guinea

Etymology

From Guinea, the country in West Africa, the coins originally being made of gold from the region and used for African trade, and the guinea fowl being found there.

noun

1. (Britain, historical) A gold coin originally worth twenty shillings; later (from 1717 until the adoption of decimal currency) standardised at a value of twenty-one shillings.
   However, since there are 488 pages in all for a bargain price of a guinea one must not be too carping. 1962 June, “New Reading on Railways: Locomotives of British Railways, by H. C. Casserley & L. Asher, Spring Books, 21s.”, in Modern Railways, page 432
2. Synonym of guinea fowl
   The guineas peeped complainingly, the goslings waddled into all the puddles and came back to chill my skin. 1944, Emily Carr, “Brooding and Homing”, in The House of All Sorts
3. (US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent.
   If I’m to tell the whole truth—and why not? I sure have the time!—I’ll have to start by saying I was born Richard Pinzetti, in New York’s Little Italy. My father was an Old World guinea. 1982, Stephen King, Survivor Type