Coochee

Coochee or Coochie is a slang descriptor used in relation to a belly dance or wiggling as in "Coochie Coochie dance", "Hoochee-Coochee" and the saying "coochee coochee coo" when infants are tickled. It is also used as sexually suggestive slang from the Southern United States, referring to the vagina.^[1][2] It may trace back to a song at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair^[2] performed by a dancer named (Little Egypt (dancer)) who appeared at the 1893 World's Fair and was filmed in 1896 filmed by Thomas Edison for the Coochee Coochee Dance film short.^[3][4][5] The song was created by Sol Bloom.^[6]

One explanation of the etymology attributes it to the French word coucher, meaning to lie down.^[7]

After the sexually provocative dance became wildly popular during and after World's Fair, a ‘hoochie coochie man’ came to refer to someone who either watched the performer(s) or ran the show. Alternatively, from the directly sexual meaning of hoochie coochie, he greatly enjoyed sexual intercourse. The erotic dancing was popular in film booths and was a precursor of the striptease.^[8]

Coacoochee was a Native American chief and the term coochee is used in various Florida place names including the Withlacoochee River and Croom-A-Coochee. The river named "Withlacoochee" may be from a Muskhogean dialect compounded of Creek we (water), thlako (big), and chee (little), or little big water, signifying little river in the Creek language. We-lako or wethlako may also refer to a lake, it may signify a river of lakes, or lake river. The Withlacoochee flows just to the eastward of Tsala Apopka Lake, and the St. Johns River which flows through a series of large and small lakes was called welaka by the Seminoles.^[9] Coochie was also a station on the Texas and Pacific Railroad in Louisiana, taken form the name of the Seminole settlement in Florida.^[10]

Various folk and popular songs including an Alabama folk song^[11] and the songs Coochi Coochi Coo by Ella Fitzgerald,^[12] the song Coochie Coo, and 2 Live Crew's Pop That Coochie have also been recorded.

See also

• Hoochie Coochie Man
• The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid
• Coochie Brake

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ ^{a b} [2]
3. ^ [3]
4. ^ [4]
5. ^ [5]
6. ^ [6]
7. ^ http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3hooch1.htm
8. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=dXIZbIKMUesC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=1893+coochie+dance&source=bl&ots=-LzAeTwTup&sig=lT9xZAgO42PrFrw8CD1XwxFO3hY&hl=en&ei=Dc3FTKeGBMKBlAefptGpCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=1893%20coochie%20dance&f=false
9. ^ Simpson, J. Clarence (1956). Mark F. Boyd. ed. Florida Place-Names of Indian Derivation. Tallahassee, Florida: Florida Geological Survey. 
10. ^ [7]
11. ^ [8]
12. ^ http://www.hotlyrics.net/lyrics/E/Ella_Fitzgerald/Coochi_Coochi_Coo.html