GRAPH-WIDE SEARCH
MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
011
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
021
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
032
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 1
openproposedexact word
Does Evenki šamān securely descend from Sanskrit śramaṇa?
The resemblance and Central Asian transmission routes have motivated a hypothesis, but direct evidence connecting the Buddhist term to the Evenki word remains insufficient.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 1
RANK 11GRADE Aexact ranked word
It was never humanity’s universal ancient name for spiritual practitioners.
English globalized a specific Evenki term through European scholarship and applied it to many unrelated traditions.
043
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
historical dictionary5 CLAIM LINKS
Shaman — Word History
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly article5 CLAIM LINKS
A Note on the Word “Shaman” in Old Turkic
Peter Zieme / 2008
publisherAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly book4 CLAIM LINKS
The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination
Andrei A. Znamenski / 2007
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗051
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.