Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A body louse.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Rough-legged: an epithet applied to birds whose legs are clad with feathers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun North America, colloquial A
louse . - noun North America, colloquial, childish, usually plural Any
germ orcontaminant , real orimagined , especially from the oppositegender (for pre-pubescent children).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a parasitic louse that infests the body of human beings
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cootie.
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.
-
Pediculus humanus capitis); the body louse, better known as the cootie (
-
Pediculus humanus capitis); the body louse, better known as the cootie (
-
Pediculus humanus capitis); the body louse, better known as the cootie (
-
"cootie," who was to become so familiar in the trenches later on.
-
"cootie" hunt; but such is the creed of the trenches.
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word cootie
the original with a board and pegs, not the newfangled bug-parts version.
January 31, 2007
treeseed commented on the word cootie
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
January 28, 2008
stevechasmar commented on the word cootie
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.
August 4, 2011
bilby commented on the word cootie
Coincidence, yes, but not necessarily evidence of a derivational link.
August 4, 2011