Can You Have Cooties?

Informal. a louse, especially one affecting humans, as the body louse, head louse, or pubic louse. a child's term for an imaginary germ or disease that one can catch by touching a person who is disliked or socially avoided: The girls at camp thought the boys had cooties.

Is there a such thing as cooties?

Cooties is a fictitious childhood disease, commonly represented as childlore. It is used in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines as a rejection term and an infection tag game (such as Humans vs. Zombies).

What is cooties in slang?

As a nickname for body lice or head lice, cooties first appeared in trenches slang in 1915. ... Later, the word “cooties,” came to be used loosely (and often humorously) to mean imaginary germs or bugs.