It’s called the hokey pokey in the US… the dance name may have originated in the 1940s (when it was a popular music hall song and novelty dance) – it perhaps comes from hocus pocus

Hocus pocus, the magic formula used by conjurers to help distract their audience and also once used by jugglers, is another interesting word – apparently in use as far back as the 1630s, and possibly the stage name of a well known magician of the era
It could come from sham-Latin (‘dog’ Latin), a parody of the sacramental blessing from the Mass, ‘Hoc est corpus meum‘, ‘This is my body’, in which bread and wine offered in the sacrifice of the sacrament of the Eucharist become the body and blood of Christ
Or it could be from Norse folklore, in which there was a magician and demon of the north called Ochus Bochus (cool!)
Or may be it is just a nonsense word that sounds like Latin which was made up to impress people…

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokey_cokey
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/hokey-cokey
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=hocus-pocus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hocus_pocus_(magic)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language 
And next year’s words await another voice.” 
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Sometimes I’m on my way home and a word or phrase pops into my head, and I think where does it come from, how did it get to be the word it is today? So I have to Google it… I decided to start this blog to store all this fascinating information.

I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, and last night I was on a particularly annoying journey home where the driver couldn’t find out whether the train was going to Amersham or Chesham. We got on the train. The destination changed and everyone got out. Then it changed again, so we got back in. Then it changed again… after the fourth time I thought: where does “Hokey Cokey” come from? That will be my first blog.