Footsies (also footsy or footsie) is a

flirting Flirting or coquetry is a social and sexual behavior involving body language, or spoken or written communication between humans. It is used to suggest interest in a deeper relationship with another person and for amusement. Flirting can chang ...

game where two people touch feet under a table or otherwise concealed place, often as a romantic prelude. It is a game played either as an act of flirtatious

body language Body language is a type of nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use o ...

, or simply for enjoyment. Although footsies is not inherently romantic, the nature of it as playful touching is often done between romantic partners as a sign of affection, and most often without discussion. The term comes from a 1940s humorous diminutive of foot.

Effects

In a 1994 study on secret relationships, participants (college students from the US) played a partnered card game in which a subset were instructed to play footsies with their card playing partner. Of these, individuals whose footsies was kept a secret rated the attractiveness of their partner significantly higher than either those who did not play footsies, or those whose footsies was publicly known.

Use in popular culture and medicine

American

comics author a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicat ...

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American artist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American c ...

published an autobiographic

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

named "Footsy" in 1987 which deals with "his teenager encounters with the feet of various lusty creatures at school" and is a "typically self-lacerating portrayal of one of Crumb's myriad sexual fetishes". In training of the

plantar fascia The plantar fascia or plantar aponeurosis is the thick connective tissue aponeurosis which supports the Arches of the foot, arch on the bottom (plantar side) of the foot. Recent studies suggest that the plantar fascia is actually an aponeurosis r ...

, a device called footsie roller is used for the foot. The term "footsies" was coined by the

fighting game community Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...

in reference to "the mid-range ground-based aspect of fighting game strategy." The word was likely chosen due to its similarity to a common strategy in fighting games whereby a player moves in and out of their opponent's striking range, uses fast, weak moves (such as crouching light kick) to bait their opponent into attacking,''Street Fighter Footsies Handbook, Chapter 2''
Element 04 and subsequently punishes their whiffed attack.

References

{{Reflist, 25em Foot Nonverbal communication Sexual attraction