Brewer's: Fetiche

or Fetish. The African idol, the same as the American Manitou. The worship of this idol is called Fetichism or Fetishism. (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.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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