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

These movements, made without conscious exertion or direction, seem, to savage philosophy, to be caused by in-dwelling spirits, the sources of Fetishism.

From The Making of Religion by Lang, Andrew

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 Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions by Huxley, Thomas H.

Therefore I here give the key to a good deal of this inter-relationship by dividing the different classes of Fetishism into four schools.

From West African studies by Kingsley, Mary Henrietta

I do not believe that Fetishism is the parent of idolatry; but rather—as I have said elsewhere—that it is the dregs and remnants of idolatry. 

From At Last by Kingsley, Charles