orenda
English edit
Etymology edit
Supposedly coined in 1902 by American ethnologist John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt using a Wyandot (Iroquoian) cognate to Mohawk orę́·naʔ (“inherent power”).[1]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
orenda (uncountable)
- A mystical power thought by the Iroquois to pervade all things.
- 1920, George Willis Cooke, The Social Evolution of Religion:
- In the Handbook of American Indians, Alice Fletcher describes the Iroquois conception of orenda as "a fictive force, principle, or magic power"
See also edit
References edit
- ^ “orenda”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.