hocus-pocus
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌhəʊkəs ˈpəʊkəs/
ipa: /ˌhoʊkəs ˈpoʊkəs/
ipa: /-kɪs/
rhymes: -əʊkəs
Forms: form: hocus-pocuses
form: hocus-pocusses
form: hocuses-pocuses
form: hocusses-pocusses
form: hocus-pocusing
form: hocus-pocussing
form: hocusing-pocusing
form: hocussing-pocussing
form: hocus-pocused
form: hocus-pocused
form: hocus-pocussed
form: hocus-pocussed
form: hocused-pocused
form: hocused-pocused
form: hocussed-pocussed
form: hocussed-pocussed
Etymology: The interjection and noun are derived from pseudo-Latin magical incantations used by conjurers (formerly called “jugglers”) such as “hocus pocus, tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo” (by a particular 17th-century conjurer who allegedly adopted the moniker Hocus Pocus) and “hax pax max Deus adimax”. 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), but is not generally accepted.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: [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.
ref: [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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1871, G. T. Lowth, chapter IX, in The Morrices; or, The Doubtful Marriage, volume III, London: Hurst and Blackett, […] , page 227:
text: 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.
ref: 1897, Andrew Balfour, “Of the Taking of the Donna Bella”, in By Stroke of Sword: […] , London: Methuen and Company, […], page 161:
text: 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.
ref: 1903, Leaves of Healing, section “False Representations of the Christ”, page 304, column 2:
text: 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.
ref: 1903, Railway Times, page 67, column 1:
text: 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.”
ref: 1916, The American Photo Engraver, page 131, column 2; 132, column 1:
text: 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?
ref: 1917, Annual Report, Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Baltimore, page 39, column 1:
text: 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.
ref: 1948, Music Reporter, page 135, column 4:
text: 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;
ref: 1993, Gerard Flynn, The Bronx Boy: No More Awnings in the Bronx, →ISBN, page 120:
text: Hocusing-pocusing, / Didi von Hoden, / Wagnerian temptress and Circean witch, / Shimmied and shook herself / While she was wearing, e- / Rotomaniac’lly, / Nary a stitch.
ref: 1996, Alan Isler, chapter 4, in Kraven Images, Random House, published 2011, →ISBN:
glosses: To play tricks or practise sleight of hand (on someone); (by extension) to cheat, to deceive.
Derived terms: hocus-pocuser