Comments on: Cooties http://www.word-detective.com/2011/03/cooties/ Semper Ubi Sub Ubi Sat, 24 Apr 2021 19:41:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.1 By: Anonymous http://www.word-detective.com/2011/03/cooties/comment-page-1/#comment-808419 Sun, 25 Aug 2019 08:54:39 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=4763#comment-808419 The Game of Cootie, in which children competed to complete the building of their own outsized plastic bugs, was released in 1949. It was very popular in the 1950s, when kids had already been accusing each other of having cooties for years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_Cootie

]]> By: MarkB http://www.word-detective.com/2011/03/cooties/comment-page-1/#comment-51415 Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:02:31 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=4763#comment-51415 Cootie Williams played trumpet in the Duke Ellington band, and later led his own band. He was born in 1911. Wikipedia sez:

“According to Williams he got his nickname when, as a boy, his father took him to a band concert. When it was over his father asked him what he’d heard and the lad replied “Cootie,cootie, cootie”

Somehow I doubt that self-reported story.

]]> By: Topi Linkala http://www.word-detective.com/2011/03/cooties/comment-page-1/#comment-20086 Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:35:27 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=4763#comment-20086 How todays anti-microbial wipes are marketed we are getting into the bizzare situation where our toilets are cleaner than our kitchens.

]]> By: aleksandar http://www.word-detective.com/2011/03/cooties/comment-page-1/#comment-20010 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:29:44 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=4763#comment-20010 To confirm, the Tagalog word “kuto” means louse

]]> By: George Reynolds http://www.word-detective.com/2011/03/cooties/comment-page-1/#comment-16666 Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:47:42 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=4763#comment-16666 Just to confirm that school children were using the term cooties before 1967: I can remember the word from the 4th grade in 1955.

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