Meanings
plural guaribas
- Any of several South American howler monkeys with prehensile tails.
[He saw] ahead of him the carcass of a guariba. It was drifting towards them, [...]
1865, The Boys' Journal2 more examples
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, ...
1911, Jules Verne, The five hundred millions of the begum, page 261THE 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.
1963, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology
Origin
- Old Tupigûariba
- Brazilian Portugueseguariba
- Englishguariba
Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese guariba, from Old Tupi gûariba. 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 and, by anglicization of it, to warine). 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.
More words from Brazilian Portuguese, Old Tupi
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
guariba. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/guariba
“guariba.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/guariba. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “guariba,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/guariba.
Source: guariba on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.