hootchy-kootchy

plural hootchy-kootchies · alternative hoochie-coochie · alternative hoochy-coochy · alternative hoochy-koochy · alternative hootchie-cootchie

1. USA kind of erotic dance similar to a belly dance, formerly performed at carnivals.

   She let her hair down And he did the hoochie-koochie real slow.

   1961, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, “Little Egypt (Ying-Yang)”, performed by The Coasters

   1 more example

   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.

   2012, Lauren Rabinovitz, Electric Dreamland: Amusement Parks, Movies, and American Modernity, page 46

2. attributiveSomething suggestive or sexualized.

   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.

   2005, Toni Bentley, Sisters of Salome, page 41