Jookery
/ˈdʒuːkəri/noun
Trickery, deceit, or underhanded maneuvering, chiefly in Scots and regional English.
Did you know?Jookery survives in the wider expression “jookery-pokery,” an older dialectal phrase meaning trickery or deceptive maneuvering, later popularized as “jiggery-pokery.”
Etymological Timeline
Late Middle English
Scots/English
juke / jouk
“To dodge, duck, or evade; the precise deeper origin is uncertain.”
Early Modern Scots
Scots
jouk
“To stoop, hide, or evade someone—physically or figuratively.”
18th Century
Scots
joukery
“Trickery, evasive conduct, or deceit.”
19th Century
Scots
jookery
“A variant spelling of joukery, meaning underhanded behavior or deception.”
19th Century
English
jookery-pokery
“A fixed phrase for trickery, hocus-pocus, or deceptive maneuvering.”
Modern English
English
jookery
“An uncommon regional or Scots term for deceit or trickery.”
Explore more surprising origins