British Guiana
1
7.2
- proper noun
:
Guayana Británica
- British Guiana was known for its rich biodiversity and was home to numerous indigenous cultures.
- British Guiana, now Guyana
Examples
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It's rife in British Guiana.
Fiction book (1997) -
Francisco and Deacon were scholarship boys from British Guiana.
Fiction book (1997) -
Escaped prisoners from French Guiana were an occasional feature on the British Guiana coast.
Fiction book (1997) -
For a long period of time in the nineteenth century, British Guiana had been expanding its western border into Venezuelan territory.
Academic text (1992) -
He adds, "British Guiana, now Guyana? A country of many cultures: Chinese, African, Indian, Portuguese, British, as though explaining Daphne to herself" (10).
Academic text (2014) -
He had been affianced—in keeping with East Indian indenture custom—to the maiden Marie of his own age when he left British Guiana to take up his scholarship.
Fiction book (1997) -
In 1831, the British established British Guiana as a unified colony in northeastern South America.
-
During the 1960s, many citizens of British Guiana campaigned for independence from British rule.
Synonyms
12
3.2
A country in northeastern South America with rainforests and capital Georgetown
A country in northeastern South America that became independent from the United Kingdom in 1966
Surface Forms
Morphology
The name is directly compositional: 'British' modifies 'Guiana' to indicate the part of the Guiana region under British rule, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to Britain’s territory in Guiana. This pattern of forming place names (e.g. British X) is common and cross-linguistically transparent, even if the term is historical.
Etymology
British Guiana was the name used when British rulers controlled the region called Guiana in South America, so people added British to show who ruled it. When the country won 'independence' in 1966 it dropped that name and became 'Guyana', so today the term refers to the country's former name.