fetish means something which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman.
fetish is pronounced /ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/.
Why “fetish” is a great word
An object believed to possess magical or spiritual power, or a sexual fixation on a nonsexual object or body part. From the French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço (“charm, sorcery”), from Latin factīcius (“artificial, made by art”), first attested in English in the early 17th century. Unlike a “talisman,” which promises specific protection, or a “kink,” which broadens the field of desire, a fetish implies a necessary condition—absence of which collapses belief or arousal entirely. It is the carved wooden figure caked in sacrificial oils, the polished shoe that unlocks a private chamber of arousal, the mundanity of leather or latex electrified into sacred necessity: the made thing that insists upon itself as natural law, a testament to the human capacity to confer profound meaning upon the manufactured world.
Etymology
Borrowed from French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, from Latin factīcius (“artificial”). Doublet of factitious.
noun
- Something which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman.e.g.“The idols and fetishes were being dressed up and whitewashed, receiving sacrifices.” — 1958, Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King:
- A figure representing the spirit of a deity, human, or animal; an idol or voodoo doll.
- Sexual fixation to or arousal at something abnormally sexual or nonsexual, such as an object or a nonsexual part of the body.e.g.“I know a guy who has a foot fetish.”
- An irrational or abnormal preoccupation or fixation on some object or activity; an obsession.e.g.“He has been talking about the same topic for hours on end, I suspect he may have a fetish”
- A recurrent theme of a specific thing.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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