Enchantment
The act of placing a charm or spell on a person or thing, and in some scholars' writing the lost feeling of a world full of meaning.
Also: enchant, bewitching, being enchanted
The word comes from Latin incantare, to sing over, through French enchanter. In story and folk belief to be enchanted is to be put under a spell, whether by a song, a word or a gift. The sociologist Max Weber borrowed the idea in the early twentieth century, speaking of the disenchantment of the world, by which he meant the decline of explanations that rely on spirits and magic. Historians such as Alexandra Walsham have since argued that belief in spirits never disappeared, only changed shape. Others, like Jane Bennett, use enchantment for a modern sense of wonder at ordinary things. The word therefore spans folk practice, theory and everyday speech.