fetish

• fetich (dated [18^th c.–present])

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

• (UK, US) enPR: fĕtʹĭsh, fēʹtĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/, /ˈfiː.tɪʃ/

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fetish (plural fetishes)

1. Something which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman. [from the early 17th c.]
2. Sexual attraction to or arousal at something sexual or nonsexual, such as an object or a part of the body. [from the early 19th c.]
   • 1985, Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale:

     The first time, I was confused. His needs were obscure to me, and what I could perceive of them seemed to me ridiculous, laughable, like a fetish for lace-up shoes.

   I know a guy who has a foot fetish.

   a fetish for leather

3. (US) An irrational, or abnormal fixation or preoccupation; an obsession. [from the 19th c.]

   a fetish for deficit reduction

   • 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (Harvest / Harcourt paperback edition), chapter XXII, page 117:

     We have a feeling that it must be "honest" work, because it is hard and disagreeable, and we have made a sort of fetish of manual work.

• dominant
• dom
• domme
• switch
• submissive
• sub
• master
• mistress
• slave
• top
• bottom
• sadist
• masochist
• fetishism
• fetishist
• fetishistic
• fetishlike
• fetishize
• fetishwear

• fet

• feiths, thiefs