Hocus-pocus is a reference to the actions of
magicians
Magician or The Magician may refer to:
Performers
* A practitioner of magic (supernatural)
* A practitioner of magic (illusion)
* Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context
Entertainment
Books
* ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...
, often as the stereotypical
magic word
Magic words are often nonsense phrases used in fantasy fiction or by stage magicians. Frequently such words are presented as being part of a divine, adamic, or other secret or empowered language. Certain comic book heroes use magic words to acti ...
s spoken when bringing about some sort of change. It was once a common term for a magician,
juggler
Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object ...
, or other similar
entertainers
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousand ...
. In extended usage, the term is often used (pejoratively) to describe irrational human activities that appear to depend on magic. Examples are given below.
Examples of the extended use of the term hocus-pocus
''Those relating to divination or other activity by one practitioner working in isolation:''
Haruspication
In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex (plural haruspices; also called aruspex) was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy (''haruspicina''), the inspection of the entrails (''exta''—hence also extispicy ...
(divination by inspection of entrails), and
necromancy
Necromancy () is the practice of magic or black magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions, or by resurrection for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future even ...
.
''Those relating to a magical connection between two or more people:'' Subconscious direction, cross-dreaming,
extrasensory perception
Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke Universi ...
, split subjectivity,
telepathy,
clairvoyance
Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
, channelling, psychic transcription, ‘faculty X’, ‘mind energy’.
History
The earliest known
English-language work on magic, or what was then known as ''
legerdemain
Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' ()) refers to fine motor skills when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card ...
'' (sleight of hand), was published anonymously in 1635 under the title ''Hocus Pocus Junior: The Anatomie of Legerdemain''. Further research suggests that "Hocus Pocus" was the stage name of a well known magician of the era. This may be William Vincent, who is recorded as having been granted a license to perform magic in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1619. Whether he was the author of the book is unknown.
Conjectured origins
The origins of the term remain obscure. The most popular conjecture is that it is a garbled Latin religious phrase or some form of
‘dog’ Latin. Some have associated it with similar-sounding fictional, mythical, or legendary names. Others suggest it is merely a combination of
nonsense word
A nonsense word, unlike a sememe, may have no definition. Nonsense words can be classified depending on their orthographic and phonetic similarity with (meaningful) words. If it can be pronounced according to a language's phonotactics, it is a ps ...
s.
Latin and pseudo-Latin origins
![Peter Paul Rubens - De overwinning van de eucharistie over de ketterij - P001697 - Museo del Prado](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_De_overwinning_van_de_eucharistie_over_de_ketterij_-_P001697_-_Museo_del_Prado.jpg)
One theory is that the term is a corruption of ''hax pax max Deus adimax'', a
pseudo-Latin phrase used in the early 17th century as a
magical formula
In ceremonial magic, a magical formula or a word of power is a word that is believed to have specific supernatural effects. They are words whose meaning illustrates principles and degrees of understanding that are often difficult to relay using ...
by
conjurors.
Another theory is that it is a corruption or
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
of the
Catholic liturgy
In the Catholic Church, liturgy is divine worship, the proclamation of the Gospel, and active charity. Catholic liturgies are broadly categorized as the Latin liturgical rites of the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic liturgies of the Eas ...
of the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
, which contains the phrase "''
Hoc est enim corpus meum''", meaning ''This is my body''. This explanation goes at least as far back as a 1694 speculation by the
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...
John Tillotson
John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694.
Curate and rector
Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. Little is known of his early youth ...
:
This theory is supported by the fact that in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, the words ''Hocus pocus'' are usually accompanied by the additional words ''pilatus pas'', and this is said to be based on a post-
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
parody of the traditional Catholic rite of
transubstantiation
Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις '' metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of ...
during
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
, being a Dutch corruption of the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
words "''Hoc est corpus meum''" and the
credo
In Christian liturgy, the credo (; Latin for "I believe") is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed – or its shorter version, the Apostles' Creed – in the Mass, either as a prayer, a spoken text, or sung as Gregorian chant or other musical sett ...
, which reads in part, "''sub
Pontio Pilato passus
A pace is a unit of length consisting either of one normal walking step (approximately ), or of a double step, returning to the same foot (approximately ). The normal pace length decreases with age and some health conditions. The word "pace" is al ...
et
sepultus est''", meaning ''under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried''. In a similar way the phrase is in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
usually accompanied by ''filiokus'', a corruption of the term
filioque
( ; ) is a Latin term ("and from the Son") added to the original Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (commonly known as the Nicene Creed), and which has been the subject of great controversy between Eastern and Western Christianity. It is a term ...
, from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
version of the
Nicene Creed, meaning “''and from the Son''”. The variant spelling ''filipokus'' is common in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, a predominantly
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
nation, as well as certain other post-
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
states. Additionally, the word for "stage trick" in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, ''fokus'', is derived from ''hocus pocus''.
Magician's name
Others believe that it is an appeal to the folkloric
Norse magician Ochus Bochus: According to
Sharon Turner
Sharon Turner (24 September 1768 – 13 February 1847) was an English historian.
Life
Turner Was born in Pentonville, the eldest son of William and Ann Turner of Yorkshire, who had settled in London upon marrying.H. R. Loyn,Turner, Sharon (1 ...
in ''The History of the Anglo-Saxons'', they were believed to be derived from ''Ochus Bochus'', a magician and
demon
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...
of the north.
Nonsense word
As an alternative to other theories, it may simply be
pseudo-Latin with no meaning, made up to impress people:
See also
*
Abracadabra
''Abracadabra'' is a magic word, historically used as an incantation on amulets and common today in stage magic.
Etymology
''Abracadabra'' is of unknown origin, but according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', its first known occurrence ...
*
Barbarous name
A barbarous name is a meaningless or seemingly meaningless word used in magic rituals. The term ''barbarous'' comes from the Greek ''barbaroi'' ( el, βάρβαροι) meaning those who do not speak the Greek Language ( barbarians). Often these n ...
s
*
Open sesame
"Open sesame" (french: Sésame, ouvre-toi; ar, افتح يا سمسم) is a magical phrase in the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" in Antoine Galland's version of '' One Thousand and One Nights''. It opens the mouth of a cave in whi ...
References
External resources
{{Wiktionary
Hocus Pocus or The Whole art of Legerdemain.From th
in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
Hocus Pocus Junior: the Anatomie of LegerdemainFrom th
in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
17th-century neologisms
Magic (illusion)
Magic words