fetish

UK/ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/US/ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,521 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: fetishes

A fetish is an object thought to hold power, or an obsessive fixation. A fetish object, make a fetish of it, a fetish for detail.

The oldest sense is anthropological: an object believed to have spirit power. From that came the general sense of anything treated with irrational devotion, as in making a fetish of punctuality, and a specific sexual sense in psychology.

Definitions of fetish

1nounfetishAn object thought to hold power, or an obsessive fixation.C1
“The museum displays a carved wooden fetish that villagers believed would protect them from illness.”

fetish is an object, or a fixation.

Where it comes from

Portuguese feitico meant a charm, from Latin facticius, artificial. Portuguese traders used it of West African objects.

Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
French
fétiche
English, today
fetish

Borrowed from French fétiche. Borrowed from French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, from Latin factīcius (“artificial”). a doublet of factitious.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

fetish in the wild

Omorashi, a fetish for having a full bladder or someone else experiencing the discomfort or pain of a full bladder, is sometimes considered part of urolagnia.
Urolagnia
Most fetish wear is not practical enough for routine daily wear.
Fetish fashion
The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish is a fetishist.
Sexual fetishism
Issues with the brain such as epilepsy and lesions can result in suddenly gaining or losing sexual interests, including fetishes like feet.
Foot fetishism
As a fetish, its mechanisms regard sexual arousal from the smell, observation or imagination of a person smoking, sometimes including oneself.
Smoking fetishism

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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