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Do these mean the same thing to you?


klmama
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I've recently read and heard several people use the expression "pot plant" to mean "a plant in a pot."  It's startling and very confusing to me, because where I grew up "pot plant" always meant a marijuana plant, while a plant in a pot was a "potted plant."  Is the use of "pot plant" to mean "plant in a pot" a regional usage?  If so, where?   

 

 

 

 

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Oklahoma. It can be used either way here. I most frequently hear it referring to a potted plant, and the other simply as "pot" (or "weed") with no "plant" added on. But I have heard people say "pot plant" when referring to the actual plant, as opposed to the product.

You just go by the context to know which one people mean.

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Thinking about it a bit more, growing up the term "pot plant" was used to refer to a type of plant that would usually be grown in a pot rather than in a garden.  So a pothos ivy would be a "pot plant."  You would go to the nursey and purchase a pot plant.  If you had a pot plant in a nice pot or basket, perhaps to give as a gift, then that package was a "potted plant".  You might get a potted plant at a flower shop, already to take somewhere as a gift or send to a funeral.  

Growing up, I don't even remember anyone talking about marijuana plants, especially as an individual plant.  

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Alabama here, and I’ve never heard the term pot plant in any other context except to mean marijuana.  Plants in pots are potted plants around these parts.

 

And now I’ve read the word pot so many times that a.) it is the most ridiculous word in the lexicon to me and b.) I’m no longer sure it IS a word or what it actually means. 😂

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Ironically, DH and I needed a gift for a friend yesterday and were going to get a plant.  I asked him if we were getting  pot plant or a potted plant.  He claimed to have never heard a houseplant referred to as a pot plant (which shows he doesn't listen to me closely--because I used the term "pot plant" several times in the past week as we discussed what to get 🙂 )  I went to the nursery and they did not have any "potted plants".  They had some plants in plastic buckets (what I would call a pot plant because they would be grown in a pot) and they sold some pots separately.  

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On 9/18/2020 at 9:45 PM, klmama said:

I've recently read and heard several people use the expression "pot plant" to mean "a plant in a pot."  It's startling and very confusing to me, because where I grew up "pot plant" always meant a marijuana plant, while a plant in a pot was a "potted plant."  Is the use of "pot plant" to mean "plant in a pot" a regional usage?  If so, where?   

 

 

 

 

Raised up in the south.  Moved a few hours away but now I am apparently in the Midwest.  I am with you.  Personally I think the people saying pot plant just don’t know the actual word is potted.  

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5 hours ago, Lizzie in Ma said:

I have never  heard that expression before to mean anything other than a literal pot plant.  I'm in the Northeast.  Not regional here to my knowledge!

Me either.   I'm in the Northeast too.

Also, I am grateful to Bill for posting the picture.   We think our neighbor is growing pot in his backyard, but were too scared to google it.🤣

(Totally legal to grow your own pot here, BTW.   I don't care if they grow it, we were just curious because we are nosy!)

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18 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Raised up in the south.  Moved a few hours away but now I am apparently in the Midwest.  I am with you.  Personally I think the people saying pot plant just don’t know the actual word is potted.  

Nope. Regional differences are not necessarily wrong. I'm quite well educated and yet I  say pot plant for a plant in a pot.

I say, 'I've got chilly in this breeze.' Others might say, 'I've gotten chilly in this breeze.' Neither version is wrong.

Edited by Laura Corin
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18 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Raised up in the south.  Moved a few hours away but now I am apparently in the Midwest.  I am with you.  Personally I think the people saying pot plant just don’t know the actual word is potted.  

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pot plant

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pot-plant

According to several dictionaries, pot plant is British for a houseplant or a plant that is usually grown in a flower pot indoors and informal in the US for marijuana.  

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I'm with you too. Raised partly in northern NJ and then Central Florida. A pot plant is a marijuana plant. A plant in a pot is a potted plant. I will pot a plant or repot a plant. I have many potted plants (also called container plants) in my front yard but I don't have any pot plants anywhere. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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30 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Raised up in the south.  Moved a few hours away but now I am apparently in the Midwest.  I am with you.  Personally I think the people saying pot plant just don’t know the actual word is potted.  

That's not how language works, and you know it.

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3 hours ago, Zebra said:

Me either.   I'm in the Northeast too.

Also, I am grateful to Bill for posting the picture.   We think our neighbor is growing pot in his backyard, but were too scared to google it.🤣

(Totally legal to grow your own pot here, BTW.   I don't care if they grow it, we were just curious because we are nosy!)

There's a reason another colloquialism for it is "weed". . . . . .

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On 9/18/2020 at 10:04 PM, Rosie_0801 said:

 

And if you were wanting to grow pot, you'd want more than you could grow in a pot anyhow, no?

My brother had a grow operation in our basement when we were growing up. They were each in their own pots/planters/containers.

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3 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Nope. Regional differences are not necessarily wrong. I'm quite well educated and yet I  say pot plant for a plant in a pot.

I say, 'I've got chilly in this breeze.' Others might say, 'I've gotten chilly in this breeze.' Neither version is wrong.

Apparently here it is common for people to say “it’s hotting up” instead of “heating up”. I’d never heard the phrase anywhere else.

I love regional language. 🙂 

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On 9/19/2020 at 6:30 AM, Ausmumof3 said:

Fun story.  People here that do grow pot in the pot often dump what’s left behind up here.  Like the soil and root base.  One of our neighbours used to pick it up and stick it in her wicking beds.  Apparently it was fabulous for growing non pot stuff in too.

People growing that stuff take it VERY seriously. In my lawn, I often buy the stuff marketed for MJ growers, as it is the best stuff, similar to the stuff sold for agricultural use, but in smaller quantities for home use. I have an organic chitosan product that helps the plant immune system fight off bugs and fungi, and it is called "High Tide". I thought that was just because chitosan comes from sea creatures...then looked at their other products and saw the common theme was references to pot and getting high, lol. 

On 9/19/2020 at 10:44 AM, Shellydon said:

Southwest-- pot plant= potted plant

Well, there we go!

Southwest, including Texas where the OP heard it from, and UK/Australia/NZ. 

Everywhere else people will think you want to get high 🙂

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