Mana

Mana is an South Pacific word for what Americans would call "The Force."¹ The word shows up in a bunch of languages, so we're pretty sure the word comes from some Oceanic ur-language that predates the invention of boats.

Isn't it originally Jewish? You're thinking of "Manna," the Hebrew word for that edible stuff that God would leave all over the ground every morning so the runaway slaves wouldn't starve during their escape. Not the same.

When Larry Niven wrote his short story Not Long Before the End in 1969, he used the word "mana" for the limited resource that was the fuel for magical effects. He did it again in his novel The Magic Goes Away, and gamers have been using the term ever since to describe the contents of a limited pool of magic power.

Some Games That Use Mana

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• Magic: The Gathering players must drain territory they control ("tap") to fuel the magical effects described on the cards in their hands. Any excess mana causes damage to the controlling wizard.
• Microlite20 spellcasters must use their hit points to cast spells, alluding to them draining their own life force to create magical effects.

Footnotes

1. "The Force," before the midichlorian bullshit; I'm talking old-school Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, "size matters not" stuff, not the weaboo shit where Yoda is bouncing around like an anime ninja on a RedBull-bender.