"Guinea" etymology

[Wilson Gray]

Jon, I take it that you have in mind such Italian names as
"Lambor_ghini_"?;-)

-Wilson

On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 2:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Guinea" etymology
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hmmm. You mean I may have been right the first time?
>
> There's probably more than just one strand to the etymology.  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"?
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
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> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Guinea" etymology
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 5/2/2010 09:35 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >... my impression is that "guinea," as applied to Africans, was not
> > >in freq. use in the 1870s and later.
> >
> > 1)  When did immigration from Italy begin to increase, presumably in
> > the second half of the 19th century?
> >
> > 2)  Assertedly "Guinea" as applied to Africans was well-known in the
> > North in the decades just before and after the Civil War.  (I have no
> > idea about frequency from the 1870s.)  One has to pass over much
> > that's about Papua, but:
> >
> >      From the first page of " 'New Guinea at One End, and a View of
> > the Alms-House at the Other': The Decline of Black Salem,
> > 1850--1920", by Michael Sokolow, NE Quarterly, Vol. 71, No.2 [June
> > 1998] (JSTOR, so I must go to the library for the full article):  "To
> > contemporary readers from the urban North, 'New Guinea' was a
> > familiar phrase commonly used to refer to black neighborhoods in
> > cites such as Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, and New York."  The
> > quotation in the article title is from the "Custom House"
> > introduction to "The Scarlet Letter", published in 1850.
> >
> >      From "Black Walden: Slavery and its Aftermath in Concord,
> > Massachusetts, by Elise Lemire, p. 119 (Google Books):  "This pattern
> > of segregated inhabitation resulted in a term for referring to the
> > burgeoning enclaves of former slaves after the war. 'New Guinea was
> > used to describe the secons of New Haven, Philadelphia, New York,
> > Boston, and Plymouth where former slaves settled."  Lemire then
> > quotes Thoreau's reference in "Walden" to a Cato Ingraham: "Some say
> > that he was a Guinea Negro."  "Walden" was published in 1854.
> >
> >      From "Black trials: citizenship from the beginnings of slavery
> > to the end of caste", by Mark Stuart Weiner, p. 35 (Google Books
> > snippet): "... vibrant community of free blacks, which clustered near
> > the Charles Town ferry in
> > a neighborhood then called New Guinea."  [Needs more context to
> > determine when "then" was.]
> >
> >      From "Sarah's long walk: the free Blacks of Boston and how
> > their struggle for ...", by Stephen and Paul Kendrick, p 188:  "The
> > district known as New Guinea, where black sailors lived, had 683
> > inhabitants in 1840. Five years after the Fugitive Slave Law's
> > passage, only 50 people were living there."  [Again, needs more
> > context to determine just when was it known as "New Guinea".]
> >
> >      From "Bound for the promised land: Harriet Tubman, portrait of
> > an American hero", by Kate Clifford Larson (Google Books), p.
> > 155:  "Living in a small black settlement known as New Guinea, on the
> > east side of Auburn running along the Owasco River, Nat and Lizzie
> > found support and shelter ..."  This is upstate New York, circa 1857.
> >
> >      From "Chivalry, slavery, and young America", by John Burke
> > (1866), p. 125 (Google Books, full view), in an apparently undated
> > poem:  "... Most feelingly spoke of the sons of New Guinea Oppressed
> > in our midst ...".
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 5/2/2010 09:35 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >I nearly included this ref. in brackets in HDAS I but decided it was
> > >fanciful.
> > >
> > >Doug's new evidence suggests I was wrong.  Like his, my impression is
> that
> > >"guinea," as applied to Africans, was not in freq. use in the 1870s and
> > >later. Had there been a real connection, I'd have expected the early
> > >evidence to have come not from NYC but from N.O., which had a history of
> > >both African slavery and Italian immigration.
> > >Right now, I'm inclined to believe that the name was suggested by the
> > song.
> > >
> > >JL
> >
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-- 
-Wilson
–––
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