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mana (MAH-nah) - n., a supernatural force believed in Polynesian religions to dwell in a person or sacred object; authority, power, prestige.
Its use in gaming, as a source of magic power, can be directly traced to Larry Niven's use in his The Magic Goes Away series. Mana is also an alternate spelling of manna, the food supplied to the Israelites in the wilderness in Exodus, and of mina, a silver coin of the Ancient Near East and Greece. While the word is used throughout Polynesia, English got it specifically from Maori, around 1840. In Proto-Polynesian it already had the power sense, especially the power of natural forces, the deeper Proto-Oceanic root (also just *mana) apparently meant storm winds.
---L.
Its use in gaming, as a source of magic power, can be directly traced to Larry Niven's use in his The Magic Goes Away series. Mana is also an alternate spelling of manna, the food supplied to the Israelites in the wilderness in Exodus, and of mina, a silver coin of the Ancient Near East and Greece. While the word is used throughout Polynesia, English got it specifically from Maori, around 1840. In Proto-Polynesian it already had the power sense, especially the power of natural forces, the deeper Proto-Oceanic root (also just *mana) apparently meant storm winds.
---L.
