fetish

• n. 恋物（等于fetich）；迷信；偶像

词态变化

助记提示

中文词源

来自葡萄牙语feitico, 有魔力的物品，护身符。来自词根fact, 做，制造，词源同do, fact.

原为葡萄牙海员出海时所携带的护身符。后词义引申为神物，癖好，特指心理上的依恋。

英文词源

fetish

fetish: [17] Fetish is a doublet of factitious: that is to say, the two words have a common origin, but have subsequently diverged widely. Both come ultimately from Latin factītius ‘made by art’, an adjective derived from the past participle of facere ‘do, make’ (whence English effect, fact, fashion, among a host of other related words).

Its Portuguese descendant, feitiço, was used as a noun meaning ‘charm, sorcery’. French took this over as fétiche and passed it on to English, where it was used in the concrete sense ‘charm, amulet’, particularly as worshipped by various West African peoples. ‘Object irrationally or obsessively venerated’ is a 19th-century semantic development.
=> effect, fact, factory, fashion

fetish (n.)

"material object regarded with awe as having mysterious powers or being the representative of a deity that may be worshipped through it," 1610s, fatisso, from Portuguese feitiço "charm, sorcery, allurement," noun use of an adjective meaning "artificial."

The Portuguese adjective is from Latin facticius "made by art, artificial," from facere "to make, do, produce, etc." (see factitious, and compare French factice "artificial," restored from Old French faitise, from Latin facticius). Via the French word, Middle English had fetis, fetice (adj.) "cleverly made, neat, elegant" (of things), "handsome, pretty, neat" (of persons). But in the Middle Ages the Romanic derivatives of the word took on magical senses; compare Portuguese feiticeria "sorcery, witchcraft," feiticeiro "sorcerer, wizard." Latin facticius in Spanish has become hechizo "artificial, imitated," also "bewitchment, fascination."

The specific Portuguese use of the word that brought it to English probably began among Portuguese sailors and traders who used the word as a name for charms and talismans worshipped by the inhabitants of the Guinea coast of Africa. It was picked up and popularized in anthropology by Charles de Brosses' "Du culte des dieux fétiches" (1760), which influenced the word's spelling in English (French fétiche also is borrowed 18c. from the Portuguese word).

Any material image of a religious idea is an idol; a material object in which force is supposed to be concentrated is a Fetish; a material object, or a class of material objects, plants, or animals, which is regarded by man with superstitious respect, and between whom and man there is supposed to exist an invisible but effective force, is a Totem. [J. Fitzgerald Lee, "The Greater Exodus," London, 1903]

Figurative sense of "something irrationally revered, object of blind devotion" appears to be an extension made by the New England Transcendentalists (1837). For sexual sense (1897), see fetishism.

双语例句

1. She has a fetish about cleanliness.

她有洁癖。

来自《权威词典》

2. What began as a postwar fetish for sunbathing is rapidly developing into a world health crisis.

开始是战后对日光浴的极度迷恋，而后迅速发展成世界性的健康危机。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Women's underclothes are a common fetish.

女人的内衣裤是常见的能引起性快感的恋物.

来自辞典例句

4. He has this fetish and he is constantly eating my homework.

他有怪癖而且他经常吃我的作业.

来自互联网

5. Some young people like to make a fetish of style.

有些年轻人喜欢盲目地赶时髦.

来自互联网