fetish

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Latin factus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -īcus Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -īcius Latin factīcius Portuguese feitiçobor. French fétichebor. English fetish Borrowed from French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, from Latin factīcius (“artificial”). Doublet of factitious.

1. Something which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman.

   “The idols and fetishes were being dressed up and whitewashed, receiving sacrifices.”

2. A figure representing the spirit of a deity, human, or animal; an idol or voodoo doll.

   “This was the trunk of a large wooden doll […] now entirely defaced by a long career of vicarious suffering. […] The last nail had been driven in with a fiercer stroke than usual, for the Fetish on that occasion represented aunt Glegg”

3. Sexual fixation to or arousal at something abnormally sexual or nonsexual, such as an object or a nonsexual part of the body.

   “I know a guy who has a foot fetish.”

   “a fetish for leather”

4. An irrational or abnormal preoccupation or fixation on some object or activity; an obsession.

   “He has been talking about the same topic for hours on end, I suspect he may have a fetish”

   “However, I am not prone to sensitiveness, and the following of a sense of duty, wherever it may lead, has always been a kind of fetich with me throughout my life; which may account for the honors bestowed upon me by three republics and the decorations and friendships of an old and powerful emperor and several lesser kings, in whose service my sword has been red many a time.”

5. A recurrent theme of a specific thing.