When is a joint not a joint? When it’s a bifter or cone or sticky or whatever other name people are using to refer to this staple of the stoner experience. It seems that just about everywhere in the world people have come up with clever, and in some instances, head-scratching names for their joints. But even right here in the US, the proliferation of different names has become somewhat dizzying. In this post, the team at the 710 Pipes headshop in Denver take a literary tour through the ever-expanding world of joint names.
11 Ways to Refer to Your Joint
Joints have been around since the days of Reefer Madness and before. “Joint” is the universally accepted name for paper-wrapped, rolled cannabis and it’s likely to stay that way. At least for the foreseeable future. But a plethora of new and newish names are now competing to become the name of choice. Will any of them succeed in knocking “joint” from its perch? Only time will tell. Until then here are 11 potential replacements that have gained ground in recent years.
1: Bifter
Use of the word “bifter” was first recorded in the 1980s in Liverpool, England. At that time it was being used to refer to a standard cigarette. But in recent years the term has come to cover marijuana cigarettes as well. Nobody’s quite sure why people started calling cigarettes bifters but at this point, it probably doesn’t matter.
2: Blunt
Blunt is a term that comes to cannabis culture from cigar culture. Historically blunts occupied a space in the cigar world between the slender Cigarillo and and the more stout Carona. Phillies brand produced a very popular line of blunts in the 1980s. These were later adapted by cannabis lovers who would hollow out the center of the blunt and fill it with weed.
3: Bogie
This is an American term whose origins are pretty straightforward. During the golden age of Hollywood, Humphrey Bogart was famous for the possessive way he held his cigarette. Someone in a succeeding generation took note of this and applied it to friends who held onto the joint instead of passing it on. That practice yielded the famous phrase “Don’t Bogart that joint, my friend”. In time the name Bogart was applied to the joint itself and familiarized to “Bogie”.
“Bogarting is a term derived from the way Humphrey Bogart would just let a cigarette hang out of his mouth, not seeming to actually smoke it. Bogarting a joint is when you are holding on to it or wasting it by letting it burn down without being hit.”
—Lizzie Post, The New York Times
4: Cone
Cone is not a term that’s widely used in the US (witnessed by the fact that we almost never hear it mentioned in our headshop/pipe shop) but has found favor in Australia. It is so-named because the rolling technique results in a joint that is wider at one end than it is at the other end, just like a – you guessed it – cone.
5: Doobie
Nobody is quite sure where this American term originated. Those who would suggest it derived from the best-selling band The Doobie Brothers seem unaware that the band was named after several members’ affinity for smoking doobies. So the term existed long before the band. But wherever it originated it was and is a popular way to refer to a joint.
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Browse our online smoke shop to order all of the smoking accessories you need – including papers, pre-rolled cones, rolling trays & more.6: Dutchie
Few people had ever heard the term “dutchie” until the Jamaican band Musical Youth released the reggae smash “Pass the Dutchie” in 1982. It is thought the term is another derived from the cigar universe, this time in reference to Dutch Masters Cigars.
Check out the music video for “Pass the Dutchie” below.
7: Marijuana cigarette
While this term never gained widespread acceptance it has nonetheless demonstrated amazing staying-power. It can be found in anti-weed literature from the mid-20th century as well as in articles and scholarly papers published today. Where you’re not likely to hear it though is on the street or in a club or at your friend’s house.
8: Spliff
The term “spliff” has been in constant use in Jamaica since the 1930s. But the first most white Westerners heard of it was in relation to reggae music of the 1970s. Bob Marley and his buddies in the Wailers were particularly fond of firing up gigantic spliffs at all hours of the day and night. In fact, Marley can be seen toking on a huge spliff on the cover of his seminal reggae album “Catch a Fire” which included the classics “Stir it Up” and “Concrete Jungle”. While the Jamaican spliff is filled with 100% weed (tobacco being seen as unclean by Rastafarians), its cousin the American spliff often contains a mixture of weed and tobacco.
9: Joint
Joint is one of the oldest and most common ways to refer to a marijuana cigarette and is commonly shortened to simply “J”. “Joint” is probably the first thing stoners and non-stoners alike think of when they think of smoking cannabis. It is thought (but not proven) that the word derives from Juke Joints, which were African American establishments in the early 20th century that featured music, dancing, gambling, drinking and other vices, including marijuana smoking.
10: Sticky
Sticky is another term for a joint with musical origins. This time the musical genre is not reggae but hip-hop. As far as any of us here at the online head shop are aware, the first use of the term sticky to refer to a joint was in 1999 on the record “Do What You Know Good” by West Coast hip hop group E-40. Sometime later Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg released a single entitled “Still D-R-E” which also used the word sticky to refer to joints.
11: Zuen
Zuen is a type of catch-all phrase used to refer to weed, hash, spliffs, blunts or regular joints, depending on who you’re talking to. The exact origins of the terms are shrouded in a cloud of cannabis smoke, though some argue unconvincingly that it is the French pronunciation of the English word “joint”. But wherever the term originated it seems to have caught on with a fairly large percentage of stoner youths.
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About the only thing certain regarding most of these terms is that they’re not used to refer to heady glass, glass hand pipes or bongs. They’re strictly names for what most of the world’s adult population know as joints.
Many of the above-listed ways to refer to joints are regional terms, or terms used mostly within a given community such as the reggae or hip-hop communities. But no matter what you call them they’ll always be joints to us. If you can’t make it to our brick-and-mortar Denver headshop be sure to check out the 710 Pipes online store for all your cannabis needs.