There have been attempts to link this little louse (not flea) with the word cute and the English cootie meaning “having legs clad with feathers.” Eric Partridge seems to be right, however, in tracing the word to the Malayan kutu for a dog tick, which “is common throughout Polynesia for any kind of louse.” The term was originally used by sailors, was brought here from Polynesia in about 1915, and is mostly used in the plural form – cooties – especially by children.