fascination

Etymology

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

noun

1. (archaic) The act of bewitching, or enchanting
2. The state or condition of being fascinated.
   To my fascination, the skies turned all kinds of colours.
   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. 1934, Robert Ervin Howard, The People of the Black Circle
   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. 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China
3. Something which fascinates.
   Life after death had always been a great fascination to him.