ポルトガル語のfitico(魔除け)から。語源は、fact, to do, to makeで、語源的にはdo, factと同じ。
もともとはポルトガルの船乗りが海上で携帯していたお守り。後にこの語は、神聖なもの、フェティッシュ、特に心理的な愛着を意味するようになった。
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.