Chapter Hobinol to Hogmanay', Hogmena' of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Hock-day, which was the second Tuesday after Easter-day. (See Kenilworth, chap. xxxix.)
    Hock-tide was the time of paying church dues.

"Hoke Monday was for the men, and Hock Tuesday for the women. On both days the men and women alternately, with great merryment, obstructed the public road with ropes, and pulled passengers to them, from whom they exacted money to be laid out in pious uses." - Brand: Antiquities (Hoke day), vol. i. p. 187.

Hockey A game in which each player has a hooked stick or bandy with which to strike the ball. Hockey is simply the diminutive of hook. Called Shinty in Scotland.

Hocking Stopping the highways with ropes, and demanding a gratuity from passengers before they were allowed to pass. (See quotation from Brand under Hock-Day.)

Hockley-i'-the-Hole Public gardens near Clerkenwell Green, famous for bear- and bull-baiting, dog- and cock-fights, etc. The earliest record of this garden is a little subsequent to the Restoration.

Hocus Pocus The words uttered by a conjuror when he performs a trick, to cheat or take surreptitiously. The Welsh, hocea pwca (a goblin's trick, our hoax) is a probable etymology. But generally supposed to be Hoc est corpus.
    Ochus Bochus was the name of a famous magician of the North invoked by jugglers. He is mentioned in the French Royal Dictionary.

Hocussed Hoaxed, cheated, tampered with; as, "This wine is hocussed."

"Was ever man so hocussed?"
Art of Wheedling, p. 322.

Hodeken (3 syl.) means Little-hat, a German goblin or domestic fairy; so called because he always wore a little felt hat over his face. Our hudkin.

Hodge A generic name for a farm-labourer or peasant. (Said to be an abbreviated form of Roger, as Hob is of Rob or Robin.)

"Promises held out in order to gain the votes of the agricultural labourers; promises given simply to obtain the vote of `Hodge,' who will soon find out that his vote was all that was wanted." - Newspaper paragraph, Dec., 1885.

Hodge-podge (2 syl.). A medley. A corruption of hotch-pot, i.e. various fragments mixed together in the "pot-au-feu." (See Hotch-Pot.)

Hodur Balder's twin brother; the God of Darkness; the blind god who killed Balder, at the instigation of Loki, with an arrow made of mistletoe. Hödur typifies night, as Balder typifies day. (Scandinavian mythology.)

"And Balder's pile of the glowing sun
A symbol true blazed forth;
But soon its splendour sinketh down
When Höder rules the earth."
Frithiof-Saga: Balder's Bale-Fire.

Hog meaning a piece of money, is any silver coin - sixpence, shilling, or five-shilling. It is probably derived from the largess given on New Year's Eve called hog-manay, pronounced hog-money.
    In the Bermudas the early coins bore the image of a hog.

Hog seems to refer to age more than to any specific animal. Thus, boars of the second year, sheep between the time of their being weaned and shorn, colts, and bullocks a year old, are all called hogs or hoggets. A boar three years old is a "hog-steer."
    Some say a hogget is a sheep after its first shearing, but a "hogget-fleece" is the first shearing.
   To go the whole hog. An American expression meaning unmixed democratical principles. It is used in England to signify a "thorough goer" of any kind. In Virginia the dealer asks the retail butcher if "he means to go the whole hog, or to take only certain joints, and he regulates his price accordingly." (Men and Manners of America.)
    Mahomet forbade his followers to eat one part of the pig, but did not particularise what part he intended. Hence, strict Mahometans abstain from pork altogether, but those less scrupulous eat any part they fancy. Cowper refers to this in the lines:

"With sophistry their sauce they sweeten,
Till quite from tail to snout `tis eaten."
Love of the World Reproved.

Another explanation is this: A hog in Ireland is slang for "a shilling," and to go the whole hog means to