Most people take it for a synonym of marijuana, but why to we call it pot? Of all people, my grandfather, whom I havent seen in 8 years, asked me this over the phone. Seems people in his AA meetings dont know either. Anyone have a defininative answer to this?
I’ve heard it said that it is derived from the (Mexican) Spanish word for the leaves of the marijuana plant, potiguaya.
This seems like a dubious etymology to me, since, when people talk about “pot,” they’re referring to the flowers of the plant, not the leaves.
I would tend to guess that it came from people cultivating marijuana plants indoors. “Pot plant” is synonymous with “Potted plant.” It may be one of those words that was originally slyly euphemistic, (like “queer,” or “junk,”) which has become transparent with use.
Like most slang, it’s unclear, but the OED supports the potaguya derivation:
And I don’t know what you smoked, but back in my hippie days, people smoked the leaves.
Why, that’s just nasty. 
It’s interesting that the OED contains speculation about influence from both “Pot” and “Pod.” Most people smoke the flowers of the plant. Back in the day (even in my memory, though I’m not an old hippie,) it was common for the flowers to be fertilized, so the bud would be full of seeds. Fertiilzed or not, the flowers of a female cannabis plant are mostly resin-covered calyx (seed pod) clusters.
In a dim corner of my memory, there’s a little bit by William S. Burroughs (maybe from Junky or Queer,) in which an inept narc keeps asking the protagonist if he can get any “pod.”
[Thumper]No not that stuff. Just eat the clovers.[/Thumper]
I’ve never referred to the flowers as “pot”. Matter of fact, I’ve never seen a marijuana flower that I can remember. But I’ve seen the leaves. Lots of 'em. And all dried out. That’s what we call pot. That and the stems and leaves, but those get picked out…
What are you doing with the flowers??
Not to mention stems and seeds in many cases.
(Cue Commander Cody …)
People LIKED to try to convince you it was the top leaves of a female plant, as opposed to the bottom leaves of a male plant.
Ohhhhhh… ok, so maybe it was the flowers I saw. I guess I fail the hippie test.
Probably. Just to be sure, though:
In my salad days, (more than ten years ago – dratted long statute of limitations we have up here,) I cultivated them. After a couple of break-ins, I decided it was more stress than it was worth.
In the midwest, unless you grew it yourself, you got a mixed bag of stems, leaves, and buds. You could tell when a bud started burning during a hit, due to the more intense smoke. When you hit seeds it usually popped and sparked. So you are both right. Lets all calm down and smoke a bowl. Ummm. err, that’s what my friends who smoked would say. Yeah. Drugs are bad, mmm 'kay?
Ahem, the ‘buds’ that people smoke are in fact the ‘flowers’ of the marijuana plant. Tightly coiled groups of the receptors for the male pollen. Usually only the females are smoked as the leaves of the plant only contain a tiny fraction of the amount of THC and CBD that the flowering tops have, the males do not have flowers at all. The males produce see pods that look like tiny banana clusters, when the the males release the pollen eventually through air currents and such ends up in the ‘buds’ to produce seeds, but seed production causes the THC content to go down as the plant uses resources to make a seed. Also it is a drag to de-seed pot 
I can’t believe I am posting to this thread…
Way, way back in the day, when everybody smoked joints, the leaves may have been preferrable because you had to break up buds to clean the pot for rolling, being sure to get all the seeds out. If you think having a seed explode while you are pipe smoking is bad, imagine having one explode right in your face while smoking a joint. One would clean the pot by breaking it up and sifting it through a rough mesh screen, thus making it much easier to roll. Cite- A CHild’s Garden of Grass.
Anyway, when I was smoking the herb, water pipe smoking was very popular, as it lessened the harshness of the smoke. Buds stayed together in the bowl better than leaves, but you still had to break them up to check for seeds.
Um, was there a factual question in the OP? I kinda forgot… hey, who took my Pop-Tart?
Is it the same entymology as “going to pot”? I presume the latter phrase is something to do with “pot plants”, but cannot find an online link
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.”
From…
I knew one or two confirmed potheads who would smoke the leaves so that they could make a spliff without using any tobacco, which is, you know, bad for you.
Ok, why are you people smoking leaves? Leaves have very little THC and other goodies that get you high and are normally discarded unless you are very, very desperate. I’ll be honest and say I have tried smoking leaves before…I got a headache. Real pot smokers go right for the bud (flower) of the plant. That’s where are the nice chemicals are and that’s what will get you high without making you feel sick. Same for seeds…just speaking from personal experience you’ll want to avoid smoking them either intentionally or otherwise. I recommend that if you are going to smoke it, then properly break it up first. Remove the sticks, seeds, and any large leaves. Little leave particles won’t hurt you but they don’t taste as good and produce almost no high by themselves. Once you have all the crap removed break the actual bud into small crumbled pieces. It is especially important to break it down if you are smoking a joint since in order to burn properly you need a relatively even mix. Clumps will cause it to “boat” or burn one side faster than another. I do of course recommend the bong as it both cools and filters the smoke do to less harm to your lungs.
You took the time to separate out the buds before you threw it on the bong? No wonder you are the master. We were too lazy. Just threw whatever came in our bag in the bowl. I mean, my friends did. Drugs are bad, mmmkay?