tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 03 21:10:06 1996
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Re: British Klingon! (Interview with Okrand)
- From: [email protected] (Denny Shortliffe)
- Subject: Re: British Klingon! (Interview with Okrand)
- Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 00:10:00 -0400
>
>On Fri, 23 Aug 1996 07:24:58 -0700 Niall Hosking
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> > > 8. Cricket, please. DaH ghew yIQuj.
>> > > Play bug now (Klingon has no word for cricket the game; "ghew"
>> > > can mean "bug, "cootie" or "insect").
>> >
>> > (1) What is a cootie? This is not a word we know of in England.
>>
>> I believe it's an "Americanism" for "bug" or "insect" :)
>
>I don't think anyone gave a good explanation of this. I believe that a
>"Cootie" began as a board game where attaining certain goals in the
>game won the player parts of a plastic bug. Whoever built the first
>complete bug won. Meanwhile, a lot of kids just played with these
>brightly colored, six legged, two eyed, antennaed bugs with a long,
>curling tongue-like projection from the front.
>
>The bugs were ugly and kids started using the term to refer to any bug
>or germ-like undesirable imaginary disease associated with kiddingly
>undesirable types, like girls, for instance. If you were a boy and you
>let a girl touch you, you might "get cooties". This was (in giggling
>fashion) something that you, of course didn't want to happen, so you'd
>go to any lengths to avoid it.
>
>The idea expanded to include "cootie shots" which was usually some
>painful gesture (a pinch) which would somehow insulate you so that you
>would not "get cooties" if some hazardous necessity caused you to
>actually come in contact with... girls.
>
>When boys became guys, they kinda forgot all about cooties...
>
>Then again, my Encyclopedic Oxford Dictionary (a rather Brittish tome)
>defines cootie: n. sl. a body louse. [perh. f. Malay kutu, a biting
>parasite].
>
>Which came first, I dare not venture, but it seems that you can't blame
>America for creating the word Cootie.
>
>> qSeroHS {Scot}'e'
>
>charghwI'
>
>
>
I can testify that "cootie" meant a body louse at least as far back as
World War II.
--
Denny Shortliffe