What is the origin of word mesmerize?

Mesmerize originates from Franz Mesmer, an 18th-century Austrian physician and astrologer who advanced a theory called animal magnetism. Mesmer believed that an invisible force or fluid, which he called "animal magnetism" and claimed to be able to manipulate, could be used to cure illnesses. He would supposedly enter a trance-like state and make sweeping hand gestures, claiming that these movements were helping to transfer his animal magnetism to the patients.

The term mesmerism gained popularity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to describe this phenomenon, and it eventually evolved into the verb mesmerize, which is now commonly used to mean "to captivate or hold someone's attention completely, often in a way that makes them seem entranced or hypnotised".