I used this word the other day in a conversation with my daughter, and she cracked up. (I had said that, "So-and-so is a bunch of hokum!") She accused me of making it up, so I said, "That's a word! Look it up in the dictionary."
At this point, I wished I could have taken it all back, 'cause I was sorely afraid it would not actually be there. I mean, there are several words we use which we've picked up somewhere which aren't really words, right? And you don't want to look like an idiot in front of the kids. However, there it was:
(hõk´am) n. {altered « HOCUS (-POCUS)} {Slang}
- crudely comic or mawkishly sentimental elements in a play, story, etc.,
used to gain an immediate emotional response. - nonsense; humbug; claptrap.
I suppose it must have become a word since 1913. This was taken from Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition, 1979 ©.