"Hootchie-cootchie" etymology (partly speculative)

Thu Mar 10 20:01:40 UTC 2005

Listen to the entire melody here.  It's better than you remember !  Honest !

http://www.shira.net/streets-of-cairo.htm

A related site offers a "belly-dancing" version.

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: "Hootchie-cootchie" etymology (partly speculative)
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On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 01:10:22 -0500, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

>The exact form "coochy coochy" for the dance (however spelled) might be
>modeled on this expression. However, a little earlier than "hoochy coochy"
>or "coochy coochy" there was the apparently virtually synonymous "kuta kuta
>[dance]" (with variants).
>
>----------
>
>_Chicago Daily [Tribune]_, 22 May 1892: p. 30:
>
><>widely-advertised dance of a woman whose name I have forgotten, but who, it
>was gravely asserted, had been famous in India for several years. .... She
>performed what was known as the "Koota-Koota" dance. This is a series of
>postures of such a nature that even in Calcutta the dance was considered
>infamous.>>
>
>----------

[snip cites from 1893-95 for "koota-koota", "kuta-kuta", "kutcha-kutcha"]

Till Gerry Cohen chimes in, I thought I'd provide some more cites from
1893-95, mostly referring to the belly-dancers who performed at Chicago's
1893 Columbian Exposition in the "Streets of Cairo" exhibit on the Midway
Plaisance. The dancers apparently traveled the country on the vaudeville
circuit, or at least spawned imitators who promoters claimed had performed
in Chicago. The most common spelling variant is "kouta-kouta":

-----
National Police Gazette, Dec 16, 1893, p. 6
Crowds gathered in cornerns and gazed tremulously at visions of limbs
flashing in difficult dances like streaks of lightning. The Koota-Koota
dance, adorned with east-side variations, was realistic.
-----
Boston Globe, Dec 31, 1893, p. 19 (advt.)
Why, I've got a stage show for you this week that will fairly make you
throw up your hands. There ain't a piece of dead wood in it from start to
finish, and to cap the climax I've reengaged Mme. Carre and her famous
troupe of Kouta-Kouta dancers for one more week. ... This Kouta-Kouta
dance is the greatest card that has ever been offered the public. ... It
created a furor in Chicago, was the talk of the town in New York, and it
caused a heap of excitement when it was first introduced at the Howard,
and you know it. ... Come early, and stay as long as you please, but don't
miss the Kouta-Kouta dancers at the old Howard Athenaeum tomorrow.
[...]
Olio: The Kouta-Kouta Dancers.
The four original and only Kouta-Kouta dancers who created the sensational
furor on the Midway Plaisance, and whose fame has spread from one end of
the continent to the other.
-----
Boston Globe, Jan 2, 1894, p. 3
The Kouta-Kouta dancers made their usual hit, being encored several times.
-----
Los Angeles Times, Jan 18, 1894, p. 2
By a unanimous vote of the Alderman at a special meeting today, the
notorious "Mussell," or "Kouta Kouta" dance, alleged to have been
performed by dancers from the Midway Plaisance, World's Fair, has been
officially declared immoral and banished from Boston.
-----
Washington Post, Apr 22, 1894, p. 14
Another feature will be the appearance of another installment of the
Midway dancers in the persons of Hadji Sheriff, Viobela, Zara, and
Montezo, in the Kouta-Kouta, the national dance of their country. They are
said to be the same dancers who created such a sensation in Cairo street
at the World's Fair.
-----
Washington Post, Jan 13, 1895, p. 4
Kinetoscope Pictures.
It is Omene in the nearest approach to the kouta-kouta dance that has been
seen in this city.
-----
Washington Post, Aug 27, 1895, p. 2
Later in the evening she appeared as Princess Kouta-Kouta and gave a dance
which was wild and hilarious.
-----

When belly-dancers performed in a reconstruction of Chicago's Midway in
Atlanta in 1895, "coochee-coochee" and "coutah-coutah" were used in the
press interchangeably:

-----
Atlanta Constitution, Oct 23, 1895, p. 7
Have you heard Cora Routt sing of the simple country maiden who "had never
seen the coochee-coochee dance?" The boys around town are all whistling
away on that delicious oriental-American tune which is so suggestive of
the Midway, and Cora certainly sings it with great feeling.
-----
Atlanta Constitution, Oct 24, 1895, p. 2
AGAINST THE COUTAH-COUTAH.; Manufacturers Say It Detracts from Their
Exhibits at Fairs.
A resolution was adopted which cited that windmills, threshing machines
and vehicles stood no earthly chance whatever by the side of the seductive
coutah-coutah dance and a vigorous campaign will at once be begun to wipe
out this innovation.
-----
Los Angeles Times, Oct 26, 1895, p. 1
The committee visited the Midway, ate the "hot-hots" of Egyptian commerce,
drank of the seductive liquid refreshments purveyed by the Turks,
witnessed the "coochee coochee" dance, and pronounced it a godd thing.
-----
Atlanta Constitution, Oct 26, 1895, p. 7
ON WITH THE DANCE; But It Is Move On, the Georgia Legislators Say. THEY
HAVE BEEN ON THE MID The Coutah-Coutah Is Too Much Like a Tamole for Their
Taste--A Day in the Legislature.
"There is no record of any law compelling a lady or gentleman to visit the
'coochee dance,'" said he.
-----
Atlanta Constitution, Nov 4, 1895, p. 4
He explained that while he was in sympathy with the legislative bill
prohibiting the coochee-coochee dance, being a fair-mind man, he could not
condemn the dance without seeing whether it was naughty or not.
-----

>But whence "kuta kuta"? Does it have a meaning in Bengali or Turkish or
>Arabic? Was it made up at random? Maybe it was modeled on "hula-hula"
>(i.e., "hula"), a dance which was seen at the time as somewhat similar.

That seems possible. I would guess that promoters of the belly-dance
troupes came up with the exotic-sounding "kuta kuta" for the dance (and
the name "Princess Kuta Kuta" for the starring performer) simply to
suggest the wiggling of the dancers' hips.

>I know Gerald Cohen has written something about "hootchie-cootchie" but it
>is not available to me.

Nor to me. But here is some information on James Thornton's 1895 song
"Streets Of Cairo or The Poor Little Country Maid" (cited in HDAS with the
spelling "kutchy-kutchy"):

http://www.gildedserpent.com/articles3/streets-of-cairo.htm

And here is a review (with an excerpt) of Donna Carlton's 1995 book
_Looking for Little Egypt_, which might provide further insight:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/IDD/review.htm
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/IDD/Info.htm

Carlton notes that the legendary belly-dancer "Little Egypt" does not
appear in any of the contemporaneous press accounts of the Columbian
Exposition, only becoming notorious a few years afterwards. This may be
true of the term "hoochy coochy" as well, first becoming attached to the
Midway dancers well after the original performance. (In the excerpt,
Carlton says that the book discusses "the long-debated etymology of
'hoochy coochy'" and suggests "a new derivation.")

--Ben Zimmer

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