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

[Wilson Gray]

Another meaning peculiar to the elderly colored, I reckon.

-Wilson


On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 3:54 PM, Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang [1992, 2005] ...
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>
> 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:
>
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>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â 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 bo=
> y?
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>> _Cootie_. A wooden kitchen dish or tub; also those fowls whose legs
>> are clad with feathers are said to be _cootie_.
>> =C4=80 Â 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_?
>> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>>
>> 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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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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