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marijuana

noun
USmair-i-WAH-nuh/ˌmɛɹɪˈwɑ.nə/UKma-ri-WAH-nuh/ˌmæɹɪˈwɑː.nə/

2 meanings of marijuana

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    The flower clusters of the Cannabis sativa plant, smoked or consumed to produce a feeling of euphoria.

    The smell of marijuana drifted over the crowd as the band took the stage.

    Voters approved a measure allowing adults to buy marijuana from licensed stores.

    Similarcannabis

    Note

    English borrowed the word from Mexican Spanish marihuana, first recorded in 1874 in the publications of Hubert Howe Bancroft, and a folk link with the name María Juana, Mary Jane, helped bend it into shape. Beside slang such as weed and tea it is the plain, neutral name: Kerouac's narrator in On the Road (1957) corrects himself mid-sentence from weed to marijuana.

  2. 2
    noununcountable
    Cannabis sativa, the hemp plant, as a living plant rather than the drug made from it.

    Wild marijuana grows along the ditches in parts of the Midwest.

    Officers pulled up more than two hundred marijuana plants from a hidden plot in the national forest.

    Similarcannabis, hemp

Practice

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Origin

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish marihuana, from mariguana, and first attested in 1874 in the publications of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Its form was altered by a folk etymology linking it to the name María Juana (“Mary Jane”).