tree = 'marijuana'

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
> On May 4, 2012, at 9:54 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > From a 2011 Amazon.com review of the movie  _Bad Teacher_.
> >
> > "She smokes tree, shows movies in class and is gorgeous from head to
> > toe."
> >
> > It's like "weed" but it's "tree."
>
> I heard this from NYC teens around 2000.

It's been in hiphop lyrics since the mid-'90s.

"Smokin trees, gettin G's / that's what we's all about."
"Music Makes Me High" (Lost Boyz, 1995)
http://ohhla.com/anonymous/lostboyz/legal/music.lbz.txt

"I be smokin trees in Belize when they find me."
Notorious B.I.G. on "Young G's" (Puff Daddy & The Family, 1997)
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/puff_dad/nowayout/young_gs.dad.txt

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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