to catch a cootie
- idiom
- Baby Talk
:
coger un resfriado (de broma)
- The kids teased each other at recess, afraid they might catch a cootie if they touched the swings.
Examples
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Whenever someone sneezed in class, Sarah joked that she was going to catch a cootie.
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He laughed and pretended to catch a cootie after sitting next to his little sister.
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Don't catch a cootie from that dirty playground!
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Did you really catch a cootie from the dog?
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The children laughed as they pretended to catch a cootie after stepping on the playground.
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At the sleepover, they joked about how someone might catch a cootie from the snacks.
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When his friend complained about a cold, Jake playfully said he would catch a cootie too.
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'catch' (to contract/get) plus 'cootie' (a make‑believe louse or germ), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it means to pick up a trivial or imaginary illness. Although 'cootie' is culturally specific and child‑oriented, the construction follows the common 'catch + illness' pattern, making the expression transparent to learners familiar with the word 'cootie'.
Etymology
Catch a cootie comes from the old word cootie for lice, small bugs that often bothered soldiers. Children turned that image into a game: saying someone would catch a cootie meant they had a silly, pretend germ, so the phrase now means 'to get a pretend sickness'.