Cooches

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Vulgar slang for the female genitals ; sensual, suggestive belly-dance routines performed for an audience
2. Crude slang referring to the female genitalia ; provocative belly-dancing performances, often in carnival or burlesque settings
3. A vulgar informal term for female external genitalia ; erotic-style dance acts in the manner of traditional belly dancing

Etymology: "Cooches" is the plural of "cooch," itself a clipping of "coochie," which is the slang form used for the female genitals and, in the sense of the belly-dance routine, the performance that the same slang term came to name. The plural therefore names several of those things at once, or the sensual dance numbers themselves. The clipping shows how slang tends to shorten. "Coochie" was the fuller form, and dropping its final syllable gave the blunter, more clipped "cooch," which then took a regular English plural ending. Because the word is informal and vulgar in its anatomical sense, dictionaries generally treat it as slang rather than standard vocabulary, and its dance-related meaning is the one most people encounter in entertainment and popular culture.