/ · 1894 Brewer’s · F · Fetiche or Fetish
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The African idol, the same as the American Manʹitou. The worship of this idol is called Fetʹichism or Fetʹishism. (Portuguese, fetisso, magician, fairy, oracle.)
⁂ Almost anything will serve for a fetiche: a fly, a bird, a lion, a fish, a serpent, a stone, a tree struck by lightning, a bit of metal, a shell; but the most potent of all fetiches is the rock Tabra.
The fetiche or fetish of the bottle. The imp drunkenness, or drunkenness itself.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.