Windigo
Origin
From Ojibwe wiindigoowintiko
. Compare Cree wihtikow/áƒá§á¦á‘Žá‘¯á¤ ("greedy person; cannibal; giant man-eating monster").
Full definition of windigo
Noun
windigo
(countable and uncountable; plural windigos)- (mythology) A malevolent, violent, cannibal spirit found in Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, and Cree mythology, which inhabits the body of a living person and possesses him or her to commit murder.
- 2004: Michael Jensen, FirelandsOnce there, however, I found no signs indicating the way John and the wendigo might have gone.
- A psychological condition specific to some Native American groups, in which a person (in fever-induced delusions) believes that he or she is possessed by a cannibalistic wendigo spirit, or in which society hysterically believes a person to be so possessed.
- 1985: Ronald C. Simons, Charles Campbell Hughes, Culture-Bound Syndromes: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric and Anthropological Interest''“Windigo psychosis†has been the most celebrated culture trait of the Northern Algonkian peoples for almost half a century.