hocus-pocus

Meanings

Interjection

• : abracadabra, hey presto.

Noun

• Some ineffectual action or speech, especially if intended to divert attention; nonsense.
• Religious or supernatural phenomena one holds to be nonsense or mere trickery; superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
• Some action carried out to bring about change as if by magic; a trick; sleight of hand, trickery.
• A conjurer.
• A conjurer's trick.

Verb

• To play tricks or practise sleight of hand (on someone); to cheat, to deceive.

Origin

• 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 adoping Hocus Pocus as his name) 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.