gibnut

English

WOTD – 9 March 2020

Etymology

A lowland paca (Cuniculus paca), which is known in Belize as a gibnut

Borrowed from Belizean Creole gibnat, gibnut, givnat, from Miskito ibina, ibihna, ibinha.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪbnʌt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪbˌnʌt/
• Hyphenation: gib‧nut

Noun

gibnut (plural gibnuts)

1. (Belize) A paca (“a large rodent of the genus Cuniculus native to Central America and South America, which has dark brown or black fur, a white or yellowish underbelly and rows of white spots along the sides”).

   Synonyms: gibbonet, jungle rat, royal rat

   • 1883, Archibald Robertson Gibbs, “The Labour Question—Climate—Productions—Flora and Fauna—and General Features”, in British Honduras: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Colony from Its Settlement, 1670. […], London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 185:

     The woods abound in game and wild animals, the small red deer, ten varieties of wild hog, the peccary (Dicotyles labiatus) and waree (a mere variety), the paca (Cœlogenys subnigra), a burrowing animal locally called gibbonet or gibnut, considered good eating; [...]

   • 1884 August 23, “In the Honduras forests”, in D. P. Kingsley, editor, Grand Junction News, volume II, number 44, Grand Junction, Colo.: Price & Kingsley, →OCLC, page 4, column 3:

     We have some splendid game in these woods, among which is the gibnut, a beautiful little animal, which, when cooked, tastes very much like a nice, fat little pig. [From the New York Sun.]

   • 1895 May 16, T[homas] Gann, “[Notes on the Exploration of Two Mounds in British Honduras]”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, volume XV (Second Series), London: Printed by Nichols and Sons, for the Society of Antiquaries [of London], […], →OCLC, page 433:

     On digging in the earth in this cave, we found the arm and leg bones of a single skeleton. [...] We also found the lower jaw of a gibnut and of another small rodent, but no other bones.

   • 1918, Thomas W[illiam] F[rancis] Gann, “Description of Mounds [Mound No. 41]”, in The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras (Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin; 64), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 138:

     While hunting for a gibnut he traced one to a hole in the ground; on poking a stick into this hole, he was astonished on withdrawing it to find that he had brought out on its end a small painted pottery cylinder. The hole on being enlarged proved to be the entrance to a chultun, one of those curious underground chambers cut in the limestone rock found throughout Yucatan and the northern part of British Honduras, especially in the neighborhood of ruins.

   • 1993, Richard Harris, Stacy Ritz, edited by Joanna Pearlman, The Maya Route: The Ultimate Guidebook: Yucatan, Belize, Guatemala, Cancún, Berkeley, Calif.: Ulysses Press, →ISBN, page 359:

     One reason people come to Belize is for adventure. That's why you might want to try gibnut, bamboo chicken and cow's foot soup.

   • 2009, Joan Fry, How to Cook a Tapir: A Memoir of Belize (At Table series), Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 77:

     The three men had bagged an iguana and two gibnuts. Except for the spots on their backs, the gibnuts resembled twenty-pound guinea pigs.

   • 2009 December 7, Jules Vasquez, “Illegal Xatero in Chiquibul Busted on Camera”, in 7 News Belize‎^[2], archived from the original on 5 January 2010:

     But what he knows to do is hunt gibnut as was amply demonstrated when he opened his sack. A pair of gibnuts but he didn't use the gun on them, he smoked them out of a tree bark and used the machete and bundled them for good measure with a few xate leaves.

   • 2011, Helen R. Haines, “A Rat by Any Other Name: Conflicting Definitions of ‘Dinner’ in Belize, Central America”, in Helen R. Haines, Clare A. Sammells, editors, Adventures in Eating: Anthropological Experiences in Dining from Around the World, Boulder, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, →ISBN, section I (The Main Course), page 45:

     In the case of gibnut (Agouti paca), however, my memories are occupied predominately with my efforts to avoid eating this creature.

Translations

paca — see paca

Further reading

• paca on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Bitung, tubing, Tingub