Cooties is a fictional disease and a slang word used primarily by North American children to refer to a highly contagious disease or condition. It usually presents along gender lines, as in "Mary Jane O'Connor, stay away from those boys or you might get cooties!" The Commonwealth/British English equivalent is "the lurgy".
Originally, the term implied body lice, but over time this became generalised first to any sort of lice, including head lice, then later to purely imaginary stand-ins for just about anything that is considered repulsive. Although the origin is not explicitly known, it can be speculated that the imaginary disease was conceived from reference to how cooties (meaning body lice) can be spread through physical contact with the infested body region. This theory could explain how children developed the idea that cooties can only be spread to the opposite sex. Cooties started out as something the boys had, but was quickly associated with girls too. Cootie can also be used as a verb, as in "Don't touch that book! It was cootied by a boy!"
In some areas, boys are thought to be immune to catching cooties from another boy, and likewise for girls: so as a result cooties can only be spread by contact between the sexes. However, once infected with the cooties of the opposite sex, those cooties can be spread to members of the same sex. Ex. Sara catches "boy cooties" from Ryan, so Laura should avoid Sara lest she catch Sara's "boy cooties."
Yahoo answers. :blush:
