shaman

What it means

1. A traditional faith healer.

   Synonyms: witch doctor

2. A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a spiritual or religious medium between the concrete and spirit worlds; sometimes also a healer.

   Near-synonyms: medicine man, medicine woman, priest-doctor, witch doctor

   1 more example

   Shepard: What rites did you go through to become chief shaman? Shaman: Becoming the shaman is excruciating. I passed through rites that made me wish to die. I carry the scars on my soul. Shaman: I must perform rites each dawn and dusk to keep me bound into our krogan nature. Our spirit is one of violence and death. I must be attuned to that.

   2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tuchanka

   Synonyms: medicine man, medicine woman, priest-doctor, witch doctor

In a sentence

Near-synonyms: medicine man, medicine woman, priest-doctor, witch doctor

Where it comes from

1. Sanskritश्रमण“ascetic, monk, devotee”
2. Palisamaṇa
3. Chinese沙門 /沙门“Buddhist monk”
4. txbṣamāne“monk”
5. Proto-Tungusic*samān
6. Evenkiшама̄н
7. Russianшама́н
8. GermanSchamane
9. Englishshaman

Borrowed from German Schamane, from Russian шама́н (šamán), from Evenki шама̄н (şamān), сама̄н (samān), from Proto-Tungusic *samān. The Evenki word is possibly derived from the root ша- (şa-, “to know”); or else a loanword from Tocharian B ṣamāne (“monk”) or Chinese 沙門 /沙门 (shāmén, “Buddhist monk”), from Pali samaṇa from Sanskrit श्रमण (śramaṇa, “ascetic, monk, devotee”), from श्रम (śrama, “weariness, exhaustion; labor, toil; etc.”), which would make this a doublet of sramana.