Manitou

See also: manitou

English

Etymology

The Supreme Being sense is a proprialization from the common noun, manitou.

Proper noun

Manitou

2. Synonym of Supreme Being.
   • 1782, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer:

     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.

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

Derived terms

• Manitou Springs