[keikiwai]

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do you really have cooties or is it just a rumor

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cooties is?

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Cooties is a slang word in American English, used by children, referring to a fictional disease. Cooties are believed to be a highly contagious disease or condition, generally carried by members of the opposite gender. One supposedly catches cooties through any form of bodily contact, close proximity, contact with an "infected" person's possessions, or third-party transmission. In prepubescent children it serves as a device for enforcing gender separation. An older person may jokingly refer to cooties when talking about awkwardness toward sex and relationships. An alternative account of the adoption of the term into English traces it back to the American occupation of the Philippines, in 1898-1945. In most (Malay-derived) Philippine languages the term for head lice is "kuto"; American troops in the Philippines had ample opportunity to become familiar with the species, and quickly adopted local terminology.

Originally, the term implied body lice, but over time this became generalized to any sort of lice, including head lice. The term then evolved into a purely imaginary stand-in for anything that is considered repulsive. In British English the term lurgy may be used in the same context. However, lurgy has a broader definition and the two concepts are not necessarily equivalent.