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Fetish

3 stages from Portuguese to English.

Today it means an object of excessive or irrational devotion or focus
1
Stage 1 of 3
feitico
Portuguese · 1400s
"a charm or magical object"
an object believed to have magical power, from Latin facticius (artificial, made)
2
Stage 2 of 3
fetiche
French · 1600s
"an object believed to hold spiritual power"
carried into French through accounts of West African religious objects
3
Stage 3 of 3
fetish
English · 1600s
"an object of obsessive attention or reverence"
settled as the English word, later broadened to any object of obsessive focus
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