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

[Wilson Gray]

states that _cootie_ means "body louse," 1917-.

Hasn't _cootie_ meant "head louse," at least since Robert Burns was a boy?
--
-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.
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-Mark Twain

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