I was sitting at my grandma�s house on New Years Day watching the Gator Bowl.  The Virginia Tech Hokies were playing the Clemson Tigers.  At the beginning of the third quarter the announcers asked a trivia question:  What is a hokie?  The four possible choices were, a) a person b) a turkey c) a dance d) none of the above.  I thought it was a turkey because that�s Virginia Tech�s mascot but the answer was d) none of the above.  The announcer then said it was actually a cheer.  I didn�t understand how it could be a cheer.  Maybe a long time ago people said the cheer when they were dancing the hokey pokey, I don�t know.  Even though the college itself says the word means a cheer I believe that hokie should mean a turkey because that�s what it means to every football fan that just makes the quick assumption by just looking at the mascot.

      The term hokie is obviously not used in everyday conversation between people.  You could although actually use it as an adjective to describe something.  For instance, �That shirt is hokie,� meaning that shirt is fake or sentimental but I don�t see that becoming popular any time soon.  The only time that someone would probably hear the word hokie would be if they were watching or talking about the Virginia Tech Hokies or if they were dancing the hokee pokee.

     It turns out that the word hokie is another spelling for the word hokey.  I�m sure were all familiar with the word spelled h-o-k-e-y because of the famous dance called the hokey-pokey.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it�s an adjective that originated around 1945 in the United States and means sentimental, melodramatic, fake, or artificial.  That�s it there�s no other definitions.  I then looked up hokey pokey.  Hokey pokey was defined as also an adjective that meant deception, cheatery, or underhand work.  It also had two more definitions that called it a cheap kind of ice cream sold by street vendors (circa 1884) and a toffee like sweet (circa 1939) (�Hokey� OED).  Both of these definitions had originated in the United States.  The common dance was actually spelled h-o-k-e-e p-o-k-e-e but could also be called the hokey cokey.  It seems as if Virginia Tech just made up another definition for the word by referring to a hokie as a cheer.

      Well to me the word hokie first meant a dance.  I first learned the word at a roller skating birthday party when I was probably about six years old.  During the party they would make everyone come in the middle of the roller skating rink and dance the hokey pokey.  After going to many other roller skating birthday parties I realized that the hokey pokey was the staple song of all roller skating birthday parties.  The only other time I hear the word is when I�m watching or talking about college football, specifically the Virginia Tech Hokies.  Since most sports teams mascots are usually their team nickname I naturally assumed the word hokie meant a turkey because that�s Virginia Tech�s mascot.  I then asked some of my friends what a hokie was, they also said it was turkey, but probably because they�re sports fans also.  Even though the hokey pokey is a widely known dance sports fans like myself don�t make the instant connection when they hear the word hokey.

      Since the word is already considered Standard American English and in the Oxford English Dictionary it doesn�t need to be added to it but rather a new definition should be made for the word hokie.  It should no longer be just an alternate spelling for hokey but a word itself with a definition that all sports fans can understand.