OED Appeal: cooties (probably 1965)

Thu Oct 4 19:10:52 UTC 2012

Here is a Google snippet match with the phrase "pretending to fling
cooties". Maybe this is transitional. But I do not think the
participants are school children. This is close to the lice/bugs sense
but it includes fantasy-play.

Luckiest man alive: being the author's own story, with certain ... - Page 80
books.google.com/books?id=7DY5AAAAIAAJ
Lee Shippey - 1959 - Snippet view - More editions
[Begin snippet]
Some others made surly jokes as they slid into them, pretending to
fling cooties on one another, and vowing they were so big they could
hear them bounce. But one clump of men, despite their weariness and
stiffness and the perils which might ...
[End snippet]

Also, if one searches for "cootie garages" there are multiple matches
in the 1950s that refer to a hair style. The usage is satirical I
think.

Streets of Askelon - Page 2
books.google.com/books?id=HpZLAAAAIAAJ
Don Tracy - 1951 - Snippet view
[Begin snippet]
She picked up her ruled shorthand pad, stuck an extra pencil in the
puff of hair that covered her right ear — cootie garages they called
them — and walked into Mr. Blakston's office. Uh-huh, he was hunched
over those maps again. He must ...
[End snippet]

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 2:49 PM, 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 an example that probably was published in 1963 with
> "pretend-cootie" and "invisible cooties". Perhaps this cite fits the
> desired sense.
>
> Title: Honestly, Katie John!
> Author: Mary Calhoun
> Page: 91
> Year: 1963 (Library catalogs agree with date)
> Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
> (Unverified Google snipet; Data may be inaccurate)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Now Katie took one pretend-cootie out of the box, smacking the lid
> back on quickly so the rest wouldn't escape. Pantomiming, she put the
> cootie through its circus tricks, jumping over her pencil. Then, with
> exaggerated care, she picked a number of cooties out of the box and
> pretended to set them in a half-circle on her desk. With her pencil
> she directed her cootie orchestra.
>
> "Make them sing 'Star-Spangled Banner,' " whispered Sammy, who might
> be excused for not knowing that the invisible cooties were an
> orchestra, not a choir. Absorbed in her cooties, Katie ...
> [End excerpt]
>
> On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 10:05 AM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: OED Appeal: cooties (probably 1965)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I think that this example, and the 1951 example from Eleanor Estes'
>> _Ginger Pie_ that someone posted in the comments, are transitional, as
>> Jon Lighter points out. These are being used as insults, but not quite
>> to the level of the 'imaginary infectious repulsive quality' examples.
>>
>> Jesse Sheidlower
>> OED
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 04, 2012 at 03:11:16AM -0400, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>>> 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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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