I’m posting a description of this word because I’ve been reviewing books about Joe McCarthy in that link of this web site, and he was described as “a fraud and a hoax” by one of his fellow senators. (You’ll learn Joe made the mistake of taking on powerful people and that he underestimated the extent of Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government if you read the reviews.) Regardless of that other subject, Wikipedia defines a hoax as “…a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as the truth.” Thomas Adv’s A candle in the dark published in 1656 mentioned hocus pocus as the origin of the word “hoax.” Magicians uttered lengthy phrases including the term hocus pocus to distract the audience from their sleight of hand. The phrase also was used to imitate (or mock) Catholic priests performing transubstantiation (the ritual of turning bread and wine into Body and Blood).