guariba
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of several South American howler monkeys with prehensile tails.
Example Sentences
- "[He saw] ahead of him the carcass of a guariba. It was drifting towards them, [...]"
- "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, ..."
- "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."
Etymology
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.
Word Breakdown
- Root: gûariba