orenda
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English
Etymology
Supposedly coined in 1902 by American ethnologist John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt using a Wyandot (Iroquoian) cognate to Mohawk orę́·naʔ (“inherent power”).
Pronunciation
Noun
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
References
- ^ “orenda”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.