Word
Of
The
Day
hornswoggle
hornswoggle • \HORN-swah-gul\ •
verb
To hornswoggle someone is to trick or deceive them.
// I think we were
hornswoggled by that magician.
See the entry >
Examples:
"Netflix users have been warned to look out for an insidious, AI-powered email scam that looks nearly indistinguishable from the real deal. ... If you have been already
hornswoggled by such a scheme, Netflix advises changing your password and reaching out to your bank." — Ben Cost,
The New York Post, 3 Mar. 2025
Did you know?
Hornswoggle is a slang word of some considerable mystery, at least where its etymology is concerned. The word appears to have originated in the southern United States in the early 19th century. The earliest known written record comes from an 1829 issue of
The Virginia Literary Magazine in its glossary of Americanisms. The magazine states that
hornswoggle comes from Kentucky, and that its oddness matches nicely with other 19th-century Americanisms, such as
sockdolager,
absquatulate,
callithump,
slumgullion, and
skedaddle. While the exact point at which
hornswoggle entered our language, and the way in which it was formed, may remain unknown, it is a charming addition to our language, joining
bamboozle and
honeyfuggle as colorful ways to say "to deceive."
