Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang A body louse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Rough-legged: an epithet applied to birds whose legs are clad with feathers.
Wiktionary
- n. North America, colloquial A louse.
- n. North America, colloquial, childish, usually plural Any germ or contaminant, real or imagined, especially from the opposite gender (for pre-pubescent children).
WordNet 3.0
- n. a parasitic louse that infests the body of human beings
Etymologies
- 1917, from British army slang during World War I, probably from Malay kutu ("flea, louse"). (Wiktionary)
- Probably from Malay kutu. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He wasn't called a cootie aboard ship, but he was the same bird.”
“I also used to love the folded up fortune tellers (some people called the cootie catchers) that honestly, used to contain mostly mean fortunes! redjet on March 11th 2009 at 10: 18am view redjet's”
“The most elaborate preparations for the housing of their men and officers had been made; dugouts of every description, from the temporary "hole in the ground" with a wooden door and a "cootie" bunk to the palatial suite sixty feet underground with cement stairs and floors, and with bathrooms, officers and lounging quarters, all electrically lighted and well heated.”
“Sometimes, while engaged in a "cootie" hunt you think.”
“France is to see the men engaging in a "cootie" hunt.”
“cootie," who was to become so familiar in the trenches later on.”
“cootie" hunt; but such is the creed of the trenches.”
“I rifled through his hair like a monkey and announced him cootie free.”
“He walked over to me on the couch and I demanded he sit down for his cootie inspection.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cootie’.
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•Words We Use Here That Would Tick Of...
Or, Things That Get a Whole Lot More Fun With an -ie Ending.
See conversation on git, and have at it!
Edit: Many of the following are madeupical, but many are not. See als...wordie, foodie, roadie, cookie, prosie, poetrie, tunie, scriptie, democracie, pompous old gittie, funnie, hippie and 156 more...
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MUSIC - jazz
Afro, habanera, pentatonic scale, bop, bebop, jazz, cool jazz, pentatonic, malignment, music genre, jazz musician, syncopate and 437 more...
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Itchy
wool, cat dander, ragweed, poison ivy, dust mite, poison oak, nettles, pollen, mosquito bite, chigger, dog dander, pet dander and 39 more...
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Dr. Jamieson's Birds
A rich list of Scottish bird (nick)names and related terms cited in Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
stone-chatter, clocharet, bowger, coulter-neb, branchers, brissel-cock, turkey-cock, brongie, bubblyjock, polliecock, bullfit, bullfrench and 220 more...
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Let's Play
Classic Children's Toys and Games and Amusements
colorforms, jacks, hopscotch, louisville slugger, duncan imperial, flexible flyer, radio flyer, troll doll, dam doll, pick-up sticks, silly putty, marbles and 155 more...
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cat 2012
mala fide, trafficking, impoverished, atrocity, divulge, personify, audacity, resurrect, dubious, bloated, sovereign, rein and 123 more...
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Playtime
Games I love or have loved
cootie, pickup sticks, war, slapjack, checkers, pinball, galaga, pong, dodgeball, comingoverhere, badminton, candlepin bowling
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Words that make me giggle
Some words are just plain fun to say... they give me a smirk or chuckle to read and think about or to randomly spout aloud and bemuse my children.
galoshes, gadzooks, gigawatt, lederhosen, mojo, nipperkin, alleyoop, cappiburra, cootie, deeley-bobber, farkus, gobbledygook and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cootie.
bilby Coincidence, yes, but not necessarily evidence of a derivational link. Aug 4, 2011
stevechasmar Because the word “cootie” is an Americanism, it is much more likely a loan-word from the Tagalog “kuto” than from the Malay “kutu”. The Philippines was an American colony from 1898 until 1946, a time frame that coincides with the first appearance of the word “cootie”, referring to a body louse, in print during World War I. Aug 4, 2011
treeseed The name of a table game, the object of which is to be the first player to complete a comic model of an insect from the supplied plastic parts, as determined by the roll of a die. Its rules are essentially the same as those of the dice game Beetle. The patent is held by Milton Bradley.
_Wikipedia Jan 27, 2008
abraxaszugzwang the original with a board and pegs, not the newfangled bug-parts version. Jan 31, 2007