OED Appeal: cooties (probably 1965)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Have cooties" was undoubtedly the effectively transitional expression.

A kid writing "X has cooties" on the board in 1920 would have meant and
been understood to mean "X is so dirty and disgusting that he has head
and/or body lice."  Fifty years later it could would be more likely to mean
"Stay away from X because he's dirty and/or weird and you'll get infected
too."

It's probably  impossible to say just when the semantic shift of "cooties"
took place.  I'm quite sure I never noticed the modern sense in public
grade school in NYC (1954-1960) or even in middle school.  The literal
"louse" sense, however, was quite familiar to me.

JL

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 3:11 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: OED Appeal: cooties (probably 1965)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here is some progress on "cooties". I guess the date in the subject
> line is now obsolete.
>
> Cite: 1955 June 14, New York Times, "Television: Second Banana Is
> Tops: Art Carney Excels in 'Studio One' Play" by J. P. Shanley, Page
> 59, New York. (ProQuest)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> He would tell his wife and his mother at the dinner table about the
> day in his 5B classroom when his friend, Hermie Grant, lost his job as
> window-pole monitor after having written on the blackboard that "Mr.
> Corey [his teacher] has cooties."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 2:38 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      OED Appeal: cooties (probably 1965)
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org