The Etymology of Manitou
Manitou names a concept closer to a sacred animating force than a personal god. In Algonquian languages — Ojibwe 'manidoo,' Cree 'manitow,' and dozens of related forms — it covers a spectrum: from minor spirits residing in particular places to 'Gitche Manitou,' the Great Spirit. French missionaries and traders in the Great Lakes region in the 17th century carried the word into French as 'manitou,' and English borrowed it from there in the 1670s. Early English ethnographers often translated 'manitou' as 'God,' but the underlying idea is more diffuse. The Canadian province of Manitoba bears a related name, and the word remains active in modern Algonquian languages, where its full theological weight is preserved.