Informal. a louse, especially one affecting humans, as the body louse, head louse, or pubic louse. a child's term for an imaginary germ or disease that one can catch by touching a person who is disliked or socially avoided: The girls at camp thought the boys had cooties.

Is Cootie a bad word?

American children, however, have been using the word for several generations. The original cooties were very real and extremely nasty, since the word was first applied to body lice. It's a slang term intimately (and I mean that sincerely) associated with the military in World War One.

Where did the term Cootie originate?

The word first appeared during World War I as soldiers' slang for the painful body lice that infested the trenches. It went mainstream in 1919 when a Chicago company incorporated the pest into the Cootie Game, in which a player maneuvered colored “cootie” capsules across a painted battlefield into a cage.

Do girls have cooties?

It's official: women really do have cooties. ... Not all women carry such destructive strands of the cootie virus — some may only leave you incapacitated for a month or two, leaving behind a minor scar that will fade over time.

Why do kids believe in cooties?

But it does suggest that kids may view opposite-sex peers as greater threats, especially in early childhood. As children develop more opposite-sex friendships and become less rigid in their attitudes toward gender, the need for cooties “shots” and the perception of opposite-sex peers as threatening may wane.

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45 related questions found

Why is cooties rated R?

Horrible and lifeless horror comedy is dumb and boring but extremely gory and disgusting. My rating:R for bloody violence and drug use including strong language.

Is the movie Cooties on Netflix?

Sorry, Cooties is not available on American Netflix, but it's easy to unlock in USA and start watching!

What happens at the end of Cooties?

There is an alternate ending to Cooties (2014) which was the original one, but Lionsgate paid them to re-shoot the ending After killing Patriot, they realize they are out of gas. They venture on foot and eventually find a deserted campsite. They enjoy themselves.

Are they making a Cooties 2?

Will there be Cooties 2? More likely than not, no. Cooties, which hits theaters on September 18, is unlikely to have a sequel, at least not in the spirit of the original film.

How do u get cooties?

Cooties game

A child is said to "catch" cooties through any form of bodily contact, proximity, or touching of an "infected" person or from a person of the opposite sex of the same age.

What is cooties on Netflix?

In this tongue-in-cheek chiller, students at an elementary school fall prey to a virus that transforms them into bloodthirsty, cannibalistic mutants.

What happens to the kids in cooties?

Hitachi arrive and rescue the group, setting the infected children on fire with gasoline. They then escape in crossing guard Rick's van, driving out of the town to "someplace kids don't wanna go". They are briefly pursued by a flaming Shelly, but she falls down and burns to death.

How did the virus start in cooties?

After constantly being bullied by Patriot in class, Shelly infects him with the virus by biting a chunk of his face off and escapes to the playground, where she tries to dig an exit route under a fence.

Which gender has more cooties?

Ladies, boys really do have cooties. Don't believe us? Just take a look at a study published this week that sampled 90 offices in the US and found a significantly larger amount of bacteria on males' desks, computers, and chairs than on females'.

Who invented cooties?

Herbert W. Schaper was a mailman in Minneapolis and a fisherman who made his own lures. One day, he added six legs to a lure that he had whittled and called it a “Cootie.”

What is a cootie in America?

Among North American children, cooties are an imaginary germ with which a socially undesirable person, or one of the opposite sex, is said to be infected.

Are lice called cooties?

As a nickname for body lice or head lice, cooties first appeared in trenches slang in 1915. ... The noun “cooties” was derived from a slightly earlier WWI word, “cooty,” an adjective meaning infested with lice and first recorded in 1915. The phrase “going cooty” meant getting lice and being quarantined for de-lousing.

Are cooties contagious?

Second, cooties are both extremely common and extremely contagious. Just one brush against Jimmy, and you're definitely going to get infected. While SARS or Legionnaire's disease are contagious, they're not THAT contagious—one touch won't do you in.

Can you get rid of cooties?

There are several cures for such cooties, depending on who you ask. Rubbing the infected area with Ajax cleaning powder is said to be efficacious. Or you can trace on your arm these figures — circle, circle, circle, dot, dot, dot. This is known as a cootie shot.

Who invented don't break the ice?

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Don't Break the Ice is a children's tabletop game for two to four players ages 3 and up. Marketed by Schaper Toys in 1968, the game is now manufactured by Hasbro subsidiary Milton Bradley.

Who is the villain in cooties?

Shelley "Shelly" Linker is the main antagonist of the 2014 live action film Cooties.

Who is Wade in cooties?

Cooties (2014) - Rainn Wilson as Wade - IMDb.