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cootie

noun
/ˈkuːti/

Etymology

Probably from Malay kutu (“flea, louse”) (and/or Tagalog/Māori). First attested in English in 1917 as British army slang during World War I.

  1. derived from kutu

Definitions

  1. A louse (Pediculus humanus).

  2. Any germ or contaminant, real or imagined, especially from the opposite gender (for…

    Any germ or contaminant, real or imagined, especially from the opposite gender (for pre-pubescent children).

    • I’m not drinking from his glass until I wash the cooties off it.

  3. A nest-building female American coot (counterpart to cooter).

  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. A sideswiper, a type of telegraph key.

The neighborhood

Derived

cootie catcher, crazy as a cootie, crazy as a cootie bug

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for cootie. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA