"Guinea" etymology

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/2/2010 02:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Hmmm. You mean I may have been right the first time?
>
>There's probably more than just one strand to the etymology.

To clarify, I didn't mean to imply anything about the etymology of
"Guinea" = 'Italian person'.  I merely wanted to keep open the
question of whether "Guinea" = 'African person' was current after,
say, 1860.  My previous message addresses that.

Joel

>Were there any
>Italian neighborhoods called "New Guinea"?
>
>Did Italy ever try to colonize New Guinea ca1880?  (ISTR a ref., but it may
>have not have been a very serious attempt, or publicized in the U.S.
>
>How many Italian surnames end in "-ghini"?

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