Cooties Diseases

Cooties a derogatory word mainly used by the children of North America. They refer it for a fictitious disease carried by the members of the opposite sex. They are of opinion that a person gets infected from cooties if they come in contact with an infectious person (either bodily or close proximity). They also believe that it can be transmitted by touching infected persons things. This is sometimes used as a device for keeping the children away from each. A person sometimes jokingly refers to cooties when talking about sex and relationships.

The Cooties word was adopted by the people of US from the Philippines and before that by the British soldiers sometimes during early 1900. Among the Malaysian and Philippine languages the word kuto is used for referring to any flea or lice. The British and American soldiers who were stationed at those places got ample time to get familiar with this word and a new word in the form of slang came into use. But till date it remains a mystery as how the word became popular among the children.

The actual meaning of the word Cooties is head or body lice. This later on took the turn of an extremely repulsive word. Though the word lurgy is used in the same context as in British English, it has a broader definition and two complete different concepts. In the northern part of England it refers to a contactable virus that passes through touch or association with an 'infected' person. Though there are no visible signs of the disease.

In Northern Europe the same term that is Cooties suggests a disease found in girls. It is a hand held toy made of folded paper popular among the children. One surface of the paper is blank while the other has dots. The main joke is to run the toy through someones hair , thus revealing the dotted surface. This toy is sometimes used as a fortune teller and the children love playing this game. They sometimes immunize each other by giving a Cootie shot. They do so by reciting a rhyme.

The word cooties have given rise to the term cootie catcher that is the name for a popular hand held toy among school children. The toy is significant as it has one surface which is blank while the other is drawn with dots. As the conventions of this game it is a must to show the blank side and then run the toy through someone's hair, revealing the dotted surface; this is also a popular device and at times it is called a fortune teller and used to tell fortunes. Cooties