cooties
cooties Lexical Profile
cooties Game Scores & Validity
• noun
North American An imaginary contagious germ or affliction playfully said by children to be transmitted through close contact, especially with someone of the opposite sex or someone perceived as socially undesirable.
"The young boys on the playground ran away screaming that they would catch cooties from the girls."
Small, wingless parasitic insects of the order Psocodea (specifically Pediculus humanus) that infest human hair and clothing and feed on blood; body lice or head lice.
"Soldiers in the crowded World War I trenches constantly struggled to rid their uniforms of cooties."
Word Origin & Etymology
Originated as early 20th-century military and nautical slang for body lice during World War I, likely borrowed from the Austronesian (Malay and Polynesian) word 'kutu', meaning a parasitic biting insect or louse.