different between cootie vs cookie

English

Etymology

Probably from Malay kutu (“flea, louse”) (and/or Tagalog/Maori). First attested in English in 1917 as British army slang during World War I.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /?ku?ti/

Noun

cootie (plural cooties)

1. (dated, British Army military slang) A louse (Pediculus humanus).
2. (Canada, US, colloquial) A louse (Pediculus humanus).
   • 1921, L. M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside

     "Tell Rilla I'm glad her war-baby is turning out so well, and tell Susan that I'm fighting a good fight against both Huns and cooties."

     "Mrs. Dr. dear," whispered Susan solemnly, "what are cooties?"

     Mrs. Blythe whispered back and then said in reply to Susan's horrified ejaculations, "It's always like that in the trenches, Susan."

     Susan shook her head and went away in grim silence to re-open a parcel she had sewed up for Jem and slip in a fine tooth comb.

3. (Canada, US, colloquial, childish, usually in the plural) Any germ or contaminant, real or imagined, especially from the opposite gender (for pre-pubescent children).

   I’m not drinking from his glass until I wash the cooties off it.

4. (rare) A nest-building female American coot (counterpart to cooter).
5. (rare, slang) A sideswiper, a type of telegraph key.

Hyponyms

• (germ or contaminant): boy germ, girl germ

Derived terms

• cootie catcher
• crazy as a cootie, crazy as a cootie bug

Translations

See also

• lurgy

Scots

Etymology 1

Diminutive of cood possibly influenced by kittie (“a large washing-chamber”).

Noun

cootie (plural cooties)

1. (obsolete) A wooden dish or tub for kitchen use.

References

• “cood” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Etymology 2

Possibly from coot (“ankle”).

Adjective

cootie

1. Having feathers on the legs.

   a cootie hen

   • 1876, Robert Burns, Tam Samson's Elegy:

     Ye cootie moorcocks

References

• “cootie” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ko?ok'i, IPA^(key): /?k?ki/
• (sometimes in Northern England) enPR: ko?ok'i, IPA^(key): /?ku?ki/
• Homophone: kooky (sometimes, UK)
• Rhymes: -?ki

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Dutch koekje (possibly through dialectal variation koekie), diminutive of koek (“cake”), from Proto-Germanic *k?kô (compare Low German Kook, German Kuchen). More at cake. Not related to English cook.

Alternative forms

• cookey, cooky (uncommon)

Noun

cookie (plural cookies)

1. (Canada, US) A small, flat, baked good which is either crisp or soft but firm.

   Synonyms: biscuit, (UK, Australia) bickie

2. (Britain, Commonwealth of Nations) A sweet baked good (as in the previous sense) usually having chocolate chips, fruit, nuts, etc. baked into it.
3. (Scotland) A bun.
4. (computing, Internet) An HTTP cookie.
5. (computing) A magic cookie.
6. (slang, dated) An attractive young woman.
7. (slang, vulgar) The female genitalia.
   • 2009, T. R. Oulds, Story of Many Secret Night, Lulu.com (2010), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     Her legs hung over the edge and the large towel covered just enough of her lap to hide her 'cookie'.

   • 2010, Lennie Ross, Blow me, Lulu.com (2010), ?ISBN, page 47:

     If she wanted to compete in this dog-eat-pussy world, she had to keep up her personal grooming, even if it meant spreading her legs and letting some Vietnamese woman rip the hair off her cookie every other week.

   • 2014, Nicki Minaj, "Anaconda" (Clean Version), The Pinkprint:

     Cookie put his butt to sleep, now he callin' me Nyquil.

8. (slang, drugs) A piece of crack cocaine, larger than a rock, and often in the shape of a cookie.

Usage notes

• In North America, a biscuit is a small, soft baked bread similar to a scone but not sweet. In the United Kingdom, a biscuit is a small, crisp or firm, sweet baked good — the sort of thing which in North America is called a cookie. (Less frequently, British speakers refer to crackers as biscuits.) In North America, even small, layered baked sweets like Oreos are referred to as sandwich cookies, while in the UK, typically only those biscuits which have chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, or other things baked into them are also called cookies.
• Throughout the English-speaking world, thin, crispy, salty or savoury baked breads like these are called crackers, while thin, crispy, sweet baked goods like these and these are wafers.
• Both the US and the UK distinguish crackers, wafers and cookies/biscuits from cakes: the former are generally hard or crisp and become soft when stale, while the latter is generally soft or moist and becomes hard when stale.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• supercookie

Descendants

Related terms

Translations

Verb

cookie (third-person singular simple present cookies, present participle cookieing or cookying, simple past and past participle cookied)

1. (computing, transitive) To send a cookie to (a user, computer, etc.).
   • 2000, Ralph Kimball, Richard Merz, The Data Webhouse Toolkit: Building the Web-Enabled Data Warehouse

     We have already discussed the benefits — even the necessity — of cookieing visitors so that we can track their return visits to our Website.

See also

• cracker (UK)

Further reading

• cookie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• magic cookie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• HTTP cookie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From cook +? -ie.

Noun

cookie (plural cookies)

1. (dated, colloquial) Affectionate name for a cook.
   • 1954, Blackwood's Magazine (volumes 275-276, page 340)

     More than a little apprehensive myself, I went out to the kitchen. Cookie, deep in a murder story, rocked peacefully beside the glowing range.

Etymology 3

Corruption of cucoloris.

Noun

cookie (plural cookies)

1. (slang) A cucoloris.

Catalan

Etymology

From English cookie.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?ku.ki/

Noun

cookie m (plural cookies)

1. (computing) cookie

References

Dutch

Etymology

From English cookie, in turn from Dutch koekje, of which it is a doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kuki/
• Hyphenation: coo?kie

Noun

cookie n (plural cookies, diminutive cookietje n)

1. (computing) cookie

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English cookie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.ki/

Noun

cookie m (plural cookies)

1. (France) cookie (American-style biscuit)
2. (computing) cookie

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English cookie.

Noun

cookie n (plural cookies)

1. (Internet) cookie, a packet of information sent by a server to browser

Synonyms

• ciasteczko

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English cookie.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?ku.ki/
  • Homophone: cuque

Noun

cookie m (plural cookies)

1. (Internet) cookie (data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing that website)
2. an American-style cookie (small, flat baked good)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English cookie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kuki/, [?ku.ki]

Noun

cookie m (plural cookies)

1. (Internet) cookie, HTTP cookie