In the program "Historically yours" on Europe 1, host Stéphane Bern reveals every day the secrets of an expression whose origin is often unknown.
Thursday, he stops on the name "guinea pigs", which strangely refers to rodents from Latin America.
Stéphane Bern offers every day in "Historically yours" with Matthieu Noël to explore French expressions and trace their origins. Thursday, he chooses to linger on a nickname of "guinea pigs", which is wrongly given to guinea pigs, but with a reason linked to their history and those of humans.
"As you can imagine, the guinea pig is not a pig and it does not come from India. You don't have to be an animal specialist to know that the pig is an omnivorous mammal, whereas our guinea pigs worshipers are much smaller and totally herbivorous.
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The fault (once again) of Christopher Columbus
When Christopher Columbus arrived in America in 1492, he was, as we all remember, deeply convinced that he was in India.
Therefore, on meeting them and hearing their squeaks resembling pigs, he gives the guinea pigs the name of guinea pig.
It is also likely that the first encounters took place between Spanish explorers during the discovery of Peru and Chile.
Originally, guinea pigs were domesticated around 500 BC by Native Americans, primarily for food.
They often raised them under their beds, in order to naturally heat their bed.
It was the English and Dutch ships that brought these little companions to our European continent.
They quickly became very affectionate pets, and Elizabeth the 1st of England had them in her royal menagerie.
Guinea pigs are also called in English "guinea pigs", or guinea pigs, but that's another story.
Above all, they have been very useful to humanity, because different medical experiments on them have established the importance of the vitamin on our bodies.
They are at the origin of the discovery of a bacterium: tuberculosis. "