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Hokey Pokey — 4 Comments

  1. Your article set me off on a hunt through my library’s free online eresources…

    OED gives the earliest example of ‘hokey-pokey’ as a dialect version of
    ‘hocus-pocus”, with the same meaning of ‘deception, cheatery, underhand work’. (1847). An article in ‘The Times'(London) 1856 certainly uses it in this sense, and there’s an ad in the same paper in 1865 for a pantomime featuring a comic character called ‘Mr Hokey Pokey’.

    But the use of it to mean a cheap ice-cream is established by 1884 at least, and the suggested derivation from ‘O che poco!’ is already current by 1888. (OED again). Italians were strongly associated with making and selling it, as ‘Hokey-pokey’ is quoted in 1915 in a Times article about derogatory nicknames for foreigners.

    Personally I’d incline to think that the name doesn’t come from Italian but from it being a cheat’s version of ice-cream. But that’s just my guess 🙂

    Btw, the street-vendor’s usual cry in 1884 was ‘Hokey-pokey, pokey ho!’ (OED).

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