Shaman

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈʃɑːmÉ™n/

Origin

From German Schamane,

Dictionary.com

from Russian шаман,

from Evenki шаман.

Merriam Webster Online

The Evenki word is probably ultimately derived from Pali समन from Sanskrit

Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction by Benjamin W. Fortson, IV (ISBN 1444359681)

श्रमण (śramaṇá, "ascetic, monk, devotee"), from श्रम (śráma, "fatigue, weariness, exhaustion; labor, toil etc."). The Pali term may have entered Evenki through either Tocharian B ṣamāne ("monk")

or Chinese 沙門 (shāmén, "Buddhist monk").

this theory is ascribed by several other sources to the OED

Full definition of shaman

Noun

1. A traditional (prescientific) faith healer.
2. A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a religious medium between the concrete and spirit worlds.

Usage notes

The plural form is shamans, not shamen;

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. the etymologically-consistent plural form from the original Evenki is shamasal,

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 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). but this form sees no use in English; the plural form shamans is, however, universally accepted.

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.

Derived terms

• shamanism
• shamanize
• shamen hypercorrect plural
• technoshaman

Synonyms

• (religious medium) priest-doctor, witch doctor