Meaning

noun a strong-smelling plant from whose dried leaves a number of euphoriant and hallucinogenic drugs are prepared

noun 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

originBorrowed from Mexican Spanish marihuana, from mariguana. First attested in 1874 in the publications of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Altered by influence of a folk etymology involving the proper name María Juana (“Mary Jane”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0