Cannabis
WordNet
noun
(1) The most commonly used illicit drug; considered a soft drug, it consists of the dried leaves of the hemp plant; smoked or chewed for euphoric effect
(2) Any plant of the genus Cannabis; a coarse bushy annual with palmate leaves and clusters of small green flowers; yields tough fibers and narcotic drugs
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From from both meaning "hemp", from a Scythian or Thracian word of which the origins before those are not certain, but possibly the Semitic kanbos. Related to English canvas, and [probably] hemp. Related to Russian konoplja, Lithuanian kanapes "hemp," Persian kanab, Hebrew קַנַּבּוֹס (qěnēh bośem/ qannabbôs/kaneh-bosm), meaning "hemp", Aramaic kannabos "hemp", Syriac qanpa/qunnappa, Old Akkadian qunnabtu, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian qunnabu, refering to hemp as "a way to produce smoke."
Unlikely, yet alternate etymology proposed has the Greek cannabis < Arabic kunnab < Syriac qunnappa/qanpa < Hebrew pannag (= Hindi भांग and Urdu بھانگ, and bang in Persian, all from Sanskrit भङ्ग bhanga .
Noun
- A tall annual dioecious plant (Cannabis sativa), native to central Asia and having alternate, palmately divided leaves and tough bast fibers.
- Any of several mildly euphoriant, intoxicating hallucinogenic drugs, such as ganja, hashish, or marijuana, prepared from various parts of this plant.