hocus-pocus

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See also: hocuspocus and hocus pocus

English[edit]

WOTD – 24 March 2021

Etymology[edit]

The interjection and noun are derived from made-up pseudo-Latin magical incantations used by conjurers (formerly called “jugglers”) such as “hocus pocus, tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo” (with a particular 17th-century conjurer adopting Hocus Pocus as his name)[1] and “hax pax max Deus adimax”.[2][3] The suggestion that the term is a corruption of words from the Roman Catholic liturgy of the Eucharist, “hoc est enim corpus meum” (“this is my [i.e., Jesus’s] body”), was made in a sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Tillotson (1630–1694),[4] but is not generally accepted.[3]

The verb is derived from the noun.[5]

Pronunciation[edit]

Interjection[edit]

hocus-pocus

  1. A phrase used (by a stage magician, etc.) as a magical incantation to bring about some change: abracadabra, hey presto.

Alternative forms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

hocus-pocus (usually uncountable, plural hocus-pocuses or hocus-pocusses or hoci-poci)

  1. (uncountable) Some ineffectual action or speech, especially if intended to divert attention; nonsense.
  2. (uncountable, derogatory) Religious or supernatural phenomena one holds to be nonsense or mere trickery; superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “A Soul in Hell”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 158:
      How was it possible that I, a rational man, not unacquainted with the leading scientific facts of our history, and hitherto an absolute and utter disbeliever in all the hocus-pocus which in Europe goes by the name of the supernatural, could believe that I had within the last few minutes been engaged in conversation with a woman two thousand and odd years old?
    • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 180:
      The ego thinks that his local time and space is all there is to reality, and that the busy affairs of state and trade are more important than a lot of obscurantist hocus-pocus.
  3. (countable, uncountable, chiefly US, also attributively) Some action carried out to bring about change as if by magic; a trick; sleight of hand, trickery.
  4. (countable, obsolete) A conjurer.
  5. (countable, obsolete) A conjurer's trick.

Alternative forms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

hocus-pocus (third-person singular simple present hocus-pocuses or hocus-pocusses or hocuses-pocuses or hocusses-pocusses, present participle hocus-pocusing or hocus-pocussing or hocusing-pocusing or hocussing-pocussing, simple past and past participle hocus-pocused or hocus-pocussed or hocused-pocused or hocussed-pocussed)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, colloquial, dated) To play tricks or practise sleight of hand (on someone); (by extension) to cheat, to deceive.
    • [1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Poggius.] Fab[le] CCCLV. A Woman Drown’d [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, pages 325–326:
      [T]hat which we call Good Humour, is in Truth but a ſort of Slight of Hand in Diſcourſe, or a Faculty of making Truths look like Appearances, or Appearances like Truths. Now this Gift of Hocus Pocuſing, and of Diſguiſing Matters, is ſo Surpriſing and Agreeable on the one hand, that it muſt of Neceſſity be a very ſtrong Temptation to the Quitting of the Beaten Road on the other.
      May be regarded as a noun use.]
    • 1846, Thomas Campbell Foster, “Challenge to Mr. O’Connell to Prove the Condition of His Estate.—Waterford; Its Neglected Advantages and Capabilities.”, in Letters on the Condition of the People of Ireland, London: Chapman and Hall, […], footnote, pages 457–458:
      But it was possible to say something about Cahirciveen—that it has a nunnery, a market-house, a reading-room.[sic] and a Fever Hospital, and, being just two miles from the Valentia slate-quarry, that its houses are slated; but it was impossible to say a single word in defence of Derrynane Beg;—so the two, though seventeen miles apart, were “hocussed-pocussed” together, and it all went down as gospel in Conciliation Hall, that because the houses of Cahirciveen were slated from the quarry close by, ergo, my description of the wretched hovels of Derrynane Beg with their rotten potato-stalk thatches, was monstrously incorrect.
    • 1865, W[illiam] C[arew] Hazlitt, “Further Glimpses of Uncle Tom”, in Sophy Laurie: A Novel, volume III, London: John Maxwell and Company, […], page 197:
      She was fair and above board dealing with her, and no hocusing-pocusing, and every farthing paid to the last shilling, though she did remark that sherry might have been three-and-six, and four were ru’nation ’igh.
    • 1871, G. T. Lowth, chapter IX, in The Morrices; or, The Doubtful Marriage, volume III, London: Hurst and Blackett, […] , page 227:
      But jest argufy this t’other way, and then see how it’d be; for there ain’t no ladies as go marrying Codlings and Humpys—begging your pardon, Mr. Humpy—and Chequerses—not they; they’d be right down hocussed-pocussed and back-parloured in no time; and so, you see, it ain’t according, and all you said about veal pies and oat-cakes goes for nothing, Mr. Humpy.
    • 1897, Andrew Balfour, “Of the Taking of the Donna Bella”, in By Stroke of Sword: […] , London: Methuen and Company, […], page 161:
      He was an admirable mimic, so that he kept us roaring with laughter, as he hocussed-pocussed, and fussed and fumed like the former captain of the Water Sprite.
    • 1903, Leaves of Healing, section “False Representations of the Christ”, page 304, column 2:
      The curse of the Church today is that large portions of the church represent the Christ either as a baby in a mother’s arms, a dead man on a crucifix, or, as in the blasphemous idolatry of the mass, which declares that a bit of bread, stamped by the hand of a priest and hocused-pocused with his Latin, has been transformed into the body, blood and bones of Jesus, the Christ.
    • 1903, Railway Times, page 67, column 1:
      There was no adequate principle at all in beginning with the gross income of a railway company, and when they came to deal with deductions they would be hocussed-pocussed in the Law Courts, and would have an abiding code of procedure which, even if they got a new tribunal, would be difficult to overcome.
    • 1916, The American Photo Engraver, page 131, column 2; 132, column 1:
      The holidays usually serve as a source of happiness to the majority of us; but to George Ross they bring back with great forcefulness the bitter remembrance of the time he was hocused-pocused on Main Street quite some time ago. […] After ten minutes more of continual hocusing pocusing” it dawned upon George that he was the guy that had been “hocused pocused.”
    • 1917, Annual Report, Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Baltimore, page 39, column 1:
      Can it be that under this Bill Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County are going to be hocussed-pocussed out of their valuable public properties?
    • 1948, Music Reporter, page 135, column 4:
      Indeed, when he played the Liszt Variations on Bach’s “Weinen, Klagen, Zagen,” he did it in a way that left one somewhat hocussed-pocussed.
    • 1993, Gerard Flynn, The Bronx Boy: No More Awnings in the Bronx, →ISBN, page 120:
      I am convinced some mauvais génie has done this deliberately, some perverse descendant of the Enlightenment, an impish fool who gets his kicks by hocussing-pocussing religion;
    • 1996, Alan Isler, chapter 4, in Kraven Images, Random House, published 2011, →ISBN:
      Hocusing-pocusing, / Didi von Hoden, / Wagnerian temptress and Circean witch, / Shimmied and shook herself / While she was wearing, e- / Rotomaniac’lly, / Nary a stitch.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

to cheat, deceive — see cheat,‎ deceive

References[edit]

  1. ^ Thomas Ady (1655) “The Fifth Description. The Fifth Appellation, or Term of Description of a Witch in the Text, is Prestigiator, that is, a Jugler.”, in A Candle in the Dark: Shewing the Divine Cause of the Distractions of the Whole Nation of England, and of the Christian World. […], London: […] Robert Ibbitson […], →OCLC, book I, page 29:
    [...] I will ſpeak of one Man more excelling in that craft than others, that went about in King James his time, and long ſince, who called himſelf, The Kings Majesties moſt excellent Hocus Pocus, and ſo he was called, becauſe that at the playing of every Trick, he uſed to ſay, Hocus pocus, tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo, a dark compoſure of words, to blinde the eyes of the beholders, to make his Trick paſs the more currantly without diſcovery, [...]
  2. ^ “hocus-pocus, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 “hocus-pocus, n., adj., and adv.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1898.
  4. ^ See John Tillotson (1720) “Sermon XXVI. A Discourse against Transubstantiation.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], 8th edition, London: […] T. Goodwin, B[enjamin] Tooke, and J. Pemberton, […]; J. Round […]; and J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC, page 276: “And in all probability thoſe common juggling words of Hocus-pocus, are nothing elſe but a corruption of Hoc eſt corpus, by way of ridiculous imitation of the Prieſts of the Church of Rome in their Trick of Tranſubſtantiation.”
  5. ^ “hocus-pocus, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1898.

Further reading[edit]

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