manitou

plural manitous

1. A god or spirit as the object of religious awe or ritual among some American Indians.

   My father strung it high in a tree for the manitous to watch over.

   2005, Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road, Penguin, published 2008, page 43

   3 more examples

   The favourite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, … is known by the name of the Garden Rock.

   1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle

   If it were possible to translate the comprehensive and melodious language in which he spoke, the ode might read something like the following: "Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! Thou art great, thou art good, thou art wise: Manitou! Manitou! Thou art just."

   1826, James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, published 1888, page 319

   Each Ojibway shaman's method of communication with the manitou patron is unique and is related to a personal dream experience.

   1987, John A Grim, The Shaman, page 143

1. Synonym of Supreme Being.

   1 more example

   If they are hereafter obliged to confess, that they belong to no one particular church, I shall have the consolation of teaching them that great, that primary worship which is the foundation of all others. If they do not fear God according to the tenets of any one seminary, they shall learn to worship him upon the broad scale of nature. The Supreme Being does not reside in peculiar churches or communities; he is equally the great Manitou of the woods and of the plains; and even in the gloom, the obscurity of those very woods, his justice may be as well understood and felt as in the most sumptuous temples. Each worship with us, hath, you know, its peculiar political tendency; there it has none but to inspire gratitude and truth: their tender minds shall receive no other idea of the Supreme Being, than that of the father of all men, who requires nothing more of us than what tends to make each other happy. We shall say with them, Soungwaneha, esa caurounkyawga, nughwonshauza neattewek, nesalanga.—Our father, be thy will done in earth as it is in great heaven.

   1782, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer

   Synonyms: Supreme Being

2. A community in the Municipality of Pembina, Manitoba, Canada.
3. An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Hopkins County, Kentucky, United States.
4. A hamlet in Philipstown, Putnam County, New York, United States.
5. An unincorporated community in Mountrail County, North Dakota, United States.
6. A town in Tillman County, Oklahoma, United States.