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foot fetishism

a form of fetishism in which sexual excitement is achieved through contact with or masturbation near a shoe or foot. Shoes or feet are among the most common varieties of fetish, but there is little understanding of why this occurs. The condition is also called retifism, named for French writer Nicolas-Edme Rétif (1734–1806), also known as Rétif de la Bretonne, who is said to have had a sexual interest in women’s footwear.

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Psychology term of the day

December 24th 2024

phonics

phonics

n.

1. a method of teaching reading, popularly known as sounding out, that concentrates on the sounds of the letters or letter combinations in a word rather than on the word as a unit. The speaker or reader thus tries to match graphemes and phonemes. Also called phonic method. Compare whole-word method.

2. a former name for acoustics.