Street names for weed in different countries
Using different slang for weed from around the world is fun, undoubtedly. Even though marijuana street names have developed within stoners’ communities in different countries historically for hiding, yet another reason for weed slang is showing devotion to cannabis culture. It is the same explanation, for why so many words exist in languages for playing football or addressing loved ones.
Mary Jane is Marijuana personified
Here we have shared a top-notch selection of the best weed terms, including their street names, from different countries around the world. It’s cool to have one or two extra in the vocabulary.
Common street names for marijuana in English
At the beginning of the last century, the now-official “marijuana” term was a street name for weed too. What they smoked was called cannabis, but marijuana landed in English as a nickname. The other traditional slang terms for weed are reefer, weed, dope, pot, grass, dank, loud, etc.
Marijuana (international)
Marijuana is an obvious combination of two Hispanic feminine names: María and Juana. The urban legend states that the word “marijuana” was designated artificially to support the war on plants in the United States in the middle of the past century.
The Latin (Mexican) culture was badly accepted by the American society of the time, and the law enforcement wished to advantage on a Hispanic nickname for cannabis against the marijuana culture. This is how María and Juana got bundled together to represent “marijuana”, and is doing so ever since.
1 – María is a name of Mary, the Mother of God.
2 – Juana refers to Anne, the grandmother of God.
In 1800s marijuana used to be a slang word for hooker
Another version displays that the marijuana word landed in the United States much earlier, in the late 1800s, from Mexico, again, where the double name “Maria Juana” was used as a slang word for both — recreational marijuana and addressing a random courtesan.
Mary Jane
Mary Jane as a weed term in its turn is a conversion of Spanish feminine names Maria and Juana to English. Mary is the replacement for María, and Jane is the equivalent for Juana. That is how Mary Jane has appeared for naming marijuana, also to personify it.
Herb
Herb is a widely used term for any weed, present in Bob Marley’s vocabulary, who flavored herb as a word. In the modern world, “herb” specifies industrial marijuana, from that we have cloth, construction, etc. Herb still keeps its original meaning too, yet rarely used this way.
Joint and blunt
— Joint is a traditional slang name for a rolled-up marijuana cigarette, and a general word to name anything rolled to be smoked as a marijuana cigarette.
— Blunt is a big and fat hand-rolled marijuana cigar (not a cigarette). People may call a joint of enormous size jokingly a blunt.
Spliff
Spliff is a more European word for a joint, rather than American. A spliff is usually smaller than a joint. Spliff is used to name a leftover of an unfinished joint (aka butt) regardless of whether that leftover was a joint or a spliff before burning.
Reefer
Reefer is slang for a joint or a blunt, already a history. You may be 99% sure the speaking person either is old or communicates a lot to the elder generation of stoners.
What do we call “filters” of hand-rolled joints?
A tip of a hand-rolled joint, which we hold in our fingers when smoking, is called a “roach” or a “crutch”. Both words, roach, and crutch, are used in equal measure, we hardly can determine which of the two is more popular in English, both are.
Slang for high-quality cannabis in English
Frosty nug vs sticky bud
Nug and bud both stand for marijuana flowers, usually of supreme quality. However, bud is also a lovely name for any marijuana flower, while nug is for an exceptional flower, when you suddenly feel “bud” is an understatement. Bud is like “a bud”, and nug is like “the nug”. Interchangeable in most cases.
Gas vs dank
Gas is a slang word for weed, it alludes to the famous Diesel smell of the Diesel marijuana strain of high-end quality. Gas word for weed is already not limited to the Diesel strains but fits for any exceptional weed. Yet another weed word in slang to specify the quality of weed is Dank, which may also work as an adjective.
Loud
Loud is a relatively new word in weed slang, and it stands for high quality too. It is loud in terms of smell than stinky nugs produce, and it suppresses all other smells.
What is dab?
Dab is a small piece of hashish, marijuana resin, or concentrate to puff at once. For this, we use a bong, a pipe, or a dub rig. If no “special equipment” you have to take a dab, you can also put a dab into a hand-rolled tobacco cigarette (if you are a smoker). Anyhow, dab stands for a piece of concentrate of a size to take one hit.
Marijuana street names in different countries
How to say marijuana in Spanish slang?
Slang words for marijuana are not totally equal in different Hispanic countries, however, there is a universal weed word everyone understands, it is “porro”.
Pórro
In all Spanish-speaking countries, in Spain and in Latin America, the universal slang word for weed is “pórro”. The same word refers to a single joint, to a single bud, and may mean a handful of weed, depending on the context. Any weed is porro, but a joint is a porro too.
Porro derives from the Latin word “pórrum”, which stands for leek. Porro has landed in Spanish as ajo porro, where ajo is garlic, and ajo porro together is leek. Count it as a hint, if you need an excuse, once you look for porro in a fruit market, ha-ha.
Cogóllo / cógo
For the flowers of higher quality they use the “cogollo” slang word. They pronounce it [cogósho] in Latin America, and [cogóyo] in Spain, Cuba and Mexico. The word cogollo, used for marijuana of high quality, literally means “bud”, the plural is cogollos.
Flores
Flores, just like cogollos, is a normal word, and it means literally “flowers”, any flowers in regular language, and marijuana flowers in slang. Both flores and cogollos may describe buds of excellent or fair quality. A single flower is flor, plural — flores.
Mota
In Spain and Mexico, the most popular slang word for marijuana is “mota”.
Faso
Faso is a slang word for weed used in Uruguay and Argentina, interchangeable with porro. Faso is less known compared to all-purpose porro. Stoners know what faso is, but folks who don’t smoke know porro but know faso more rarely.
Slang words for weed in Brazil
Maconha
in Brazil the main slang word for marijuana — is maconha. Keep “h” silent like in Spanish, not pronounced at all but it modifies ‘n’ into a soft ‘ñ’. It will be macóña if we write in Spanish.
Fino
A joint in the streets of Brazil is called fino, the same word describes “thin”.
How to say marijuana in Africa
Chamba
In Malawi and their neighboring countries Zambia and Tanzania they call marijuana — chamba, which is a marijuana strain growing in the north of the country: a highly psychoactive pure Sativa with the aroma of sweet fruits, also spicy. In Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia the word chamba is also used to refer to any marijuana of fair quality.
Marketed in the US as “Malawi Chamba”, top-notch chamba and chamba seeds may be found in dispensaries and seed banks, it is the real African strain.
Dagga vs zolo
In South Africa, Botswana, and where else the Afrikaans language (the mix of African languages and Dutch) is spoken, a common slang name for any weed is dagga. Another weed word is zolo, totally interchangable.
What they call marijuana in India?
Ganja
In India, they use “ganja” to refer to marijuana. Hardly accounted as a slang word as it is the most original name for marijuana. In India ganja is often legal or decriminalized for religious use, depending on the state.
In the city of Varanasi, one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities, and one of the most sacred places of the Hindu world, aged 2500 years, weed is used freely to exercise religion.
Bhang
The slang word “bhang” applies to hashish. Also, bhang is marijuana-infused milk cooked with spices, where hashish is a dominant ingredient of the recipe. Such highly psychoactive edibles, infused with bhang, are available in private shops of Varanasi over the counter for religious purposes.
Slang names for weed in Sri Lanka
Ganja
People of Sri Lanka, of course, know the word “ganja”, which is not a slang name for them but just how it is called, the original name of weed.
Kandi
In the middle of Sri Lanka island, there is a county, called Kandi, in the mountains. In their land grows strong potent marijuana, and they call this strain by the county’s name — kandi. Often happens, in such cases, kandi nowadays is used as a general name for high-quality marijuana.
What the call marijuana in Russia
Plan
Plan is the word for weed in slang in Russia. In regular language “plan” is the same noun with the same meaning as “a plan” in English, and this is the most common and recognized weed slang for marijuana. Plan is a universal neutral term with minimal negative aspects possible.
Kosak and dudka
Kosak and Dudka are absolutely equal, both mean a single hand-made joint. Pronounce kosak as [kosiák] with soft ‘s’. Like you read /cognac/, read the same way /cogsac/ (hope the hint helps).
Russians rarely roll joints using regular papers. However, the most traditional way is to use “Belomor”, cheap old-school cigarettes made of the same finest materials during the latest 70+ years. You make one belomor empty of tobacco, and reload it with marijuana, as if you are in the Treasure Island book, and you load an old-fashioned cannon with powder. Totally not a classic rolling, though.
Anashá
A little bit old-fashioned slang word for marijuana — is anashá, it comes from somewhere around Kazakhstan, the word might be Persian origin, means “the queen”. It sounds mild and charming.
Bóshki
Bóshki is a noun in Russian weed slang for buds of a better quality. Bóshki is always plural.
Slang name for weed in Germany
Hanf
In Germany, the slang word for weed is “hanf”, literally hemp.
Slang names for weed in France
L’herbe
French slang word for weed is l’herbe, literally “herb” (‘h’ is silent).
Le beuh
French use le beuh to refer to marijuana of any quality, i.e. marijuana in general. The word “le beuh” literally translates to “weed”.
Kif
Kif is originally a Moroccan slang word for hashish. Subsequently, France uses kif to refer to hashish too, due to the proximity to Morocco with their famous hashish traditions.
What do they call hashish in Morocco?
Morocco takes a very special place in the cannabis stage. Moroccan hashish is the world’s well-recognized product of distinct quality. Morocco is among the top largest producers of marijuana in the world, UN reports. The slang term for hashish in Morocco is “kif” which has a wider cultural spread far beyond the boundaries of Morocco.
That’s weed.
Fri, 11/Feb/22