hanky-panky [M19th] People have been talking in disapproving terms of hanky-panky since the 1830s. Then it tended to mean ‘trickery’ or ‘dishonest behaviour’, whereas since the 1930s it has mainly referred to sexual indiscretions. The word is possibly an alteration of hokey- pokey [M19th], which may itself be a form of hocus-pocus, which was said by conjurors as they performed their tricks, rather like ‘*abracadabra!’. This appeared in the early 17th century based on a pseudo-Latin phrase hax pax max Deus adimax used by conjurors as a magic formula. Hoax [L18th] may be a shortening of hocus-pocus. Hokey-pokey was also a brand name, used generically, of a cheap kind of ice cream sold by street vendors and notorious for its lack of hygiene.