fetishize

verb

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 Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English fetishize From fetish + -ize.

1. To make the subject of (often sexual) obsession.

   “Our society has fetishized personal wealth.”

   “John's unteachers ignore the letter of their target text, while fetishizing the letter of their own.”

2. To make the subject of (often sexual) obsession.

   “London, the only actor who feels like she’s playing a real character and not a public-service announcement, reacts realistically to scenarios where Shelley fetishizes her Blackness, but it’s all for naught.”

   ““Asian women on-screen, especially in America and Hollywood, have been so sexualized and fetishized for the benefit of other people’s stories or jokes,” Ashley says. “And we’re like, ‘We’re gonna go balls to the wall, further than anyone’s gone with Asian women.’””

3. To make into a fetish, or magical object.

   “Isou and Lemaitre further introduced scriptural systems (metagraphics, or postwriting, and hypergraphy, respectively) that fetishize the graphic as irreducible to vocalization.”