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Hocus Pocus
Used for trickery or magic. From the early 17th century these words
used by conjurers and jugglers when performing tricks. The orginal phrase
was 'Hocus pocus, toutous talontus, vade celerita jubes'
This from a website visitor:
This phrase originated from the witch-hunting times in Early Modern Europe after the schism between Catholic and Protestant. It is a "Protestant" phrase that poked fun at the Catholic Latin that was spoken whilst giving Holy Communion ("Hoc Est...etc" means "This is my body, this is my blood"), implying that it was complete jibberish and that the Catholic Mass (by worshipping not only God but the Holy Trinity) was akin to Idol worship and therefore the same as conjuring and magic spells.
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