{"id":3533,"date":"2020-03-16T03:16:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T10:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?p=3533"},"modified":"2020-03-16T08:13:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T15:13:22","slug":"why-is-marijuana-called-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/why-is-marijuana-called-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Marijuana Called Pot? Where Cannabis Nicknames Come From"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the interesting aspects of marijuana is that no one calls it \u201cmarijuana.\u201d How many times have you heard someway say: \u201cLet\u2019s go smoke some marijuana\u201d? Instead, they use slang terms, which in turn has led to many people asking. \u201cWhy is marijuana called pot?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Much like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/history-significance-420\/\">history of 420<\/a>, many myths have built up around the use of marijuana slang. Although this one is true: the DEA once listed all the nicknames for marijuana they had picked up during arrests. They included The Devil\u2019s Lettuce, Burritos Verdes and Smoochy Moochy Poochy.<\/p>\n<p>But, while memorable, they hardly rank as common. Here\u2019s a look at the facts behind why marijuana is called pot and other common slang terms.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Where Does The Term Marijuana Come From?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Before getting into nicknames, it\u2019s worthwhile to know why marijuana is called marijuana. The term marijuana didn\u2019t enter the American vocabulary until the anti-marijuana movement sought to associate cannabis with \u201clocoweed\u201d from Mexico in the 1930s, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/codeswitch\/2013\/07\/14\/201981025\/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to NPR<\/a>. While the word entered the U.S. vocabulary from Mexico, the word\u2019s origin remains cloaked in mystery. NPR listed the most popular theories as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chinese immigrants to Mexico may have used the term \u201cma ren hua\u201d to describe the plant, which became \u201cSpanishized\u201d into marijuana<\/li>\n<li>Marijuana could be a colloquial Spanish way of saying mejorana &#8211; &#8220;Chinese oregano&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>It could be a portmanteau of the Spanish girl&#8217;s names Maria and Juana<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s a version of the Bantu word for cannabis used by Angolan slaves brought to Brazil by the Portuguese: \u201cma-ka\u00f1a.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why Is Marijuana Called Pot?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Marijuana is called pot because \u201cpot\u201d is a shortened version of \u201cpotaci\u00f3n de guava,\u201d which may have been a Mexican beverage made from seeping\u00a0 cannabis leaves in wine or brandy. Accent on the \u201cmay\u201d &#8211; no one is 100% for sure. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.civilized.life\/articles\/marijuana-called-pot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Civilized<\/a>, the first use of the term \u201cpot\u201d comes from a 1938 short story called \u201cThe Way We Live Now\u201d by African-American author Chester Himes. He wrote: &#8220;She made him smoke pot and when he got jagged [high]\u2026she put him on the street.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why Is Marijuana Called Weed?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Cannabis is actually a flowering plant, but it can grow in the wild, like a weed. Where people started using the term is unclear. However, American Speech mentioned the term weed in 1929, defining it as a \u201cmarijuana cigarette,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/human-interest\/2014\/03\/the-etymology-of-marijuana-and-the-rise-of-weed-as-the-preferred-slang-term-for-cannabis-sativa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to Slate<\/a>. In 1932, The Chicago Defender also used the term, as well as mentioning \u201creefer.\u201d Which brings us to the next question.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why Is Marijuana Called Reefer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>On ships, a \u201creefer\u201d is a sailor who rolls the canvas, called \u201creefing a sail.\u201d A reefed sail looks a lot like a joint. That, most believe, is where this particular slang word originated.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why Is Marijuana Called Mary Jane?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Now, this is the easy one. Mary Jane is simply the English version of Maria and Juana, which (as we learned above) could be the original source of the term marijuana.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ganja<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>European continued to wrongly refer to Native Americans as Indians long after they knew they were not in India. In that same spirit, many people refer to ganja as the Jamaican word for marijuana. This just in: They speak English in Jamaica (or Jamaican Patois, a form of English). Yes, the term is widely used in Jamaica, but was likely brought there by 40,000 indentured servants from India that the British Empire forced into labor on the island. Ganja is the Hindi word for marijuana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marijuana has many nicknames, and pot ranks among the most used. But why? And what about weed, reefer, Mary Jane and ganja?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[879,286,882,880,881,878],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Is Marijuana Called Pot? Where Cannabis Nicknames Come From<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Marijuana has many nicknames, and pot ranks among the most used. But why? 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