# Why "pot"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563 "2003-08-25T18:35:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![talito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ea924/32.png) [@talito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/talito)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/1 "2003-08-25T18:35:18Z")
Does anyone know where and how the nickname for marijuana, “pot”, originated? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/2 "2003-08-25T18:50:08Z")
The American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed., 2000) says that the origin of the slang term is “unknown.” [WordReference.com](http://WordReference.com) says that is “perhaps shortened from Mexican Indian _potiguaya_.” ---
**Author:** ![Sad\_Waters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Sad\_Waters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sad_Waters)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/3 "2003-08-25T19:19:42Z")
same type of question. Why do “they” call the near end of a smoked joint a roach? And please don’t give me L. Ron Bumquist’s answer from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/4 "2003-08-25T19:47:19Z")
Musicians and other hepcats did use to call marijuana “tea”, back in the early days of jazz. tea…pot…tea…pot…??? Wonder if that’s the connection? ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/5 "2003-08-25T21:57:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Why do “they” call the near end of a smoked joint a roach? Theories: -It’s based on how you hold it… cautiously, between your fingers, like how you’d hold a nasty bug. -When you smoke the whole thing, you toss it “to the roaches” (I imagine some stoners with less-than-clean living conditions). -Similarly, maybe smoking joints is considered one of the “lower” means of smoking pot (I prefer it least), and so people who live with roach-infested houses are the more likely ones not to use a bong or pipe. -Lastly… maybe a bunch of stoners one day, when blazed out of their minds, randomly decided to call the bud a “roach” for no reason whatsoever, and it just spread from the two of them. That last one, I think, is the more likely. Me and my buddy Flip randomly came up with the euphemism “Homer Heche” (combining the names of Homer Simpson and Anne Heche) to refer to marijuana, and it’s spread to a couple folks in our neighborhood. “Hey, Flip, you wanna hang out with Homer?” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/6 "2003-08-25T22:30:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > \*\*. “Hey, Flip, you wanna hang out with Homer?” \*\* We called it “talking to Mary.” My theory on the roach thing is that the little burnt up end of the joint looks kind of like a small cockroach. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/7 "2003-08-25T23:12:08Z")
“Gage”. I gotta think it had something to do with the term “engagement” nowadays known as a _gig_, and the beboppers called it that because that’s when they smoked it. Actually, I think we need **Tom’nDeb** in here to set us all straight. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/8 "2003-08-25T23:20:08Z")
Sorry, that should be **tomndebb**! George Carlin fans will remember he called it “sh\*t”. “Smuggled it in, in a guitar from Cambodia”. 😉 Q ---
**Author:** ![Wolfrick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bb73d2/32.png) [@Wolfrick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfrick)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/9 "2003-08-25T23:27:34Z")
I concur with SPOOFE on the “roach” question… the flattened paper stained with oily tar looks like a household roach’s wings and body. Euphemism for going to smoke dope: “Wearing the green shoes.” “Do you have your green shoes with you?” “Man you should see these green boots I got!” ~Wolfrick ---
**Author:** ![Sm\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sm\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sm_e)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/10 "2003-08-26T00:24:20Z")
We always called it “shooting squirrels”. Does it have anything to do with the phrase “Everything is going to pot?” ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/11 "2003-08-26T00:53:05Z")
[The Master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_290.html). Though his answer isn’t especially helpful. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-pot/197563/12 "2003-08-26T01:28:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Why do “they” call the near end of a smoked joint a roach? Not helpful in anyway, but the guys I learned to smoke with(both regular cigarettes and joints) called the lit end(the part that is glowing) the beetle. I always assumed there was some connection between calling on end the roach and the other end the beetle. However I have never met anybody else who calls it the beetle, it’s always the cherry, so the whole beetle thing may have been unique to our group and I just never bothered to ask about.