salipenter

English

WOTD – 5 May 2020

Etymology

A gold tegu (Tupinambis teguixin), known in Guyana as a salipenter.

Borrowed from Guyanese Creole English [Term?].

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsælɪˈpɛntɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛntə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: sa‧li‧pen‧ter

Noun

salipenter (plural salipenters)

1. (Guyana) A tegu lizard (genus Tupinambis), especially the gold tegu (Tupinambis teguixin).

   Synonym: bush motorbike

   • 1825, Charles Waterton, “First Journey”, in Wanderings in South America, the North-west of the United States, and the Antilles, in the Years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. […], London: Printed [by A[ugustus] Applegath] for J. Mawman, […], →OCLC, page 8:

     A species of the polecat, and another of the fox, are destructive to the Indian's poultry; while the opossum, the guana, and salempenta, afford him a delicious morsel.

   • 1834, R[obert] Montgomery Martin, “British Guyana— [...]”, in History of the British Colonies. [...] In Five Volumes, volume II (Possessions in the West Indies), London: Cochrane and M‘Crone, […], →OCLC, page 104:

     The Salempenta or El Mateo, measuring from the tail to the nose three feet, is exceedingly ugly; colour chiefly a brownish green, with yellow spots; and marked in the most extraordinary hieroglyphical manner; [...] The Salempenta has (like the Chameleon, and several others of the same species) in some measure the faculty of changing its colour when in any way excited, either through fright or anger; [...]

   • 1869, Greville John Chester, “British Guiana”, in Transatlantic Sketches in the West Indies, South America, Canada, and the United States, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 131:

     A large land-lizard, called the Salempenta, or Salipanta, is likewise common, and is said to destroy fowls.

   • 1879, J[ohn] G[eorge] Wood, “Explanatory Index”, in Charles Waterton, Wanderings in South America, the North-west of the United States, and the Antilles, in the Years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. […] Edited, with Biographical Introduction and Explanatory Index, new edition, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 467:

     Salempenta (Teius Teguexin).—This fine lizard is sometimes called the Safeguard, because it is supposed to give notice of the approach of the alligator, just as the African monitors are believed to warn travellers against the crocodile. [...] Like the iguana, the Salempenta affords very delicate food, which is thought to resemble the flesh of a very delicate young chicken. New comers are at first averse to eating a lizard of any description, but they very soon find out their mistake, and would even prefer an iguana or Salempenta cutlet to a chicken.

   • 1894, S. R. Cochran, “Some Enemies of Our Cane-fields”, in James Rodway, editor, Timehri: The Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, volume VIII (New Series), Demerara: J. Thomson, →OCLC, page 104:

     How far foxes, ocelots, hawks, yellow-tail and other snakes, and salempentas, contribute towards keeping down rats by destroying them for food is not easily determined. That the last named is an excellent ratter, I know from actual observation.

   • 1919, William Beebe, quoting Edgar Beckett, “Field Notes on the Lizards of Kartabo, British Guiana, and Caripito, Venezuela. Part 3. Teiidae, Amphisbaenidae and Scincidae.”, in [Henry] Fairfield Osborn [Jr.], editor, Zoologica: Scientific Contributions of the New York Zoological Society, volume 30, part 1, New York, N.Y.: New York Zoological Society, published 27 April 1945, →OCLC, page 25, column 2:

     I know very little about the details of the regular diet of salempentas, but fowls' and lizards' eggs and chickens are favorites. My nephew wounded a plover and as it was only slightly hurt, he tethered it with a string under the house. In a short time he found a large salempenta on the end of the string, having swallowed the bird.

   • 1922, Chambers’s Journal, volume XCIX, part 139, London, Edinburgh: W[illiam] & R[obert] Chambers […], →OCLC, page 421, column 1:

     Lizards usually have white flesh, tasting more like fowl than anything else. The Salempenta lizard of Guiana, which is amphibious and unpleasant to behold, is a favourite dish of the Indians.

   • 1999, David Dabydeen, A Harlot’s Progress, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5:

     I could sting you for a bounty of reparations, but keep your money and let me talk like dis and dat, let me say I come from the tribe of Bongo-Bongo; that I am germane and first-cousin to jungle beasts like anthropophagi, hermaphrodites, salipenters and all the other creatures dreamt of by your writers or discovered by your travellers.

   • 2004, Deloris Craig, “The Crossing”, in Labba and Creek Water Stories from the Caribbean, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: Nelson Thornes, →ISBN, page 118:

     Along its bank a salipenter, the colour of the mud, sped furtively, its eyes on some domestic fowls picking at the verge of the mud hole.

   • 2012 January 22, “Iguana”, in Stabroek News‎^[1], Georgetown, Guyana: Guyana Publications, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 February 2012:

     Their [iguanas'] eggs and meat are food resources for predators such as salipenter (Tegu lizard), hawks, vultures, and humans.

   • 2015 October 28, Rohan Singh, chapter 1, in Adventures of Suliman and the Sandopie, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN:

     Slowly, he peeped from behind his hiding place just in time to see a black-and-white furry object dash behind a salipenter.

   • 2016 August 11, Neil Primus, “Goings and Comings”, in Nigel Williams, editor, Guyana Chronicle‎^[2], Georgetown, Guyana: Guyana National Newspapers, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 March 2020:

     Fruits and a ‘salipenter (large lizard)’ were what he used to help with his hunger.

Alternative forms

• salempenta (archaic)

Derived terms

• salipenter snake (Spilotes pullatus)

Translations

tegu lizard — see tegu

Further reading

• gold tegu on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• tegu on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Alpestrine, Pearlstein, alpestrine, episternal, interlapse, interpales, interpleas, plenarties, presential