Marijuana (word)
"Marijuana", or "marihuana", etc., is a name for the drug cannabis, or for the cannabis plant from which it is made.[1] The form marihuana is first attested in Mexican Spanish; it then spread to other varieties of Spanish and to English, French, and other languages.[1][2]
History
The term, originally spelled variously as marihuana, mariguana, etc., originated in Mexican Spanish.[2] The ultimate derivation is unknown; it may come from the Nahuatl mallihuan, meaning prisoner.[1] Traditional association with the personal name María Juana ("Mary Jane") is probably a folk etymology.[3] The original Mexican Spanish used forms with the letter 'h' (marihuana). Forms using the letter 'j' (marijuana) seem to be an innovation of English, though they later appeared in French and in Spanish, probably due to English influence.[1]
The word entered into English usage in the late 19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known appearance of a form of the word in that language is in Hubert Howe Bancroft's 1873 The Native Races of the Pacific states of North America.[1] Through the early 20th century, however, both the drug and the plant were more commonly known as "cannabis" or "hemp". "Marihuana"'s currency in American English increased dramatically in the 1930s, when it was preferred as an exotic-sounding alternative name during the debates of the drug's use.[1] It has been suggested that it was promoted by opponents of the drug, who wanted to stigmatize it with a "foreign-sounding name".[2]
The more usual international term for the drug is "cannabis", hence its use in global legal instruments such as the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Laws in the United States, such as the Controlled Substances Act, often use the term "marihuana" or "marijuana," and many cannabis reform organizations in the U.S., such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Marijuana Policy Project, also use this term. However, some supporters of legalization eschew "marijuana" in favor of the more scientific cannabis, as they consider the former pejorative.[4]
References
Cite error: Invalid <references> tag;
parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />, or <references group="..." />| 40x40px | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marijuana. |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 American Heritage Dictionaries (2007). Spanish Word Histories and Mysteries: English Words That Come From Spanish. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0618910549, 9780618910540 Check
|isbn=value: invalid character (help). - ↑ "Marijuana". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, V3.0, 1999.
- ↑ Jesse, McKinley (April 23, 2010). "Don't Call It 'Pot' in This Circle; It's a Profession". The New York Times. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
