Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang [1992, 2005] ...

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jul 4 19:54:46 UTC 2009


The origin of _cootie_ was dicussed to no conclusion recently at Ben's
Language Hat site.

Odd: though the two earliest cites (spring, 1917) ref. to the British Army
(in one case its Canadian Corps), vnearly all the other Google Books hits
ref. to WWI are from U.S. forces.

JL

On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang [1992, 2005] ...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 3:07 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> states that _cootie_ means "body louse," 1917-.
> >
> >Hasn't _cootie_ meant "head louse," at least since Robert Burns was a boy?
>
>
> Quite possibly, but he doesn't seem to have used it in that sense:
>
> John Cuthbertson, Complete Glossary to the Poetry and Prose of Robert
> Burns. 1886.
>
> =====
> _Cootie_. A wooden kitchen dish or tub; also those fowls whose legs
> are clad with feathers are said to be _cootie_.
> Ā  I believe that the word _cootie_ always includes the idea of
> shortness. A _cootie_ hen, or domestic fowl, is always short-legged as
> well as feathered. Is it another form of _cutty_?
> =====
>
> John Cuthbertson, Complete Glossary to the Poetry and Prose of Robert
> Burns. 1886.
> Reprinted by Burt Franklin, 1968.
> Burt Franklin Bibliography and Reference Series #156
> Google books (partial): http://preview.tinyurl.com/msptk2
> citation from http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/burns.htm
>
> Also:
> The complete poetical works of Robert Burns: with biographical
> introduction, notes and glossary
> Robert Burns, Nathan Haskell Dole
> T. Y. Crowell & co., 1900
> Length  442 pages
> Google Books http://preview.tinyurl.com/mqqumw
>
> Searching for "cootie" finds two hits in the poems --
> P. 13. Address to the Deil
> P. 77. Tam Samson's Elegy
>
> and two in the glossary, matching Cuthbertson's definitions.
>
> m a m
>
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