Coochie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A vulgar slang term for female genitalia ; a playful or affectionate form of address used informally between people
2. Vulgar slang referring to a woman's intimate body parts ; a casual, friendly way of addressing someone with warmth or humor
3. A crude colloquial reference to female sexual anatomy ; an informal term of fondness or casual regard used in friendly conversation

Etymology: The word's most striking feature is how little of its history is firmly documented. The likeliest source is "hootchy-kootchy," the name of a suggestive belly dance popular in American carnivals and sideshows around the end of the nineteenth century. "Coochie" appears in the form "coochee dance," with various spellings, from that same period, and the dance name seems to have been shortened or respelled into the noun we use now. The other proposed route is less polite. Some suggest the word was influenced by "cunt," with the American slang "cookie," also meaning the female genitals, pulling it into a similar shape. The two explanations are not mutually exclusive, and the source leaves the question open. Whatever its path, the sense "vagina or vulva" is attested only from the early twentieth century, so the anatomical meaning came after the dance name was already in circulation. A related word, "hoochie," appears in the same family of American slang.

Synonyms: cooties