[Answer] When first used, what did the English term "cooties" reference?

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When first used, what did the English term "cooties" reference?

• Lice:The word "cooties" first appeared during World War I. It was a "catch-all" phrase generally used to reference the rampant infestation of lice that invaded the hair and bodies of the men fighting trench warfare during WWI. It rapidly came to encompass all predatory parasitic bugs that dealt misery to the soldiers. The word "cooties" first appears in the Oxford English Dictionary in a memoir by Arthur Guy Empey written in 1917. Titled "From the First Step," the work relates the writer's memories and adventures as an American in the British Army. Today, the word "cooties" is loosely used as a reference to imaginary bugs or germs, and is most often used in a humorous manner in the modern world. Source: GrammarPhobia.com

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