Marijuana

[Wilson Gray]

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/114102?redirectedFrom=marijuana
marijuana, n.
Pronunciation:  Brit. /ˌmarᵻˈ(h)wɑːnə/ , U.S. /ˌmɛrəˈ(h)wɑnə/
Forms:  18 mariguan, 18 mariguana, 19– mara huiwane, 19– marajuana, 19–
mariahuana...
Etymology:  < Mexican Spanish mariguana, marihuana, of uncertain origin.
*It has been suggested that the Spanish word is < Nahuatl _mallihuan_
prisoner.*

It has?

Yes.

By whom?

By Harry Anslinger, internationally-known linguist and student of
Meso-American languages.

What up with that, Jesse?

http://books.google.com/books?id=gLsTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA212&dq=mallihuan

El *QUICHUA* [emphasis supplied], gramatica y crestomatia ... by Joseph
Henry Gybbon Spilsbury ... Page 212
Buenos Aires: Casa editora de Jacobo Peuser, 1897

"Ancha alli cancu cay ruruccunakca, millquincukca *MALLIHUAN* [emphasis
supplied]." :

"Estas frutas son muy buenas, me gusta su sabor."

These fruits are very good, I like their savor.

IAC, it's now all over the Web that the OED says that _marijuana_ is from
the Aztec/Mexican/Nahuatl word for "prisoner," called that because you
immediately become addicted to it, its "prisoner," as it were.

-Wilson
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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