noun
also fet·ich ˈfe]d.]ish, ]t], ]ēsh also ˈfē] or ˈfā]\
( -es )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: French & Portuguese; French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, from feitiço, adjective, artificial, false, from Latin facticius factitious — more at factitious
1.
a. : a natural or artificial object (as an animal tooth or a wood carving) believed among a primitive people to have a preternatural power to protect or aid its owner often because of ritual consecration or animation by a spirit ; broadly : any material object regarded with superstitious or extravagant trust or reverence
all our fetishes … Sunday school cards, a silver cross that I had for my baptism, a Bible — American Mercury
b. : an object of extreme or irrational reverence or devotion : prepossession
security … may be sought excessively and become a fetish — Bertrand Russell
a goose-stepping army which makes a fetish of discipline — Scribner's
accept the fetish that birth and station presuppose any innate superiority — Theodore Dreiser
c. : an object (as a shoe or glove) or a part of the body that arouses libidinal interest often to the exclusion of genital impulses
2. : a rite or incantation or cult of fetish worshipers
their tribal custom and fetish
3. : irrational reverence or attachment : fixation
had a fetish for red hair and so married a redhead