Where does the word "pot" come from?

[theamazingkane]

I've noticed that the word pot has a bit of a negative connotation to it, If you say it around the wrong kind of people, they'll think your a narc.

But then again, it's yet another word for marijuana.
Glad to see some good info on the subject though, I've always found it interesting to see how words and terminology associated with drug culture in general change and evolve over time. Who knows what people will be calling marijuana in the next 10 to 20 years, maybe if legalization starts taking place people will just start referring to marijuana by whatever brand name they like to buy...

[Jderringer]

I've noticed that the word pot has a bit of a negative connotation to it, If you say it around the wrong kind of people, they'll think your a narc.

But then again, it's yet another word for marijuana.
Glad to see some good info on the subject though, I've always found it interesting to see how words and terminology associated with drug culture in general change and evolve over time. Who knows what people will be calling marijuana in the next 10 to 20 years, maybe if legalization starts taking place people will just start referring to marijuana by whatever brand name they like to buy...

Marlboro purples please! :jointsmile:

[Breukelen advocaat]

I call it pot. It's what's always been used around me. I always thought the term emerged in the 60's...a time where "all the teenagers are smoking it and the country is going to 'pot'"......
B

Well, the term "going to pot" is over 400 years old, but some people did actually adapt the expression to modern meanings like those you suggest - in the '60's and since. I don't think that the original use of the word "pot" for marijuana was linked to this expression, though, since users who called it "pot" didn't consider it a bad habit or a negative thing. Nobody knows for sure why it started.


Going to Pot:
Around 1542, when the phrase first appeared, "to go to pot" was to be cut up like chunks of meat destined for the stew pot. Such a stew was usually the last stop for the remnants of a once substantial cut of meat or poultry, so "going to pot" made perfect sense as a metaphor for anything, from a national economy to a marriage, that had seen better days. Early uses of the metaphor were usually in the form "go to the pot."
Previous Columns/Posted 01/21/99

pot
Marijuana.
[Origin unknown.]
going to pot - definition of going to pot by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

[KOZMO]

interesting