medicine man
Etymology

Probably a calque of Ojibwe mashkikiiwinini (“doctor”), from .

Noun

medicine man

  1. A Native American shamanistic healer.
    Hypernyms: shaman
    Hyponym: (Navajos) hataalii
    • 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, section XIV:
      And the Jossakeeds, the Prophets,
      The Wabenos, the Magicians,
      And the Medicine-men, the Medas,
      Painted upon bark and deer-skin
      Figures for the songs they chanted
  2. A traditional healer among other indigenous or ancient peoples.
    • 1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 9, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959:
      After the death of Ekwefi's second child, Okonkwo had gone to a medicine man, who was also a diviner of the Afa Oracle, to enquire what was amiss.
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