cootie
cootie Lexical Profile
cootie Game Scores & Validity
• noun
North American (usually in the plural, 'cooties') An imaginary, contagious germ, bug, or affliction said by children to be transmitted through physical contact, especially with someone of the opposite sex or someone considered socially undesirable.
"The elementary school boys ran across the playground yelling that they didn't want to catch cooties."
(informal, originally military slang) A human body louse (Pediculus humanus), a small, wingless parasitic insect that lives in clothing and feeds on human blood, notoriously prevalent in trenches during World War I.
"Soldiers in the trenches spent hours inspecting the seams of their uniforms to get rid of every cootie."
Word Nuance & Usage
In contemporary North American children's slang (meaning an imaginary contagious affliction), the word is almost exclusively used in the plural form, 'cooties'.
• Rhymes for cootie
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined during World War I as military slang for body lice, likely derived from the Malay and Austronesian word 'kutu' meaning 'parasitic biting insect' or 'louse', or possibly from the British dialect word 'coot' (waterfowl, associated with being infested with parasites).