Not bovines with a rash, but: “anything causing a tickling, specifically the prickly seeds of the dog-rose or the like put by children down one another’s backs”. Dictionaries of the Scots Language gives a further definition from the Glasgow Bulletin of September 1957: “The childhood game of putting ‘itchy-coos’ down one another’s back”.
Back in February 2003 there was much political wrangling in the Scottish Parliament, leading to this description in the Daily Record: “Hyperactive ferrets in sacks lined with itchy-coos have quieter social relations than the Scottish Labour party”.
Rosehips have therapeutic uses too: “Known to mischievous children as ‘itchy-coos’ thanks to their seeds’ ability to cause irritation when slipped down somebody’s back, these shiny fruits are so high in vitamin C that during the Second World War they were harvested on a grand scale and made into rosehip syrup”. (Herald, 2019).
Iain Winton described the more mischievous practice in Last of the Lucky Childhoods: Growing up in Glasgow in the 40s and 50s (2022): “Itchy coos were the seeds of a small garden rose, which when you opened up its seed pods were full of tiny hairs. These seedpods would be pushed down the back of an unsuspecting target, between his shirt and skin and rubbed hard, the result was agony!”.
Finally, a reviewer of Scottish Plant Names: An A to Z (Gregory J Kenicer, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2023) found it “unexpectedly amusing. We learn the etymology of names like Stink Davie, … foxgloves (witches’ thimbles), bluebells (crow’s toes) and roses (itchy coos).”
Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk
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