hanky panky

Example: “The auditors suspected some hanky panky in the accounts.”

Origin: First recorded in the British humor magazine Punch in 1841, meaning trickery or underhanded dealing rather than anything romantic, and most likely a rhyming reduplication built on "hanky," short for handkerchief. One theory ties it directly to stage magic: a magician's handkerchief was a classic prop for concealing and producing objects through sleight of hand, giving "hanky panky" a natural association with concealment and deception. A second traces the whole phrase back further, to hocus pocus — a mock-Latin conjuring phrase from the 1630s used by jugglers and performers, itself possibly a deliberate corruption of the sacramental Latin blessing spoken during the Mass. A third, less certain theory reaches for Romani hokkani boro, "the great trick," a term for an elaborate confidence scam. The word's now-familiar romantic or sexual sense developed considerably later, with no such implication present in its original 1840s usage.