Noun: hocus-pocus
| Singular | hocus-pocus |
| Plural | hocus-pocuses; hocus-pocusses; hoci-poci |
Sample Sentences
-
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? [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:]
-
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. [1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 180:]
Etymology
1. Pseudo-Latinism. 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.
2. The verb is derived from the noun.
Verbs referencing "hocus-pocus"
Dutch Nouns
hocus pocus, German Nouns
Hokuspokus, Russian Nouns
фокус-покус, Swedish Nouns
hokuspokus.