Etymology

medicine woman

Today it means: A female Native American (or, any other indigenous) shamanistic healer. Full definition →

Ojibwe mashkikiiwininiikwe
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The story

  1. Ojibwe · calque ofmashkikiiwininiikwe“female doctor”
  2. English todaymedicine woman

Probably a calque of Ojibwe mashkikiiwininiikwe (“female doctor”), from mashkiki (“medicine”) + inini (“man”) + ikwe (“woman”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.