The Rhymes With Orange from the 19th, with a play on -ocus words:
And the place where the group meets is the Hocus Pocus Focus Locus. And the flower that blooms in that place is the Hocus Pocus Focus Locus Crocus.
NOAD2 on hocus-pocus:
meaningless talk or activity, often designed to draw attention away from and disguise what is actually happening: some people still view psychology as a lot of hocus-pocus.
– a form of words often used by a person performing magic tricks.
– US deception; trickery.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from hax pax max Deus adimax, a pseudo-Latin phrase used as a magic formula by conjurors.
December 21, 2015 at 3:38 pm |
And the bottom of that flower is the Hocus Pocus Focus Locus Crocus Tochus.
From somewhere I recall a Romany word “okus” for a roll of bills in the pocket of a sucker.