Sep 25, 2018 · hocus-pocus. (interj.). magical formula used in conjuring, 1630s, earlier Hocas Pocas, common name of a magician or juggler (1620s); a sham-Latin invocation used by jugglers, perhaps based on a perversion of the sacramental blessing from the Mass, Hoc est corpus meum "This is my body." The first to make this speculation on its origin apparently was English …

Under it will be found the words and phrases, or some clew to the words and phrases, which, in any connection, have the same meaning as itself, or a meaning very nearly the same. That one of them, which comes nearest to expressing the exact shade of thought in the writer's mind, will be likely to arrest the attention and determine the choice.