Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) a habitual marijuana smoker.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 buddah monk Definition: someone who smokes marijuana frequently Example: Don’t succumb to weed or you’ll become one of those buddah monks.

(drugs, also buddha) marijuana grown in Thailand, which is sold wrapped around small, satay sticks.

1977		L. Young et al. Recreational Drugs.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 11: It was just my luck to run into a guy [...] who was prepared to give me ten buddha sticks at a time ‘up front’ and charge me ninety bucks for them later.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 95: The best he was able to score was a few buddha sticks.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] Someone seemed to be selling speed and Buddha sticks.
1998		National Business Rev. (N.Z.) 3 Apr. n.p.: Most New Zealand cannabis seeds originated from the ‘buddha sticks’ imported in bulk from Thailand by Marty Johnstone and his Mr Asia syndicate in the late 1970s.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 32/2: buddha n. 1 strong marijuana imported from Asia [...] buddha stick n. potent marijuana tied to a stick and wrapped in cotton.
2015		P. Doyle (con. 1969-1973) Big Whatever 25: One more sandwich bag with a dozen buddha sticks.

(US) a very fat person.

1959		C. Beaumont Intruder 139: He was a large man with a Buddha belly and flabby, clay-brown arms.
1966		E.P. Hoyt Matter of Conscience 267: One expects anything from him, of course, with his little popping eyes and steel spectacles, and his Buddha belly and Trotsky beard.
1970		B. Moore Fergus 28: His hairless body silvered with sweat, his little Buddha belly bulging from the waistband of his trousers.
1988		A. Bosch Boys’ Town 40: ‘This little Buddha belly you’re getting.’ ‘Buddha belly!’ He sprang from the bed, knocking an empty box of Fiddle Faddle to the floor.
1999		A. Wood Smart Piggy’s Newsletter Aug. 🌐 Our larger puppy, named Sumo (we sometimes call him Buddha Belly because his stomach is rather large and round) awakens at dawn.
2002		T. Spanbauer In the City of Shy Hunters 340: Rose’s arms, his chest, his Buddha belly, his cock and balls, his thighs and calves and knees, bare naked on the stage.

1. an East Asian or Asian person.

1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 150: As one exasperated Nisei muttered, ‘Jesus Christ! I lose fight! For once the Buddhaheads were on the ball’.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 78: So now if I wanna get somewhere in the department I gotta be a Buddahead.
1976		(con. early 1960s) D. Hall Dock Ellis 55: The Japanese were the best scholars. ‘The Buddhaheads were the straight A’s,’ says Dock.
1987		(con. 1967) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 65: That rusty ol’ bike’s for sure owned by some buddhahead.
1990		(ref. to 1961–75) G.R. Clark Words of the Vietnam War 71/1: Buddha Head Slang for persons of Japanese or Chinese ancestry, especially the Japanese.

2. a Japanese-American; a Hawaiian [their less assimilated lifestyle, pidgin English and similarly ‘unsophisticated’ ways].

1961		Paradise of the Pacific Jan. 13: Hawaii’s Japanese (dam’ buddha-heads) are too big for their britches, think they won the War single-handed, and spend twenty-four hours a day scheming to take over the Islands.
1972		Carr Da Kine Talk 93: Two humorous terms used during World War II were Buddhahead [...] for Japanese-Americans born in Hawaii, and Kotonk, for those born on the mainland of the United States [DARE].
1989		Hackworth & Sherman About Face (1991) 74: You Hawaiian Buddha-heads have enough trouble with the cold.
1995		N.Y. Times 19 June 6/4: The Hawaiians called the mainlanders ‘Katonks,’ meaning hollowheads, Mr. Oka said, and they in turn were called ‘Buddhaheads’ as ridicule for their pidgin English and more traditional ways [DARE].
1998–2002		Clayvision 🌐 Signs that you are Japanese American [...] 54. You and your friends call yourselves ‘Buddaheads,’ but don’t like it when white people do.