OED Appeal: cooties (probably 1965)

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Thu Oct 4 06:38:14 UTC 2012


There is a Google Books match for "cooties" with the desired sense (I
think) in a psychiatry journal that is probably dated 1965. OED appeal
says "cootie earlier than 1967".

Also, the cootie game may have influenced the use of the term by children.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cootie_%28game%29

Journal: International Psychiatry Clinics
Volume: 2
Issue: 1
Year: 1965
Page: 190
Publisher: Boston, Little, Brown and Co. (:ibrary catalog data)
(Google Books snippet data may be inaccurate)

http://books.google.com/books?id=TMJLAQAAIAAJ&q=cooties#search_anchor

[Begin excerpt]
He would sit at the table with his hands clenched, looking at the
teacher and repeating, "You old bitch, I hate you, get away from me, I
don't want to get your cooties." At first attempts to reach him in any
way increased his anger, but after several ...
[End excerpt]

Below is a link to a search for the word January that shows the volume
with the match contains the January 1965 issue of the journal. Of
course, it may contain issues fomr other years. But a libabry catalog
indicates that volume 2, issue 1 was published in 1965.

http://books.google.com/books?id=TMJLAQAAIAAJ&q=January#search_anchor

This journal and issue are listed in the catalog of a library that I
visit about once a month. So I can attempt to scan the relevant pages
if desired. But I suspect someone will antedate 1965.

Garson

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