How do you use the word "fetish" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "fetish" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "fetish": Would you consider being in a relationship with someone who has an odd fetish? Tom has a foot fetish.

Fetish Meaning

/ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounSomething which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman.

nounA figure representing the spirit of a deity, human, or animal; an idol or voodoo doll.

Sentence Examples

Would you consider being in a relationship with someone who has an odd fetish?

Tom has a foot fetish.

CEFR Practice Quiz

His unusual ____ for antique watches worried his practical wife.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

In some cultures, a small wooden carving might be used as a ____ to bring good luck to the owner.

Word Origin & History

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Latin factus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -īcus Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -īcius Latin factīcius Portuguese feitiçobor. French fétichebor. English fetish Borrowed from French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, from Latin factīcius (“artificial”). Doublet of factitious.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"The idols and fetishes were being dressed up and whitewashed, receiving sacrifices." — 1958, Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King:

"This was the trunk of a large wooden doll […] now entirely defaced by a long career of vicarious suffering. […] The last nail had been driven in with a fiercer stroke than usual, for the Fetish on that occasion represented aunt Glegg" — 1860, George Eliot, chapter VI, in The Mill on the Floss, Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons:

"The first time, I was confused. His needs were obscure to me, and what I could perceive of them seemed to me ridiculous, laughable, like a fetish for lace-up shoes." — 1985, Margaret Atwood, “Soul Scrolls”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, page 163:

"However, I am not prone to sensitiveness, and the following of a sense of duty, wherever it may lead, has always been a kind of fetich with me throughout my life; which may account for the honors bestowed upon me by three republics and the decorations and friendships of an old and powerful emperor and several lesser kings, in whose service my sword has been red many a time." — 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “On the Arizona Hills”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., October 1917, →OCLC, page 6:

"We have a feeling that it must be "honest" work, because it is hard and disagreeable, and we have made a sort of fetish of manual work." — 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:

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