I wonder if there is a single word for someone with a foot fetish. Does podophile sound right, or perhaps even podolater? I am using "pod" after hearing of a paediatrician in Wales whose house was attacked by some who thought the octor was a child molester. Comments, anyone?

who thought the octor was a child molester

...molesting eight kiddies at the same time?

Good grief. I've just learned something. There are a hell of a lot (excuse the language) of foot lovers out there. 15,300 pages on Google search alone. And they all seem to be 'nudie' pictures of feet. Well, I'm sure the word will be found in a psycology page somewhere. I the interim I vote for POD people. Kinda says it all doesn't it. (Apologies to tootsie lovers out there )

And perhaps somebody who makes fun of feet is a 'toe-ragger'?

> I wonder if there is a single word for someone with a foot fetish

Solemate and archfiend come to mind. Perhaps such a person would be a "pesamist" (pes plus amo). I am a bit pessimistic about that one though.

But you have to be careful about "ped" and "paed". Two entirely different words. The first is foot, from pedes, the plural of pes, but paed or ped is from the Greek for children. Orthopaedics (orthopedics to us left continenters) means literally straight children.

I think the English spelling is far preferable, since at least in print it is much clearer that paedophile means lover of children rather than lover of feet.

In reply to:

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Solemate and archfiend

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A bit corny, don't you think?

Incidentally, anyone who can look at a picture of naked feet and say "foot fetishist" four times without tripping themselves up so to speak probably isn't.

Bingley

A bit corny, don't you think?

I'd watch that if I were you. According to paulb union stewards get their silks in a lather over remarks like that. Kernel Shuck would definitely pull your tassel.

The story you quote is rather a sad case which happened over the summer. It seems that in the national rage stoked up by newspapers deciding to "name and shame" paedophiles it is now dangerous to have an occupation which includes the letters paed..

http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,361031,00.html

it is now dangerous to have an occupation which includes the letters paed..

Yes, terrible story.

But perhaps the lesson might be about langauge itself. As we can probably all recognise, language (most especially argot) is used at least as much to define the outsider as to communicate in an open manner. Does the use of words based so firmly on ancient Greek continue to make sense in the 21st century? Or is it a case of snob value - perhaps when I get home I shall get a younger perspective if I ask the opinion of my paeds?

Got it, I think. After a long and fruitless search on my own, the answer was found on the internet, by another.
I called my library's trusty Just Ask line, and was told that foot fetishism is called RETIFISM. It is one of the
paraphilias (sexual deviances). So, I guess a foot-fetishist would be a retifist. I'm a bit busy, so I haven't gone to the site, but here it is:
http://www.mhsource.com/expert/exp1050399d.html

retifism *may be more specific to boots or shoes...

I loved gurunet's take on this:
"GuruNet found no match for retifism.
Perhaps you meant:

Cretinism"

I think the English spelling is far preferable, since at least in print it is much clearer that paedophile means lover of children rather than lover of feet.

I agree wholeheartedly. Indeed, whenever I'm feeling particularly pretentious, I make a point of spelling it pædiatrician I'm not even sure that the æ belongs in the word, but it's fun using it, anyway. My "podophile" was also influenced by the way chiropodists (at least here in NZ) adopted "podiatriast" as the name of their profession. I think that a major reason was a desire to avoid being confused with chiropractors.