To cheat, trick or swindle someone. American English, first recorded in 1829, and almost certainly made up for the fun of the sound.
What it really means
To hornswoggle someone is to cheat them. It is American, it is first recorded in 1829, and its origin is the most honest kind there is: somebody made it up.
Etymonline's verdict is probably a fanciful formation, and that puts it in good company. Early nineteenth-century America produced a whole run of words built for the pleasure of saying them — skedaddle, snollygoster, absquatulate, discombobulate. They are exaggerated on purpose. They are the verbal equivalent of a tall tale, and they sound like one.
You will find explanations involving cattle and horns. None of them come with evidence, and they look like what they probably are: stories invented afterwards to explain a word that never needed one.
What the word does well is carry a tone. Cheated is a complaint. Hornswoggled admits you were had and finds it a little bit funny — which is why it tends to be said about yourself, afterwards, rather than about someone else, in anger.
Where it comes from
Myths & misconceptions
Hornswoggle comes from a trick involving horns or cattle.
There is no evidence for any of the cattle stories. Etymonline treats it as a fanciful formation — a word invented for its sound, like many American coinages of the period.
How it connects
- Skedaddleanother American comic coinage — what you do once you have been hornswoggled.
- Snollygosterthe kind of person who does the hornswoggling.
Questions people ask
- What does hornswoggle mean?
- To cheat, trick or deceive someone. It is American English from 1829.
- Is hornswoggle from cattle?
- There is no evidence for that. It is most likely an invented word, made for its comic sound.