shaman
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Russian шаман (šamán), from Evenki шаман (šamán).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
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Singular |
Plural |
shaman (plural shamans)
- A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a religious medium between the concrete and spirit worlds.
[edit] Usage notes
- The plural form is shamans, not shamen;[4] the etymologically-consistent plural form from the original Evenki is shamasal,[5] but this form sees no use in English; the plural form shamans is, however, universally accepted.[6]
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Synonyms
- (religious medium): priest-doctor, witch doctor
[edit] Translations
a medium between the concrete and spirit worlds
[edit] References
- Notes:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “shaman, n. (and a.)” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “shaman” listed in Merriam–Webster’s Online Dictionary (retrieved on the 19th day of September in 2008)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “shaman” listed in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language [4th Ed.; 2000]
- ^ 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. - ^ 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”, p103 (John Benjamin’s Publishing Company; ISBN 1588114619)
[…] 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). - ^ 2005: Peter Metcalf, Anthropology: The Basics, box 7.3: “Shamanism”, page 132 (Routledge; ISBN 0415331196)
Note that the plural of shaman is shamans, not shamen.

