What does fetish mean?
Fetish is a noun with three related strands of meaning. Most commonly today it denotes an object, garment, or non-genital body part that is a focus of sexual desire, as used in psychology and everyday speech. More broadly and often figuratively, a fetish is anything invested with excessive, almost irrational devotion — someone might have a fetish for punctuality or gadgetry, meaning an attachment that strikes others as disproportionate. The oldest sense, from anthropology, describes an inanimate object believed to hold supernatural power, a usage that arose when Portuguese traders encountered West African religious charms and labeled them with their word feitiço, 'made artificially' (from Latin facticius). That origin is itself revealing: the term began as an outsider's label for other people's sacred objects, which is why modern anthropologists treat it cautiously. Connotations vary sharply by context — clinical and specific in sexual use, lightly mocking or critical in figurative use — making fetish a vivid word for describing where ordinary interest tips into obsession.
A form of sexual desire in which gratification is linked chiefly to an object, item of clothing, or part of the body other than the sexual organs.
"The psychologist studied how a fetish for leather developed in certain patients."
This sense is standard in clinical and psychological writing; in casual speech it may carry humorous or self-deprecating overtones.
An object or activity that is the object of irrational or excessive reverence or devotion.
"The committee had made a fetish of procedure, refusing to act without six signatures."
Usually figurative; often introduced by phrases like 'make a fetish of'.
In anthropology: an inanimate object believed to have magical power or to be inhabited by a spirit, especially in descriptions of West African traditional religion.
"Early travelers described charms and fetishes kept in village shrines along the coast."
Standard English plural; spelled 'fetishes' in both British and American English.
"The museum's collection included charms and fetishes gathered from coastal trading posts."
The word 'fetish' comes from Portuguese feitiço — 'artificial' — because Portuguese sailors thought West African carved charms were man-made magic rather than true religion.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fetish
Fetish derives from the Portuguese feitiço, meaning 'charm' or 'artificial thing', which in turn comes from Latin facticius, 'made by art' (from facere, 'to make'). Portuguese sailors and traders applied the term in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to carved objects they encountered in West Africa that were believed to possess spiritual power. The word entered English in the early seventeenth century, first in this anthropological sense, and later broadened through nineteenth-century psychiatry and general figurative use to its modern senses of obsessive devotion and sexual fixation.
Related word forms
How fetish is actually used
The word carries different registers depending on sense: in psychological and sexual contexts it is clinical but can feel intimate or explicit; in everyday figurative use ('a fetish for cleanliness') it is informal to neutral and implies excessive devotion. In older anthropological literature the term is now considered dated and colonial in framing when describing African religious objects, so careful modern writers prefer terms like 'power object'.
Easily confused with fetish
A faux pas is a social blunder; 'fetish' refers to either an object of superstitious reverence or an object of obsessive/sexual fixation.