@ Rabid_Fox:
Oxford English Dictionary, cootie, n, sense 2: “a body louse”.
They think it’s from Malay “kutu”; I think it’s from the native language of New Zealand,
“kutu” = vermin, louse. There’s a joke about a politician who means to greet some
Maori constituents with “Teenaa koutou” (there you are) but says “teenaa kutu” (there
are lice). So in this country “cootie” is quite unambiguously “louse”, and yes, chldren
really do catch ngaa kutu from each other very easily.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR42qGEWhWg

very relevant to this topic, and so adorable

@ gabrielsthougths:
Heh, for some reason, reading that little rhyme made me remember the one we used to do around here. It’s pretty similar to yours, except that we say:

“Circle circle, dot dot, now you’ve got your cootie shot”

Ah, youth.

@ gabrielsthougths:
I thought it was “circle, circle, dot, dot, now you’ve got your cootie shot.”

Cooties are real. Didn’t you know?
It’s actually the slang term for pubic lice.
I learned it in school. Gross, right?
Children say that others have pubic lice. Who knew?