Hocks

the feet and ankles; CURBY HOCKS , round or clumsy feet and ankles. Term originating with horsey men. Hocus , to drug a person for purposes of robbery. The potion generally consists of snuff and beer among rogues of the lowest cla , and is by them called “snuffing a bloke;” or sometimes, when the drug is administered to a woman for purposes other than those of robbery, “snuffing a blowen.” Hocus pocus , gipsy words of magic, similar to the modern “presto fly.” The gipsies pronounce “ Habeas Corpus ,” HAWCUS PACCUS ( see Crabb’s Gipsies’ Advocate , p. 18); can this have anything to do with the origin of HOCUS POCUS ? Turner gives OCHUS BOCHUS , an old demon. Pegge, however, states that it is a burlesque rendering of the words of the Roman Catholic Church service at the delivery of the host, HOC EST CORPUS , which the early Protestants considered as a species of conjuring, and ridiculed accordingly.