wendigo

Noun

wendigo (plural wendigo or wendigos or wendigoes)

1. A malevolent and violent cannibal spirit found in Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, and Cree mythology, which is said to inhabit the body of a living person and possess him or her to commit murder.
   • Through the pine woods of Keewaydin, / Over the snows of Shebandowan, / The Wendigo roams in the winter's frost / And pursues to destruction the hunter. / Yet no man can meet with the Wendigo, / No man can face him or see him; / Only his track in the snow is seen, / And lost is the hunter that sees...1905, Ernest Thompson Seton, “The Wendigo: Winter Death”, in Woodmyth & Fable, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 161
   • The Windigo is a flesh-eating, wintry demon with a man buried deep inside of it. In some Chippewa stories, a young girl vanquishes this monster by forcing boiling lard down its throat, thereby releasing the human at the core of ice.1984, Louise Erdrich, “Windigo”, in Jacklight, New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   wetiko, wihtikow, witigo, witiko

2. Synonym of splake (“kind of hybrid fish”).

   Synonyms:

   splake