Wiktionary

shaman

See also: shamán

English

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A shaman

Etymology

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Borrowed from German Schamane,[1] from Russian шама́н (šamán),[1] from Evenki шама̄н (şamān), сама̄н (samān).[2] The Evenki word is possibly derived from the root ша- ("to know");[3] or else a loanword from Tocharian B ṣamāne (“monk”)[4] or Chinese 沙門 / 沙门 (shāmén, “Buddhist monk”), from Pali samaṇa from Sanskrit श्रमण (śramaṇa, “ascetic, monk, devotee”), from श्रम (śrama, “weariness, exhaustion; labor, toil; etc.”), which would make this a doublet of sramana.[4]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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shaman (plural shamans)

  1. A traditional faith healer.
    Synonym: witch doctor
  2. A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a spiritual or religious medium between the concrete and spirit worlds; sometimes also a healer.
    Hyponym: wu (Chinese shaman)
    Near-synonyms: medicine man, medicine woman, priest-doctor, witch doctor
    • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tuchanka:
      Shepard: What rites did you go through to become chief shaman?
      Shaman: Becoming the shaman is excruciating. I passed through rites that made me wish to die. I carry the scars on my soul.
      Shaman: I must perform rites each dawn and dusk to keep me bound into our krogan nature. Our spirit is one of violence and death. I must be attuned to that.

Usage notes

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  • The plural form is shamans, not shamen;[8] the etymologically-consistent plural form from the original Evenki is shamasal,[9] but this form sees no use in English; the plural form shamans is, however, universally accepted.[10]

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “shaman”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  2. ^ “shaman”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  3. ^ Mihály, Hoppál. Sámánok Eurázsiában (Budapest: Akadémiai K., 2005), 15
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010) Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, second edition, Oxford: Blackwell
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 “shaman, n. (and a.)” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 “shaman” listed in Merriam–Webster’s Online Dictionary (retrieved on 19 September 2008)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 “shaman” listed in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition (2000)
  8. ^ 1978, Carl B. Compton, The Interamerican, volume 25, №3 (Instituto Interamericano, Denton, Texas) We learn from our readers: We have been wrong in writing the word “shamen” as a plural for “shaman”. The word probably comes from Russian and there is no plural except that made by adding an ‘s’ — e.g. Shamans.
  9. ^ 2003, Howard Isaac Aronson, Dee Ann Holisky, and Kevin Tuite, Current Trends in Caucasian, East European, and Inner Asian Linguistics — “Dialect Continua in Tungusic: Plural Morphology”, page 103 (John Benjamin’s Publishing Company; →ISBN […] we note here that -sal tends to exist only as a residual plural marker in -l/-r dialects. For example, in Standard Evenki, as in the Evenki dialects of the Amur basin and the Vivin dialect, use of -sal is limited to a small number of nouns (e.g. bajan “rich person”, pl. bajasal; ɲami:, “female reindeer”, pl. ɲami:sal or ɲami:səl; aβlan “field”, pl. aβlasal; sama:n “shaman”, pl. sama:sal).
  10. ^ 2005, Peter Metcalf, Anthropology: The Basics, box 7.3: “Shamanism”, page 132 (Routledge; →ISBN Note that the plural of shaman is shamans, not shamen.

Anagrams

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