モルモット

1876-77 is an early Japanese point for モルモット: Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten cites Hakubutsuzu Kyojuho. The listed source is Dutch marmot, but the animal is Cavia porcellus, the guinea pig. Digital Daijisen notes a 16th-century Dutch confusion between the South American animal and the European marmot. In Meiji natural-history and medical writing, モルモット named the guinea pig used for observation, breeding, and experiments. The related Japanese name テンジクネズミ remained available, and English ギニアピッグ was also known. By 1910-11, Shimazaki Toson's Ie already shows モルモット used for a person treated as an experimental subject. Modern Japanese モルモット can mean the animal or a human test subject. This is a false friend with English marmot, which means a rodent of the genus Marmota, not a guinea pig. English guinea pig has both the animal meaning and the test-subject meaning. Example: 新薬のモルモットにはなりたくない.