fascination

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English

Etymology

From Latin fascinare ("to bewitch"), possibly from Ancient Greek βασκαίνιεν (baskaínien, to speak ill of; to curse)[1] Morphologically fascinate +‎ -ion

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /fæsɪˈneɪʃən/
    • Audio (RP):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

fascination (countable and uncountable, plural fascinations)

  1. (archaic) The act of bewitching, or enchanting
    Synonyms: enchantment, witchcraft
    • Template:RQ:Vance Nobody
      Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.
  2. The state or condition of being fascinated.
    • 1934, Robert Ervin Howard, The People of the Black Circle
      Sliding down the shaft he lay still, the spear jutting above him its full length, like a horrible stalk growing out of his back.
      The girl stared down at him in morbid fascination, until Khemsa took her arm and led her through the gate.
    • 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China
      But the compensations are many: changing scenes, long days out of doors, freedom from the bondage of conventional life, and above all, the fascination of living among peoples of primitive simplicity and yet of a civilization so ancient that it makes all that is oldest in the West seem raw and crude and unfinished.
    To my fascination, the skies turned all kinds of colours.
  3. Something which fascinates.
    • 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 1, page 244:
      Though more thoughtful than Madame de Mercœur, yet it asked far more knowledge of society—that wilderness of small intricacies—for her to penetrate into the motives of those who seemed so suddenly struck with her fascination; but she was too clear-headed to be deceived, and set it all down under one general belief in caprice.
    Life after death had always been a great fascination to him.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

  1. ^ "Fascination" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. 10. 1911.

French

Pronunciation

Noun

fascination f (plural fascinations)

  1. fascination

Further reading