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Haze is a noun or adjective referring to a type of LSD (acid) or marijuana … typically purple haze.

Hazing, on the other hand, is an initiation ritual where people are subjected to all kinds of cruel and unusual tasks or humiliations.

The controversial practice known as hazing has been around since at least the mid-19th century. The origins of the word hazing are uncertain (could be from a French root for “harass”), but it is thought that the practice started on ships where captains would haze new members of the crew by making them do meaningless, backbreaking work, like de-threading rope.

By 1848, upperclassmen on university campuses like Harvard would haze, or force all kinds of horrible tasks upon, underclassmen. Early printed uses of this expression usually involve disciplinary hearings for this kind of behavior … yet, it continued.

Early record of haze as a noun for “mist” or “fog” dates to the 18th century. 1960s drug culture haze borrowed this meaning to refer to hallucinogens or weed that make you feel like you’re in a haze.

The drug haze was popularized by Jimi Hendrix on his rock classic “Purple Haze” in 1967. The song is often taken as a description of being on an acid trip. He famously performed the track at the Monterey International Pop Festival that year, and the name Purple Haze became associated with psychedelic drugs ever since.

In the 1970s, the conveniently named Haze brothers began developing a potent (“dank”) strain of weed, a sativa that they dubbed Haze. That story sounds too good to be true, but growers from the U.S. brought seeds of such a strain to Amsterdam by the 1980s, where it was crossed with others to create weed like Lemon Haze.

References to haze weed emerged in hip-hop music in the 1990s, such as in Cypress Hill’s 1998 “High Times.” From there, haze became shorthand for marijuana generally, not just the specific haze weed strain.

Haze often refers to smoggy conditions and skies that are smoky from fires.

It’s also still used as a word for marijuana, both specific strains and pot, more generally. People use it as a noun (e.g., I picked up a quarter of some good haze the other day) or adjective (e.g., haze weed). People will often use haze to describe the smoky environments that stoners hang out in too.

Hazing continues on high school and on college campuses, especially when joining teams, clubs, or other organizations like fraternities and sororities. Many have died from hazing, often as the result of alcohol poisoning or beatings, as many hazing rituals involve excessive drinking or physical abuse. Florida A&M marching band member Robert Champion notably, and tragically, died from hazing in 2011, which helped thrust the problem of hazing into the public spotlight.

More examples of haze:

“What they’re hoping is I’ll go away…I won’t go away. They didn’t just haze my son. They killed my son.”
—Deborah Tipton’ quoted by John Hechinger, Bloomberg, September, 2018

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.