Talk:Hoochie coochie

Etymology

Is the sometimes-cited derivation of Cooch/Coochie from Kutch, India supported by any current linguists/cultural historians of repute? The external link provided for that suggestion is just a small newspaper article, known to be inaccurate out-of-date with this kind of stuff. If it was from Eastern European roma/gypsies as that idea implies, why don't we find the term among Eastern Europeans, but rather in America? Is it recorded among gypsies in the old world at all? Alex (talk) 21:09, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I am curious if the Welsh-derived cwtch (“hug, cuddle”) might be related to the "coochie" part of Hoochie coochie. (?) Foggybog (talk) 06:51, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Cwtch can be an action or a place. As in "give me a cwtch" meaning a fond cuddle, this can be sexual or not. But its also used for small, often intimate / private places. Such as a small room in a pub, being called a Cwtch, often called a Snug elsewhere in the UK. In the USA, Coochie is used as slang for a womans genitals i.e. a small private place? Another meaning is simply in the direct meaning of a cuddle. So a Hoochie (drunken) Coochie (cuddler) would be a woman who is over familiar with others when drunk. Seems like there may be link. Mapedia (talk) 15:33, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Anybody with an idea about Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher who was a red-hot hootchie-coocher (1931) ? Shows that the term did not surmise between the 1900's and the 1950's. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.212.126.201 (talk) 10:23, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

The historical portion of the article describes well the usage history of the term in the context of dance. From this context we get a very good (if not well sourced? I didn't check) explanation of the development of the term hoochie coochie man essentially being a ladies man. This is the sense that it's used in the blues. The term is used, quite explicitly in the context of a carnival sideshow, in Langston Hughes' novel Not Without Laughter (chapter nine), a novel set in the very early 20th century and absolutely rife with dozens of blues terms. The carnival itself is an African American carnival or, at least, one heavily attended by the black community in that town. It is easy to see how the dance term, therefore, could be the origin of the term in the blues. On the other hand, I see no evidence whatever for the entirely separate explanation for the use of the term in the blues inserted into this article. The explanation that "hoochie" equates with hooch/moonshine and coochie to the genitals seems like unfounded guesswork in the context of this historical phrase and for itself no historical or etymological evidence is offered, other than the eponymous Muddy Waters song. The article claims that the separate meanings of the two words in this phrase are made clear in the lyrics to that song, but one needs only to read those lyrics to see this is patently untrue. I have looked up the term in Stephen Calt's blues dictionary "Barrelhouse Words", and its outright absence is suggestive. I submit that this crudely inserted aside at the start of the article asserting a separate etymology where the blues is concerned is fallacious and at the very least needs substantiation before it can be included. Tongbait (talk) 09:37, 7 August 2021 (UTC)