Jiggery-pokery

Origin

Jiggery-pokery emerged in the late 19th century, a classic piece of linguistic play known as reduplication, where sounds are repeated to create a new word. It's thought to be a whimsical offshoot of earlier terms like "hokey-pokey," which referred to cheap, questionably made ice cream sold by street vendors. Or perhaps it borrowed from the ancient trickster's lexicon, blending echoes of "juggle" and the magician's "hocus pocus." Whichever linguistic path it took, this jaunty phrase perfectly captures the spirit of underhanded dealings and petty deception, dressing up trickery in a delightfully dismissive verbal package.