kutu
Kutu is a New Zealand English term (from Maori) for a body louse — the parasitic insect Pediculus humanus that infests human clothing and skin.
Definitions
Kutu is a New Zealand English term (from Maori) for a body louse — the parasitic insect Pediculus humanus that infests human clothing and skin. The Maori word has been adopted into New Zealand English as a natural part of the language's integration of Maori vocabulary. In New Zealand contexts, particularly in Maori communities and among those familiar with Maori, 'kutu' is the natural term for head or body lice, used without awkwardness in everyday and health contexts.
The school sent home a note warning parents to check for kutu after a case was found in the class.
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(NZ) A body louse.
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- makutu61%
(New Zealand) Witchcraft, black magic; a spell or curse.
- cooty60%
(slang) Afflicted with body lice or coots.
- crotch critter57%
(slang) A sexually transmitted pathogen, particularly pubic lice.
- cooty56%
Slang adjective describing someone or something infested with cooties — body lice or, in the playground sense, an imaginary contagious uncoolness. To call something or someone cooty is to mark it as grubby, undesirable, or socially contaminated. The term echoes generations of childhood games where 'cooties' were a mock disease you could catch from touching the wrong person. In adult usage it retains that tone of theatrical disgust, though always with a nudge-and-wink awareness that it's fundamentally silly.