 June, “New Reading on Railways: Locomotives of British Railways, by H. C. Casserley & L. Asher, Spring Books, 21s.”, in Modern Railways, page 432

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   English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck—nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection...

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

2. Synonym of guinea fowl.

   The guineas peeped complainingly, the goslings waddled into all the puddles and came back to chill my skin.

   1944, Emily Carr, “Brooding and Homing”, in The House of All Sorts

   Synonyms: guinea fowl

3. USderogatoryethnicslangslurA person of Italian descent.

   If I’m to tell the whole truth—and why not? I sure have the time!—I’ll have to start by saying I was born Richard Pinzetti, in New York’s Little Italy. My father was an Old World guinea.

   1982, Stephen King, Survivor Type

   Synonyms: dago, Eyetie, goombah, greaseball, guido, wog, wop

1. historicalThe coastal region of West Africa between Morocco and the Congo, particularly the north shore of the Gulf of Guinea.
2. A country in West Africa. Official name: Republic of Guinea.

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   Among the frontrunners before the conclave began were Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state; Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines; Péter Erdő, a traditionalist from Hungary; Robert Sarah, a cardinal from Guinea who criticised Francis’s papacy; and the moderate US cardinal Robert Prevost.

   2025 May 8, Angela Giuffrida and Harriet Sherwood, “White smoke from Sistine Chapel chimney signals election of new pope”, in The Guardian

3. USderogatoryethnicslangslurAlternative letter-case form of guinea, an Italian.