VARIETIES OF CANNABIS

                      The Many Varieties of Cannabis and Their Hazy, Crazy Etymologies

                                                           By

                                                 Howard Richler

Boston Sunday Herald-26 March 1967: According to one Federal Narcotics Bureau agent, California ‘is flooded with marijuana’, which is better known by the increasing numbers who smoke it as ‘pot’, ‘grass’ and ‘Mary J.’.

It was sometime around March 26, 1967, that I indulged in cannabis for the first time and it has been over fifty years since my last joint. As I metamorphosed into a law-abiding citizen when I turned 30, I have refrained from using the weed ever since but as the substance is now legal in Canada, I might indulge in it after a long period of abstinence, but my preference is to ingest it with  a cookie rather than taking it into my lungs.. As the above 52 year-old headline makes clear, cannabis has been known by several names that keep a-changin’. Growing up in the 60s, the term grass was common but one doesn’t hear this designation often nowadays.

While the origins of terms such as grass and weed are obvious, the etymology of other terms, similar to the effect cannabis often causes, are rather hazy.

For example, one might imagine that  the term pot is somehow connected to a potted plant, however  the OED relates  that it enjoys “an  uncertain and disputed” etymology: “The most popular theory explains the word as being derived  from the Mexican Spanish  words potiguaya  ‘cannabis leaves’, or potación de guaya, literally ‘drink of grief,’ supposedly denoting a drink of wine or brandy in which marijuana buds were steeped; however, no corroborating evidence has been found to support the use of any of these terms in Spanish (although potiguaya is recorded in an English glossary of drug terminology slightly earlier than the earliest example of the word in 1936.”  Alternatively, however (and more boringly)   the OED says that it could derive from the sense of pot as a roundish container. As for the term “doobie” that refers to a marijuana cigarette, all the OED states as to its source is “origin unknown.”  However, J.E. Lighter in his Historical Dictionary of American Slang proffers the idea that the word comes from “dobby,” an attachment to a loom for weaving small figures.  Not surprisingly, the OED relates that “marijuana” is a borrowing from the Spanish mariguana, or marihuana but states that the Spanish origin is uncertain. One theory, however states that the Spanish word originated from the Aztec language Nahuatl ‘s word from “prisoner,” mallihuan.

I noticed on Google Ngrams, which charts the frequency of words in the English language, that the term “reefer” reached its popularity high in 1942. This is probably because in 1936 a film called Reefer Madness was released whose melodramatic theme alerted adolescents to the grave consequences lest they are lured by drug pushers to ingest marijuana. Among the possible effects elucidated in this didactic film were hallucinations, hit and run accidents, attempted rapes and an inevitable descent into madness caused by addiction. Once again, a definitive etymology is elusive but the term most likely derives from the Mexican Spanish grifa, a term for cannabis. An alternate theory though sees the term coming from the word “reef” which can refer to a section of a sail on account of the cigarette resembling rolled-up sailcloth.

“Ganja” is yet still another name for cannabis. Although the term is often associated with the West Indies, the word derives from India and comes from the Hindi word ganjha. For the term “joint,” the OED merely says “marijuana cigarette” but when the drug sense of the word was first used in the 1930s, the OED informs that it referred to the “hypodermic equipment used by drug addicts.”

             Finally, if you guessed that the reference to “colitas”  in the lyric  “warm smell of colitas rising up in the air” by The Eagles in their classic Hotel California  is to marijuana, you are correct. Colitas in Spanish means little tails and in Mexican slang it refers to the buds of cannabis.

One caveat- While you can check out any time, you can never leave.

Richler’s latest book is Wordplay:Arranged and Deranged Wit

A Celebration of Words for Women to Commemorate International Women's Day

                            Whence Cometh Woman?

                                                by

                                        Howard Richler

March 8^th designates International Women’s Day, which has been celebrated since 1975 and since the lady has been honoured for 54 years, it is now incumbent that we  turn our attention to the oft-misunderstood origin of the word “woman.” Discussions about this word’s origin inevitably entails someone becoming apoplectic that woman ends in “man.” (I mean, how controlling do men have to be?) This supposed outrage has led to other alleged affronts, such as feeling that the word history is sexist and should be accompanied by “herstory.” Truth be told, however, the word woman does not designate that a woman is a “wo” version of a male, nor does she represent a compound of womb and man.  Woman started out as wifman in Old English with man only designating “person” Hence, wifman, only meant “female person.” We find in Beowulf, written sometime between 975 and 1025, the designation woepnedman for the male of the species and woepned referrred not only to maleness but also  to “pertaining to weapons.” Another term for my bellicose gender was the term guma or gome which enjoys a half-life in the word “bridegroom.”

By the end of the Old English period the f of wifman was disappearing and thus emerged wiman and by the 13^th century we see the form “woman” developing. Woman didn’t finally jettison the two more ancient words for female person wif and the more obsolete quean until the end of the Middle English period. By the way, the semantic restriction of wife to “married person” began in the Old English period and became more entrenched in subsequent centuries. Likewise, history doesn’t designate “his story” and derives from the classical Latin historia, “account of events” and even further back we find the Greek histor, “learned man.”

But the question remains, is the woman a lady?  Etymologically, the answer is settled. If she kneads bread, she’s a lady. The term derives from the Old English hlafdi which represents a sandwich comprised of hlaf (from whence we get “loaf”) “bread,” and the root -dig “knead” (related to the English “dough.”) The lady’s hubby, the lord, is the guardian of the bread, hlafweard, which was then rendered   as hlaford and in the 14^th century this became shortened to the single syllable “lord.”

So while the lady’s provenance is crystal-clear, matters are fuzzier with the lady’s earlier state  — “girl.” We do know, however, that the term was originally gender-neutral and meant “child”; a male child was a “knave-girl.” Strangely, there is not a definitive term for a female child and the only recorded usages are “gay girl” and “little girl.” Through the process the semantic narrowing the word “girl” came to refer to only female children starting in the latter part of the 14^th century. There are many theories of where the term came from originally, but all seem fairly conjectural in nature.

We do, however, know more about some of the familial terms for females. In fact, the word daughter can be traced back to the Indo-European dhughater and the Sanskrit duhitr. Originally, the word daughter was pronounced to rhyme with the words “rafter,” and “laughter,” not surprisingly because in English the “gh” sound is often pronounced as an “f” as in the words “rough” and “enough.” We see the spelling “dafter” during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and a century later in Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812.

Aunt derives from the French tante. However, tante itself was a modification of the spelling of the original French word which was rendered as aunte.

In any case whether you are a woman, lady, girl, daughter or aunt, and possibly have enjoyed all these designations at one juncture in your life, enjoy this year’s International Women’s Day.

Howard’s latest book is Wordplay:Arranged and Deranged Wit.

BLACK ENGLISH

                     Nuances of Black English

                                        by

                                Howard Richler

It has been fifty years since linguists have studied Black English with an emphasis that it represents a variety of standard English rather than its degradation. However, they’re still many false assumptions about Black English and  as  this February marks Black History Month, I am taking the opportunity to present many of realities and nuances of Black English that linguist John McWhorter illuminates in his book Talking Back, Talking Black.

For example, McWhorter explains that a construction such as “She be passin’ by”  contains “much more than an unconjugated verb” and that the insertion of “be” is “very specific; it means that something happens on a regular basis, rather than something going on right now.”  An equivalent sense in standard English might be “She used to pass every Friday.”

McWhorter points out that counter to the idea that Black English is inherently a simplified form of the language, that in several instances it offers more complexities than standard English. For example, in Black English the word “up” plays a special role when paired with a location. So, in the Black English sentence  “We was sittin’ up at Tony,” we know that Tony is a friend as the usage of “up” is  a marker of  familiarity or intimacy, just as adding ed to a verb is a marker of past action. McWhorter points out that unless the speaker is a masochist he is unlikely to utter “We was waitin’ up at the dentist.”  Another nuance occurs with the word “done,” and in a sentence such as “I done drunk it,” you might think that this refers to the time frame of your imbibing but McWhorter explains that you’re expressing something far more subtle – counterexpectation.  He says “whether it’s in a sentence about 1973 or last week, a sentence with done is always about something the speaker finds somewhat surprising…”  So if a man tells a woman “I done had a crush on you since you was thirteen,” the presumption is that the woman had no idea that the guy held the flame for so long. And if someone said “You done drunk it,”  he may be expressing his belief that you were going to share the beer with him but when he got back from the bathroom you  had selfishly drained the bottle.  

We see other verb nuances in Black English.  McWhorter explains the following:

He been seen it!    (He saw it a long time ago.)

She done seen seen it.  (She saw it recently.)

He be  seein’ it.  (He sees it regularly.)

She steady seein’ it. (She is right now in the process of seeing it.)

Another way that Black English is distinct from Standard English is in the narrative purpose the verb “had” fulfills. McWhorter tells us that some languages, such as Swahili and other Bantu languages have narrative tenses.  Similarly, Black English employs a narrative tense marker in its use of the verb “had.” He gives this example from a ten-year old boy describing a scuffle:  “Cause when he hit me like this, he had upper-cut me like that, and then he had hit me like that. He had kicked me, it was half-wrestling and then, one, I was tired, then he just beat me and push me  own, that’s when he had push me down.” Rather than signalling a coming finale, the verb had is integral in telling the story.

On the other hand, in many ways Black English is less complicated than standard English. McWhorter provides this sentence as an example: “Why she ain’t call me  when she know dis de best time. ” Here, “Why she ain’t” replaces the more elaborate “Why didn’t she,” and “know” and “dis” replace “knows” and “this” respectively. A sentence such as this has led some commentators to issue some rather pejorative, if not outright racist, views. For example in the 1980s, pop grammarian John Simon ordained that “the constructions of Black English are the product not of a language with roots in tradition but of ignorance of how language works.”  More recently, political commentator Tucker Carlson said that Black English is “a language where nobody knows how to conjugate verbs.” These opinions are consistent with what is often called the linguistic inferiority principle which posits that the speech patterns of a socially subordinate group will always be interpreted as improper when compared with the socially dominant group.

However, McWhorter explains  that complexity in grammar doesn’t in any manner connote language superiority  He points out that Old English possessed far more complex grammar than modern English. For example, it  had  far more ways than merely adding an s to make a noun plural and whereas modern English has relatively few irregular plurals such as men, women, mice  and feet,  Old English was inundated with these irregularities,  But nobody claims that modern English represents an inferior form of Old English because it is less complex and

thus, the cases where Black English simplifies standard English doesn’t represent a diminishment of the language. 

Written in an erudite, yet folksy, manner, Talking Back, Talking Black examines the intricacies of Black English, and in the process undermines the stereotypes about this rich flavour of English.

Talking Back, Talking Black by John McWhorter. Bellevue, 190pp, $25.76

FACEBOOK WORD PUZZLES-2301-2400

FACEBOOK WORD PUZZLES- 2301-2400

2301-Split Definitive    fire, accomplished, consumed  (9)      (d) candidate These “split definitives” are now featured in my most recent book Wordplay:Arranged and Deranged Wit.     

2302-Anagram         Stories about inventor Nikola

2303-Discern     lucky-damage-gone    pimple-egg-Canada    harbour-her-hole

2304-Split Definitive    Argentine Marxist revolutionary fog   (7)    (m)     

2305-Anagram         Steal an object that can take fingerprints

2306-Discern       pickled-skin-green      grass-oil-zest   soup-field-string

2307-Split Definitive    diatribe of a Russian aircraft   (7)   (m)

2308-Anagram         Perceptive memorial 

2309-Discern    drum-mast-loo       saw-orbital-headed      life-line-kin

2310-Split Definitive      woodland everyone  (9)  (a)      

2311-Commonality               boring-lever-garlic    

2312-Discern        boat-wood-odd      ate-ding-bar-     us-enter-complain

2313-Split Definitive    Big Apple pace    (5)  (m)      

2314-Commonality      pedigree-jeopardy-dandelion

2315-Discern     flatten-rice-mix     box-mine-ern       porridge-instant-cookies

2316-Split Definitive         spy’s family (8)   (m)     

These “split definitives” are now featured in my most recent book Wordplay:Arranged and Deranged Wit.     

2317-Anagram           dormant ability

2318-Discern    function-sweet-by      hammer-iron-bump      so-tip-to

2319-Split Definitive- formerly ordinary  (7)   (p)   

2320-Anagram         very abnormal charlatan

2321-Discern     log-dice-up   candy-condition-green     aha-boiled-candied

2322-Split Definitive      bury,yield   (9)    (i).     

2323-Commonality      leukemia-albatross-blanch

2324-Discern    on-cave-old    whip-wood-woolly    army-colony-medic

2325-Split Definitive     test of an Asian river   (10)    (t)  

2326-Commonality      taco-recipe-ache-amen-rent   

2327-Discern        tomato-pick-don   extract-French-ice   walk-ash-Johnny

2328-Split Definitive     belt out a small skin aperture  (9)   (s)   

2329-Anagram         Split thespian  

2330-Discern     bud-plug-app   connective-paper-deep    cheese-fat-star

2331-Split Definitive      dog chant    (7)  (s)       

2332-Commonality     boycott-dunce-titchy pilates

2333-Discern     wet-head-fool    juice-led-red           word-oil-taco

2334-Split Definitive      taurine alien (6)   ( e)     

2335-Commonality                rubric-riboflavin-livid   

2336-Discern     paper-off-open       chop-kin-stones     film-horn-hound

2337-Split Definitive     arbitrate precipitation (7)  (r)     

2338-Commonality           cretin-gossip juggernaut 

2339-Discern     check-rot-less    double-up-wag          slack-breaker-line

2340-Split Definitive     iota she  (7)   (w)     

2341-Commonality    daisy-window-inoculate-atrocious

2342-Discern    Boston-sea-Indian     Boston-delivery-oven      land-corn-cane

2343-Split Definitive     experienced waterfront   (7)  (h)

2344-Anagram         Cats that can be described  as both the coldest and the hottest   

2345-Discern     dead-deep-alive   god-tax-thunder       bath-a-loose

2346-Split Definitive     glib gasp    (8)   (f)

2347-Commonality      lord-companion-lady

2348-Discern      moo-bar-bug    dog-tea-ship      passion-bowl-bearing

2349-Split Definitive      brazen large jar (8)   (o)

2350-Commonality       luxury-nice-shrewd  

2351-Discern   stuffed-tee-red     rod-up-coo    up-wooden-hamper

2352-Split Definitive      authoritative pronouncements rocky peak of a hill  (8)   (d)

2353-Commonality     What do these fabrics have in common: muslin-calico-denim

2354-Discern   roll-stuffed-caterpillar      hole-American-meat    kisses-chip-dip

2355-Split Definitive         incurring ringer  (9)  (o)

2356-Commonality    knave-silly-villain

2357-Discern        head-berry-jaw    cat-willow-riot   pineal-en-sweat

2358-Split Definitive      male escort    (7)  (d) 

2359-Commonality   backside-defied-harem 

2360-Discern     shot-hole-wear     shoe-leg-fog      over-plate-office

2361-Split Definitive        rent out again    (7)   (l)

2362-Commonality        debt-prism-gradation

2363-Discern      ball-bat-wicket    rock-skin-tears      ate-bar-boast

2364-Split Definitive      everyone due  (8)     (a)   

2365-Anagram      Starbucks most recent coffee selection

2366-Discern snow-raccoon-rice    bottoms-game-party   bible-utility-way

2367-Split Definitive         concept tabulation   (8)   (l)    

2368-Anagram    not appropriate wall coverer 

2369-Discern    marsh-old-ern    silicon-thin-board   brown-fin-wife

2370-Split Definitive      snake stop   (7)  (h)

2371-Commonality     inane-unreal-alone-aimless-bare-great-hurt

2372-Discern     space-a-long    biter-bracelet-deep    life-work-young

2373-Split Definitive      mistake plus  (6)  (a)  

2374-Commonality   ornate-invisible-carnal   

2375-Discern     corner-hawk-pot   pup-navy-conclude   mill-fat-farm

2376-Split Definitive      restrain printed record of bank account  (13)   (r)

2377-Anagram       Captivating pomegranate syrup        

2378-Discern   flying-urine-mental     house-waver-iron      black-root-tree

2379-Split Definitive         records attempt  (8)  (t)

2380-Commonality      egregious-daft-lewd-villain 

2381-Discern     cooler-small-can      free-germ-gold      black-horse-oil  

2382-Split Definitive      remote phenomenon    (8)  (t) 

2383-Commonality   species-misled-conned 

2384-Discern     legs-complain-grass      brick-her-at     shiner-tit-church

2385-Split Definitive      following era    (7)  

2386-Anagram     take French existentialist into custody  

2387-Discern     long-lounge-executive     leather-bed-yellow     on-stone-hub

2388-Split Definitive      Average level cut    (7)   (s)

2389-Anagram   Short and tattered knife

2390-Discern     amber-imp-tap      pass-age-able       balloon-white-pitcher

2391-Split Definitive      slice girl  (7)   (h)  

2392-Anagram        confer with competitor

2393-Discern pickaxe-northern-turn

2394-Split Definitive        manufacturing standard chits    (8)  (s)

2395-Anagram        Characteristics of painter  

2396-Discern      pot-doctor-sprout        old-ern-away         sprout-jelly-old

2397-Split Definitive      urgent request definitely     (8)  (p)

2398-Anagram Temporary places where transportation routes end 

2399-Discern     spur-tar-cad      orange-ring-gazing       opener-glad-public

2400-Split Definitive      wildly irrational purpose  (10)    (m)