Mea Culpa: we're in hock to a reader for pointing this out

John Rentoul a Latin my from a slang term

- John Rentoul

We wrote on Thursday that Benjamin Netanyahu is “in political hoc to the Israeli far right”, which is not the usual spelling. It is odd that half of the Latin phrase ad hoc, meaning improvised, is more familiar to many people than “in hock”, originally US slang for “in debt”, let alone the older English hock, the heel joint in the hind leg of a horse, or even hock, Rhenish wine. This last is short for Hockamore, a “corrupt Englishing of German Hochheimer” from the 1620s, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.

We meant that Netanyahu is influenced by the far right as if he had pawned his future to them. Anyway, thanks to Beryl Wall for pointing out our error with the comment: “Words offer light relief in rather unhappy times.” How true.