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fetish

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fet⋅ish

  [fet-ish, fee-tish]
Use fetish in a Sentence
–noun
1. an object regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or as having magical potency.
2. any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion: to make a fetish of high grades.
3. Psychology. any object or nongenital part of the body that causes a habitual erotic response or fixation.
Also, fetich.

Origin:
1605–15; earlier fateish < Pg feitiço charm, sorcery (n.), artificial (adj.) < L factīcius factitious; r. fatisso, fetisso < Pg, as above

Related forms:
fet⋅ish⋅like, adjective

Synonyms:
1. talisman, amulet.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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fet·ish also fet·ich   (fět'ĭsh, fē'tĭsh)   
n.  

  1. An object that is believed to have magical or spiritual powers, especially such an object associated with animistic or shamanistic religious practices.

  2. An object of unreasonably excessive attention or reverence: made a fetish of punctuality.

  3. Something, such as a material object or a nonsexual part of the body, that arouses sexual desire and may become necessary for sexual gratification.

  4. An abnormally obsessive preoccupation or attachment; a fixation.


[French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, artificial, charm, from Latin factīcius, artificial; see factitious.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

fetish

An object believed to carry a magical or spiritual force. Some so-called primitive tribes practice cult worship of fetishes. (See animism and totemism.)

Note: Figuratively, a “fetish” is any object that arouses excessive devotion: “Lucille made a fetish of her Porsche.”
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

fetish 
1613, fatisso, from Port. fetiço "charm, sorcery," originally feitiço "made artfully, artificial," from L. facticius "made by art," from facere "to make" (see factitious). L. facticius in Sp. has become hechizo "magic, witchcraft, sorcery." Probably introduced by Port. sailors and traders as a name for charms and talismans worshipped by the inhabitants of the Guinea coast of Africa. Popularized in anthropology by C. de Brosses' Le Culte des Dieux Fétiches (1760), which influenced the word's spelling in Eng. (Fr. fétiche, also from the Port. word). Figurative sense of "something irrationally revered" is Amer.Eng. 1837. Fetishism in the purely psycho-sexual sense first recorded 1897 in writings of Henry Havelock Ellis (1859-1939).
"In certain perversions of the sexual instinct, the person, part of the body, or particular object belonging to the person by whom the impulse is excited, is called the fetish of the patient." [E. Morselli in "Baldwin Dictionary of Philosophy," 1901]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: fe·tish
Variant: also fe·tich /'fet-ish also 'fEt-/
Function: noun
: an object or bodily part whose realor fantasized presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

fetish fet·ish (fět'ĭsh, fē'tĭsh)
n.

  1. Something, such as an object or a nonsexual part of the body, that arouses sexual desire and may become necessary for sexual gratification.

  2. An abnormally obsessive preoccupation or attachment.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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