MEDICINE MAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Medicine man

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/mˈɛdəsən mæn/ Listen

noun

Medicine n.

1.

The science which relates to the prevention, cure, or alleviation of disease.

2.

Any substance administered in the treatment of disease; a remedial agent; a medication; a drug; a pharmaceutical; a medicament; a remedy; physic. "By medicine, life may be prolonged."

3.

A philter or love potion. (Obs.)

4.

A physician. (Obs.)

5.

(a)

Among the North American Indians, any object supposed to give control over natural or magical forces, to act as a protective charm, or to cause healing; also, magical power itself; the potency which a charm, token, or rite is supposed to exert. "The North American Indian boy usually took as his medicine the first animal of which he dreamed during the long and solitary fast that he observed at puberty."

(b)

Hence, a similar object or agency among other savages.

6.

Short for Medicine man.

7.

Intoxicating liquor; drink. (Slang)

Medicine bag, a charm; so called among the North American Indians, or in works relating to them.

Medicine man (among the North American Indians), a person who professes to cure sickness, drive away evil spirits, and regulate the weather by the arts of magic; a shaman.

Medicine seal, a small gem or paste engraved with reversed characters, to serve as a seal. Such seals were used by Roman physicians to stamp the names of their medicines.

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Etymology of 'Medicine man'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Medicine man" Quotes from Famous Books

... Brave, calm, quick in moments of peril, he made them admire him. How fearlessly he had stepped into the midst of that half-frenzied sextette, tiswin drunk, and disarmed Kwonagietah and two of his fellow-revelers! How instant had been his punishment of that raging, rampant, mutinous old medicine man, 'Skiminzin, who dared to threaten him and the agency! (That episode only long years after reached the ears of the Indian Advancement Association in the imaginative East.) How gently and skillfully he had ministered ...

— An Apache Princess - A Tale of the Indian Frontier • Charles King

... and made recognisable still produces its impulsive effect by acting on those biologically inherited associations which enable man and other animals to interpret sensations without experience. The scarlet paint and wolfskin headdress of a warrior, or the dragon-mask of a medicine man, appeal, like the smile of a modern candidate, directly to our instinctive nature. But even in very early societies the recognition of artificial political entities must generally have owed its power of stimulating ...

— Human Nature In Politics - Third Edition • Graham Wallas

... men began to imagine they would be held responsible for the act of any other person, came the necessity for some one to teach them how to keep from offending the being. Some called him medicine man, some called him priest; now, we call him theologian. These men set out to teach men how to keep from offending this being, and they laid down certain laws to regulate the conduct of men. First of all it was necessary to believe in this power. To disbelieve ...

— Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest • Robert Green Ingersoll

... opportunity to observe the swarthy countenances by which he was surrounded, most of which were fierce in their paint, as well as to reflect a little on his own course. By a fortunate inspiration he now determined to assume the character of a "medicine man," and to connect his prophecies and juggleries with this lucky accident of the whiskey. Accordingly, he inquired if any one spoke English, not wishing to trust his explanations to his own imperfect knowledge of the Ojebway tongue, which is ...

— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper

... me, when he saw it and heard of our adventure. 'Sahib! Beware! Nahra was a clever man. He must have used the spirit of the white tiger as his tool. Let the medicine man ...

— Animal Ghosts - Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter • Elliott O'Donnell

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