[Ads-l] Very Slight Antedating of "Reefer" (Marijuana)

[Shapiro, Fred]

Thanks, Larry, for catching that this is an antedating of OED sense 2 rather than an antedating of OED sense 1.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2024 1:46 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Very Slight Antedating of "Reefer" (Marijuana)

Does “reefer” in reference to Satchmo as king of the reefers actually denote ’smoker of marijuana’ rather than ‘marijuana’?  Is that use attested elsewhere, or is “reefer” here a kind of hap(lo)logy for “reeferer”?

> On Mar 30, 2024, at 10:12 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
> reefer (marijuana) (OED 1931 [21 Mar.])
>
> 1931 _Kansas City Call (Kansas City, Mo.) 20 Mar. 2 (ProQuest)
>
> [Louis] Armstrong ... is alleged to have not only been "King of the Trumpeters," but also king of the reefers, or marihuana smokers.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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