different between fascination vs excitement

English

Etymology

From Latin fascinare ("to bewitch"), possibly from Ancient Greek ?????????? (baskaínien, “to speak ill of; to curse”)Morphologically fascinate +? -ion

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /fæs??ne???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

fascination (countable and uncountable, plural fascinations)

1. (archaic) The act of bewitching, or enchanting

   Synonyms: enchantment, witchcraft

   • 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.

3. Something which fascinates.

Derived terms

• dread fascination

Translations

References

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa.si.na.sj??/

Noun

fascination f (plural fascinations)

1. fascination

Related terms

• fasciner

Further reading

• “fascination” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

excite +? -ment

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?k-s?t?m?nt, IPA^(key): /?k?sa?tm?nt/

Noun

excitement (countable and uncountable, plural excitements)

1. (uncountable) the state of being excited (emotionally aroused).
   • E.A. Poe, The unparalleled adventure of one Hans Pfaal:

     By late accounts from Rotterdam, that city seems to be in a high state of philosophical excitement.

2. (countable) something that excites.

Translations