28 entries found

marijuana (n.)

a preparation of Cannabis sativa for use as an intoxicant, generally by smoking, 1918, altered by influence of Spanish proper name Maria Juana "Mary Jane" from mariguan (1894), from Mexican Spanish marihuana, which is of uncertain origin. As the plant was not native to Mexico, a native source for the word seems unlikely. Marijuana ... makes you sensitive. Courtesy has a great deal to do with being sensitive. Unfortunately marijuana makes you the kind of sensitive where you insist on everyone listening to the drum solo in Iron Butterfly's 'In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida' fifty or sixty times. [P.J. O'Rourke, "Modern Manners," 1983]

juju (n.2)

"marijuana cigarette," 1940, supposedly a reduplication of the middle syllable of marijuana.

Mary 

fem. proper name, Old English Maria, Marie, name of the mother of Jesus, from Latin Maria, from Greek Mariam, Maria, from Aramaic Maryam, from Hebrew Miryam, name of the sister of Moses (Exodus xv), a word of unknown origin, said to mean literally "rebellion." The nursery rhyme "Mary had a Little Lamb" was written early 1830 by Sarah Josepha Hale of Boston and published September 1830 in "Juvenile Miscellany," a popular magazine for children. Mary Jane is 1921 as the proprietary name of a kind of low-heeled shoe worn chiefly by young girls, 1928 as slang for marijuana.

doobie (n.)

"marijuana cigarette," 1960s, of unknown origin.

pot (n.2)

"marijuana," 1938, probably a shortened form of Mexican Spanish potiguaya "marijuana leaves."

dagga (n.)

"marijuana, Cannabis sativa smoked as a narcotic," 1660s, from Afrikaans, from Khoisan (Hottentot) dachab. Originally the name of an indigenous plant used as a narcotic, extended to marijuana by 1796.

THC (n.)

active ingredient in marijuana and hashish, 1968, short for tetrahydrocannabinol (1940).

muggle (n.1)

"marijuana, a joint," 1926, apparently originally a New Orleans word, of unknown origin.

sinsemilla (n.)

potent strain of marijuana, 1975, from Mexican Spanish, literally "without seed," from Latin sine "without" (see sans) + semen "seed" (from PIE root *sē- "to sow").

toke (n.)

"inhalation of a marijuana cigarette or pipe smoke," 1968, U.S. slang, from earlier verb meaning "to smoke a marijuana cigarette" (1952), perhaps from Spanish tocar in sense of "touch, tap, hit" or "get a share or part." In 19c. the same word in British slang meant "small piece of poor-quality bread," but probably this is not related.