Antonyms for fetish

Grammar : Noun

Spell : fet-ish, fee-tish

Phonetic Transcription : ˈfɛt ɪʃ, ˈfi tɪʃ

Definition of fetish

Origin : 1610s, fatisso, from Portuguese feitiço "charm, sorcery," from Latin facticius "made by art," from facere "to make" (see factitious).
Latin facticius in Spanish has become hechizo "magic, witchcraft, sorcery." Probably introduced by Portuguese sailors and traders as a name for charms and talismans worshipped by the inhabitants of the Guinea coast of Africa. Popularized in anthropology by C. de Brosses' "Le Culte des Dieux Fétiches" (1760), which influenced the word's spelling in English (French fétiche, also from the Portuguese word). Figurative sense of "something irrationally revered" is American English, 1837.
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]
For sexual sense, see fetishism.

noun obsession
noun object believed to have supernatural powers

Example sentences :

The Fetish is any stone picked up in the street—a tree, a chip, a rag.
Extract from : « The Humbugs of the World » by P. T. Barnum

I wandered about the streets looking for some Fetish willing to take an interest in me.
Extract from : « The Surprises of Life » by Georges Clemenceau

It is, however, far easier to state what Fetish is not, than to state what it is.
Extract from : « West African studies » by Mary Henrietta Kingsley

For the rest of the Fetish I remain a mere photographic plate.
Extract from : « West African studies » by Mary Henrietta Kingsley

The expert in Fetish, the Medicine Man, was the first priest.
Extract from : « A Short History of the World » by H. G. Wells

As for poor old Anita, I believe she thinks it is our Fetish.
Extract from : « Saxe Holm's Stories » by Helen Hunt Jackson

The realization of abstractions was not the embodiment of a word, but the gradual disembodiment of a Fetish.
Extract from : « August Comte and Positivism » by John-Stuart Mill

Carlyle seems to confound him with the common Fetish; but he is quite another thing.
Extract from : « The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete » by John Forster

On this occasion, the king of the village and the staff of Fetish men connected with it, take part.
Extract from : « The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies » by Robert Gordon Latham

His Fetish was a wooden bowl behind which he squatted at the roadside by way of adoration.
Extract from : « The Surprises of Life » by Georges Clemenceau

Synonyms for fetish

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019