Orenda

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɔˈɹɛn.də/

Definitions

1. A mystical force regarded as an inner power that shapes fate and personal strength in individuals
2. An inherent spiritual energy believed to guide choices and influence destiny in living beings
3. A supernatural energy thought to reside within individuals that empowers them to create change and shape their own futures

Etymology: John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, an American ethnologist working on Iroquoian languages, is credited with introducing "orenda" into English in 1902. He drew it from Wyandot, an Iroquoian language, where a form cognate with the Mohawk "orę́·naʔ" meant something like "inherent power." Hewitt's choice gave English speakers a single word for a concept that Iroquoian peoples used to describe a power residing in people, animals, objects, and natural forces, and that could be gained, used, or lost. Because the word came into English as a scholarly borrowing rather than through everyday speech, its meaning was shaped by the anthropologists who used it. The English sense of "inner spiritual power" reflects a cross-cultural translation of an Iroquoian idea, and the word's career has been bound up with the study of Native American religion rather than with the wider vocabulary of English.

Synonyms: spiritual power, energy, force, power, aura