Other Terms
Commonly used term in the 21st century is Herpes. The lice of the First World War trenches nicknamed "cooties" were also known as "arithmetic bugs" because "they added to our troubles, subtracted from our pleasures, divided our attention, and multiplied like hell."
For ages 5 onwards, Cooties are known in Denmark as "pigelus" (literally "girl lice"), and "drengelus" ("boy lice") and in Norway as "jentelus" ("girl lice") and "guttelus" ("boy lice"). In Sweden and Finland, it usually refers to girls, where they are known as "tjejbaciller" (literally "girl bacilli") and "tyttöbakteeri" ("girl bacteria").
While there is no direct equivalent to 'cooties' in the United Kingdom, there is a fictional joke disease called 'the lurgi' (or 'lurgy'), often in the phrase 'the dreaded lurgi', used by children and even adults; the term is also used to refer to non-specific common illnesses, such as those with flu-like symptoms. It originates from The Goon Show.
Read more about this topic: Cooties
Famous quotes containing the word terms:
“If you want to be on good terms with everyone in this world, sell goods on credit and never ask for payment.”
—Chinese proverb.
“As for the terms good and bad, they indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking, or notions which we form from the comparison of things with one another. Thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For instance music is good for him that is melancholy, bad for him who mourns; for him who is deaf, it is neither good nor bad.”
—Baruch (Benedict)