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

[Mark Mandel]

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_.
  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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