hootchy-kootchy

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unknown.[2] Attested from the 1890s.[3] Compare kouta kouta dance, a similar belly dance also attested from the 1890s. Possibly influenced by forms such as honky-tonk (from 1880s), hula-hula (from 1820s), or hurdy-gurdy (from 1740s).[4] Later forms coochie, cooch appear to derive from hootchy-kootchy.[3]

Pronunciation
  • Rhymes: -uːtʃi

Noun

hootchy-kootchy (plural hootchy-kootchies)

  1. (US) A kind of erotic dance similar to a belly dance, formerly performed at carnivals.
    • 2012, Lauren Rabinovitz, Electric Dreamland: Amusement Parks, Movies, and American Modernity‎, page 46:
      The shows claimed legitimacy as depictions of Middle Eastern and Asian cultures that were still regarded as savage […] But these dances never were authentic rituals or ethnographic displays; instead they became known as “hootchy-kootchy” or “cooch” dances designed to please and excite male patrons.
  2. (attributive) Something suggestive or sexualized.
    • 2005, Toni Bentley, Sisters of Salome‎, page 41:
      In Mary Garden’s hands the princess was an amalgam of the diva of German opera and the ballerina of the Paris Opera rounded out by a good dose of the hootchy-kootchy girl from American vaudeville.

See also

References
  1. “hootchy-kootchy”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  2. “hootchy-kootchy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  3. “hootchy-kootchy, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  4. Jensen Brown, Peter (2016 July 4) “The "Kouta-Kouta" and the "Coochie-Coochie" – a History and Etymology of the "Hoochie Coochie" Dance”, in Early Sports and Pop Culture History Blog‎
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