# The word "cooter" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685 "2004-12-19T21:31:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ultraviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c77e96/32.png) [@Ultraviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ultraviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/1 "2004-12-19T21:31:19Z")
Maybe I lead a sheltered life, but I have never heard the term “cooter” to mean vagina before reading this board. Can anyone explain the origins of this word? Is it a regionalism, not used in Canada? I must admit I find it to sound very unpleasant, but am curious about its origins. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/2 "2004-12-19T21:47:39Z")
I don’t know if there’s a direct etymological link, but “cooter” has been a common name for the box turtle for over a hundred years. It _might_ have started as a play on the vulgar slang “box.” On the other hand, it could just be because it’s a hard-c word, like “cunnicle,” “cootchie,” “cooze,” etc, typically used for that bit of anatomy, many of which stump etymologists. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/3 "2004-12-19T22:03:40Z")
Amazingly, The _Random HOuse Dictionary of Historical American Slang_ only cites it from the 1980’s, although it almost certainly went back farther. I think **Larry Mudd’s** suggestion that it was related to “coochie” etc. is on the right track. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/4 "2004-12-19T22:07:56Z")
I was aware of that meaning back in the early 70’s. I had a neighbor (with a warped sense of humor) who named her girl and boy, Cooter and Scooter, respectively. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/5 "2004-12-19T22:16:19Z")
> [@Ultraviolet](#): > > … must admit I find it to sound very unpleasant, but am curious about its origins. aw…c’mon…“Cooter?” I think it’s cute. So cute I could just…eat it up. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/6 "2004-12-19T22:32:52Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > I was aware of that meaning back in the early 70’s. I had a neighbor (with a warped sense of humor) who named her girl and boy, Cooter and Scooter, respectively. [hijack] My English professor, while we were reading The Liars’ Club: “This is real local color. I mean, how many of you can honestly say you know someone named ‘Cooter?’” [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/7 "2004-12-19T22:38:42Z")
> [@Ace309](#): > > I mean, how many of you can honestly say you know someone named ‘Cooter?’" Well, I can. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/8 "2004-12-19T22:45:46Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > I was aware of that meaning back in the early 70’s. I had a neighbor (with a warped sense of humor) who named her girl and boy, Cooter and Scooter, respectively. 'Course, they could have been named after turtles, or a character in _Duke’s of Hazard_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/9 "2004-12-19T22:58:18Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > 'Course, they could have been named after turtles, or a character in _Duke’s of Hazard_. This was in the early 70’s before _The Dukes of Hazzard_ and the mother knew exactly what the word meant. She admitted as much to my mother. ---
**Author:** ![jastu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jastu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jastu)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/10 "2004-12-20T00:06:00Z")
This is new to me, I’ve only heard _cooter_ used as a (male) dog’s name. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/11 "2004-12-20T00:08:14Z")
I first heard the word in 1988, used by a woman. Being a male in my late teens and therefore quite interested in vaginas, I’d made great effort to research all the relevant anatomy, physiology, and terminology. But this was new to me. After that time, I learned that women have many euphemisms for “vagina”, terms that are well-known to other women but not very well documented in word references (“queet” and “tilly” being a couple of amusing ones). I think the terms used by women are not as well documented and therefore perhaps more regionalized. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/12 "2004-12-20T00:22:37Z")
How about some considering the derivation to be some half-assed poet’s attenpt to make a convenient rhyme of cooter with hooter(s)? ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/13 "2004-12-20T00:25:39Z")
Delete ‘some’ from the above. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/14 "2004-12-20T00:30:17Z")
[Seemingly obligatory post in any thread about the female genitals] There’s more than just a vagina down there, if you examine it closely… that is to say that when many (non-medical) people say ‘vagina’, they actually mean _vulva_ ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/15 "2004-12-20T00:37:17Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > [Seemingly obligatory post in any thread about the female genitals] > There’s more than just a vagina down there, if you examine it closely… that is to say that when many (non-medical) people say ‘vagina’, they actually mean _vulva_ Actually I think people generally mean “the vagina, clitoris, labia majora, and labia minora, mons veneris, and pubic hair.” But there’s no catch-all term for that, so let’s not be so pendantic, hmmm? ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/16 "2004-12-20T00:38:56Z")
> [@Ace309](#): > > [hijack] > > My English professor, while we were reading The Liars’ Club: “This is real local color. I mean, how many of you can honestly say you know someone named ‘Cooter?’” > > [/hijack] Yeah, well, where I went to college, they have an outdoor orientation program known a “COOT” trips. The students participating are (or were, when I went on the trip) referred to by the college as “cooters”. I’d head the term used to refer to women’s genitals. I had the impression that it was less vulgar than c\*unt, but still not acceptable in polite society. The people I met who were from other areas of the country (I grew up in Tennessee) had never heard the term used that way. I probably became aware of the term in the mid to late '80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/17 "2004-12-20T00:39:14Z")
Hardly pedantic; vagina is simply the wrong word; like saying I went to the hairdresser to get my brain cut. ---
**Author:** ![Ultraviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c77e96/32.png) [@Ultraviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ultraviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/18 "2004-12-20T00:42:57Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > [Seemingly obligatory post in any thread about the female genitals] > There’s more than just a vagina down there, if you examine it closely… that is to say that when many (non-medical) people say ‘vagina’, they actually mean _vulva_ You’re right, of course. Substitute “female genitals” for “vagina” in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/19 "2004-12-20T01:36:15Z")
My mom works in the prenatal, neonatal and pediatric parts of a hospital located in an inner city in Western New York. She was unfamiliar with “cooter,” which I recall coming into fashion with guys my age in 1999-2000 during my senior year of high school. (This was, of course, evidenced by the quarterback of the JV football team taking it as his nickname and slipping it into the yearbook team picture with a sign, much thanks to the yearbook editors being clueless as to what it meant). Apparently, “peaches,” “pocketbook” and “coochie” are the terms her patients use most often. That would lead me to believe that “cooter” is a regionalism that just doesn’t reach to the area. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685/20 "2004-12-20T01:38:00Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Hardly pedantic; vagina is simply the wrong word; like saying I went to the hairdresser to get my brain cut. I’m not saying that vagina is precisely correct in a medical context. I’m just pointing out that many people know the difference but come up short trying to find a polite term for “the entire female coital apparatus.” Thus, it’s understandable that “vagina” gets pressed into double duty, unless of course you’re working in a strictly medical or anatomical context. I realize you’re going to disagree, so just consider this the obligatory explanation to your obligatory reminder that vagina is not the same as vulva. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-cooter/280685.md?page=2)