fetishism

American  

[fet-i-shiz-uhm, fee-ti-] / ˈfɛt ɪˌʃɪz əm, ˈfi tɪ- /

Or fetichism

noun

1. belief in or use of fetishes.

2. Psychiatry. the compulsive use of some object, or part of the body, as a stimulus in the course of attaining sexual gratification, as a shoe, a lock of hair, or underclothes.

3. blind devotion.

   a fetishism of sacrifice to one's children.

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fetishism British  

/ ˈfɛtɪˌʃɪzəm, ˈfiː- /

noun

1. a condition in which the handling of an inanimate object or a specific part of the body other than the sexual organs is a source of sexual satisfaction

2. belief in or recourse to a fetish for magical purposes

3. excessive attention or attachment to something

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Other Word Forms

• fetishist
  noun
• fetishistic
  adjective
• fetishistically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of fetishism

First recorded in 1795–1805; fetish + -ism

Example Sentences

Then she wrote a book on black magic, called Fetishism in Africa, which drew cheers from French scientists.

From Time Magazine Archive

Fetishism and magic seem to have preceded inward piety historically—at least our records of inward piety do not reach back so far.

From Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature by James, William

It is necessary also to extend Positivist Fetishism to purely abstract existence; to "animate" the laws as well as the facts of nature.

From Auguste Comte and Positivism by Mill, John Stuart

And the Fetishism, Ancestor-worship, Hero-worship, and Demonology of primitive savages, are all, I believe, different manners of expression of their belief in ghosts, and of the anthropomorphic interpretation of out-of-the-way events, which is its concomitant.

From Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews by Huxley, Thomas Henry

We will now turn to the consideration of the status of the human soul in pure Fetish, that is to say in Fetish that is common to all the different schools of West African Fetishism.

From West African studies by Kingsley, Mary Henrietta