medicine woman

English

Etymology

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

Noun

medicine woman (plural medicine women)

1. A female Native American (or, any other indigenous) shamanistic healer.

   Coordinate term: medicine man

   Near-synonym: shaman

Related terms

• folk medicine
• herbal medicine
• indigenous medicine
• medicinal
• traditional medicine

 

Translations

shamanistic healer

• Danish: klog kone c, medicinkvinde c (rare)
• Dutch: medicijnvrouw f
• Esperanto: kuraculino
• French: femme-médecine (fr) f, sorcière (fr) f
• German: Medizinfrau (de) f
• Maasai: enk-aíkoni
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: medisinkvinne m or f

  Nynorsk: medisinkvinne f

• Polish: babka (pl) f (historical)
• Swedish: medicinkvinna c