Word: pocus
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...Hocus pocus hickory mare...
...duties of a physician, a lawyer, a banker, a plumber, or a clergyman, has the firm theory that he could edit a newspaper better than it is being edited, could write at least as well as anyone who is writing. The newspaper profession has no side, no hocus pocus of mystery, no grandiose flourish of technique that is in other professions gives pause to the average...
...window. In cordwainer (still the legal designation of shoemaker) we are pointed to the fact that the people of Cordova made the best leather-a fame to which Morocco succeeded-hence Cordovannier, cordonnier, cordwainer. Cant perpetuates a sneer against the monks who did no work but singing-cantabant, Hocus-pocus again satirizes their ignorance, and also contains a sly Protestant laugh at the Catholic mystery of transubstantiation-hoc est corpus. That wigs were originally a French fashion is plain enough in the word itself-first corrupted from perruque to periwig, and then contracted for convenience to wig. Chouse...
...quite at liberty to publish this letter, - indeed, I hope you will do so, for I am anxious to explain 'my' system to any one who thinks either that it differs materially from that of other instructors or that it is a sort of hocus-pocus...