Wendigo (/ˈwɛndɪɡoʊ/) or Windigo is a mythological cannibalistic monster originating from Algonquian folklore. The wendigo is often said to be a malevolent spirit, sometimes depicted as a monstrous creature with human-like or zombie-like characteristics, who may possess human beings. It is said to cause its victims a feeling of insatiable hunger, the desire to eat other humans, and the propensity to commit murder. In some representations, the wendigo is described as a giant humanoid with a heart of ice, whose approach is signaled by a foul stench or sudden unseasonable chill.
In Ojibwe, Eastern Cree, Westmain Swampy Cree, Naskapi, and Innu lore, wendigos are often described as giant beasts that are many times larger than humans, a characteristic absent from myths in other Algonquian cultures. Whenever a wendigo ate another person, it would grow in proportion to the meal it had just eaten, so it could never be full. Therefore, wendigos are portrayed as simultaneously gluttonous and extremely thin due to starvation. The wendigo is seen as the embodiment of gluttony, greed, and excess: never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they are constantly searching for new victims. In some traditions, humans overpowered by greed could turn into wendigos; the myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation. Other sources say wendigos were created when a human resorted to cannibalism to survive. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long.
The contemporary English word wendigo is a loanword from multiple origins: It is partially a borrowing from Cree (wīhtikōw) and partially a borrowing from Ojibwe (wiindigoo), both Algonquian languages. Comparable forms are found in English as early as 1714 (Whitego). The form wendigo was popularized in the English language by way of the writings of English writer Algernon Blackwood starting in 1910 (see The Wendigo (novella)). The word has been reconstructed in Proto-Algonquian as *wi·nteko·wa, with the potential meaning 'owl'.
In Algonquian fearsome critters, the deer wendigo is called windyo.