Where does the word Marijuana come from?

Where does the word Marijuana come from?

Where does the word Marijuana come from?

“Marihuana” or “Mariguana” are words from Mexican Spanish that have been used for a long time. We haven’t discovered precisely when its usage started in Mexico, but some believe it originally came from African slaves. Its first recorded version of the English use of the word is in “The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America.”

There are two other answers to the word’s origin, and the prohibitions prompted one during the 1920s- 1940’s. They claimed it came from the Mexicano word “Mallihuan,” which means prisoner. This seems to be a case of accidental homophony. Because Cannabis was not indigenous to the Americas, it makes a native origin for the word very unlikely.

It could also come from the Chinese word “ma ren hua” (麻仁花, lit. ‘hemp seed flower’). When the word started becoming more popular, there were many Chinese on the West Coast, as well as many Mexicans. A Chinese man could have used these words to describe Cannabis, which then was turned into the Spanish “Marihuana” or “Mariguana.”