manitou
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of manitou
First recorded in 1605–15; from Unami Delaware monə́t·u, reinforced by or reborrowed from Ojibwe manidoo and other cognates (all from unrecorded Proto-Algonquian maneto·wa ); spelling influenced by equivalent French word
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Rejecting the Europeans’ acquisitive or utilitarian attitude to wealth or material possessions, they tapped the manitou of foreign products for spiritual power and social prestige as well as practical uses.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
In that part of the Northeast, tisquantum referred to rage, especially the rage of manitou, the world-suffusing spiritual power at the heart of coastal Indians’ religious beliefs.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
It has power of life and death, and honor is paid to it as to a manitou.
From Heroes of the Middle West The French by Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
According to the Indians, the place was the abode of spirits, and each tree, each rock, each dell, had its own especial manitou whom it were sacrilege to offend by the touch of profane hands.
From The Westerners by White, Stewart Edward
Then, having heaped them together, he called on his guardian manitou, and together they set to work to make a man.
From Fort Amity by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
Nokomis was ready to make an offering to the spirits, or manitous.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
When she talked to the manitous, Nokomis dipped out a pinch of tobacco.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
While the snow and ice still held fast, Nokomis told them tales about the world of manitous and windigos, tales of Nanabozho, the comical teacher.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
The spirits, the manitous who lived in all things, why had they ignored her prayers, her mother’s prayers, and the powerful prayers of Nokomis?
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
They had ogni or manitous, who were medicine-men, and who healed the sick, bound up the wounded, foretold future events, and practised all the abuses and illusions of the black arts.
From The Makers of Canada: Champlain by Dionne, N.-E. (Narcisse-Eutrope)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
