JUST JUDI 1/2020 Spotlight 47These days, in the US, you can’t go one day without
reading about medical marijuana in the news. It’s
legal in some states but not in others. In states where
it’s legal to use for medicinal purposes, it’s permitted
only for certain illnesses. And you have to take your
prescription to specific dispensaries — you can’t just
walk into a pharmacy to pick up your pot.
Did you catch what I just said there? “To pick up
your pot” — “pot” being a slang word for “marijuana”.
As marijuana has been illegal until recently, slang
born of secrecy has always been the terminology
preferred by marijuana users. But the booming new
cannabis industry doesn’t want users to use slang.
Shirley Halperin, author of the book Pot Culture:
The A–Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life, notes the
problem the legal marijuana industry has with what
to call its product. “Businesses don’t want to call
it ‘weed,’” she says. The word “cannabis,” however,
“sounds like it has purpose in the world.”
Still, no one really uses the word “cannabis” —
especially when the slang is so much more colorful.
Imagine the scene: You walk into a dispensary and
ask for your dose of dope, your weekly weed, your
monthly Marley, your round of reefer, your lot of
lettuce, your nip of nugs, your dibs of dabs, your tin
of tea, your portion of pot, your cache of kush, your
fix of 420 , your grams of grass or ganja!
Although all of these terms are used widely today,
some of them date back to the early 20th century. So,
how did the slang develop?JUST JUDI
A weed by any
other name
Wie viele Spitznamen für Marihuana fallen Ihnen spontan
ein? Vermutlich nicht ganz so viele wie unserer Kolumnistin- zumindest nicht auf Englisch.
MEDIUM UScache [kÄS]
, (heimlicher) Vorrat
CBD [)si: bi: (di:]
, Cannabidiol
dibs [dIbz] N. Am. ifml.
, Anspruch
dispensary [dI(spensEri]
, Arzneiausgabe,
Apotheke
dose [doUs]
, Dosis, Gabe
fix [fIks]
, hier: Dosis
hemp [hemp]
, Hanf
munchies [(mVntSiz] ifml.
, Heißhunger; hier:
Kifferhunger
nip [nIp]
, Portion
prescription
[pri(skrIpS&n]
, (ärztliches) Rezept
secrecy [(si:krEsi]
, Heimlichkeit
THC [)ti: eItS (si:]
, Tetrahydrocannabinol
tin [tIn] UK
, Dose
weed [wi:d] ifml.
, Unkraut; hier: GrasThe word “marijuana” was used by Spanish settlers,
who had brought the plant to Mexico for industrial
use as hemp. In the 1930s, jazz musicians started call-
ing marijuana “dope,” “reefer,” “weed,” and “tea.” In
the 1960s, hippies called it “grass.” In the 1970s, reg-
gae singer Bob Marley popularized “ganja.” Students
in California got together on April 20th to smoke,
which resulted in the term “420.” In the 1980s,
“stoner” culture entered the mainstream by way of
the American comedy duo Cheech & Chong. And in
2015, country singer Willie Nelson brought out the
song “It’s All Going to Pot” (although the slang word
“pot” is much older). Today, you can almost tell what
age people are by the words they use.
It’s only a matter of time before medical marijua-
na and marijuana in general will become legal — and
socially acceptable — in most Western countries.
So, whether you smoke blunts, spliffs, or joints for
enjoyment, or you’re ill and need CBD or THC prod-
ucts from a legal dispensary, or even if, like me, you
don’t use cannabis at all — at least now you’ll be able
to join in the discussion (if not the munchies).Fotos: azure1, Danny Smythe/Shutterstock.com
THE LANGUAGE PAGES
Welcome to the language pages
Over the next dozen or more pages, we give you the opportunity to learn
about grammar and vocabulary in an up-to-date context. We start off here
with a column that takes a very personal look at the English language.JUDITH GILBERT
Writer, editor, translator, and photographer
Judith Gilbert divides her time between New York
City and a small town in Bavaria.