Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A cannibal giant in Indian mythology.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun mythology A malevolent, violent, cannibal
spirit found inAnishinaabe ,Ojibwe , andCree mythology , which inhabits the body of a living person and possesses him or her to commit murder. - noun A
psychological condition specific to some Native Americangroups , in which a person (infever -induced delusions )believes that he or she ispossessed by a cannibalisticwendigo spirit, or in which societyhysterically believes a person to be so possessed.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Henry realized that what was coming for him was not a man but a windigo, the mythic beast out of the horror stories of his childhood, a cannibal giant with a heart of ice.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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Henry said, “What if the windigo had eaten my heart instead?”
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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The bellow of the windigo shook the snow from the trees.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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The foul smell of the windigo—the stench of rotted meat—was all around him.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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The windigo let fly a death cry that was as appetizing to Henry as the heart on which he began to feed.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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Henry realized that what was coming for him was not a man but a windigo, the mythic beast out of the horror stories of his childhood, a cannibal giant with a heart of ice.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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It was answered in kind by Wellington, who was no longer Wellington but a windigo.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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He stood over the lifeless form of the windigo that had once been Wellington.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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But when the beast is dead, there is a great danger that you will stay a windigo forever.
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
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Henry said, “What if the windigo had eaten my heart instead?”
THUNDER BAY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER 2007
avivamagnolia commented on the word windigo
Basil Johnston, an Ojibwa teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives one description of how Wendigos were viewed:
“ The Weendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Weendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody .... Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Weendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption. �?
At the same time, Wendigos were embodiments of gluttony, greed, and excess; never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they were constantly searching for new victims. In some traditions, humans who became overpowered by greed could turn into Wendigos; the Wendigo myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation.
January 17, 2009
avivamagnolia commented on the word windigo
~cannibalistic giant, the transformation of a person who has eaten human flesh (in the folklore of the Ojibwa and other American Indians)
January 17, 2009
chelster commented on the word windigo
Wiktionary is incorrect. Windigo is the preferred spelling, wendigo the alternative. And the only attested pronunciation, to my knowledge, is WIN-di-goh. — The Orthoepist
October 24, 2011