Meanings
- uncountableA folk dance from southern Somalia similar to twerking, generally performed by women.
After decades of war Mogadishu is tentatively relaxing. From sourdough pancakes to traditional bum-shaking Niiko dance and political hip-hop,[…]Xamar has a local dance called Niiko, which is the rhythmic shaking of the bum synchronized with drums.
2015 August 24, Sadia Ahmed, Fatuma Abdulahi, “An insider’s guide to Mogadishu: ‘There’s no life without peace’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 14 Oct 20231 more example
Niiko dancing was one of several dimensions of Somali culture that she had actively embraced and enjoyed celebrating and displaying to others.[…]Niiko was a part of her Somali culture and whether it conflicted or not with religion was not a concern for her at that point in time. Interestingly, Niiko is a dance that the majority of first-generation Somalis associate with the minority Bantu,[…]
2018 August 27, Giulia Liberatore, Somali, Muslim, British: Striving in Securitized Britain, Routledge, →ISBN, page 71
Origin
- Somaliniiko
- Englishniiko
Borrowed from Somali niiko.
More words from Somali
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with niiko
All rhymes →Cite this entry
niiko. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/niiko
“niiko.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/niiko. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “niiko,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/niiko.
Source: niiko on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.