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

[dave@wilton.net]

Barring other uses in this sense, I would say it's a newspaper reporter/editor getting the slang wrong.
 
(I did hear a certainly apocryphal but too-good-not-to-be-true story about Armstrong coming back to the US after an international tour c.1965 and being waved into the customs inspection line. He was sweating because of the pot in his bag, when suddenly Richard Nixon, who had been on another flight, came through the customs area. (Nixon at the time was a private citizen, former VP, not yet president.) He spotted Armstrong and, being the politician walked up to him, put his arm around him, and called him "Satchmo." Nixon then told the customs officials that Armstrong shouldn't have to wait in line, and him being a former VP, they acquiesced. Nixon then picked up Armstrong's bag and carried the marijuana through customs.)
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2024 1:46pm
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] 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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