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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (107910)	8/29/2005 12:10:06 PM
From: Alan Smithee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

2 entries found for petard. pe·tard Audio pronunciation of "petard" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (p-tärd) n. 1. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall. 2. A loud firecracker. [French pétard, from Old French, from peter, to break wind, from pet, a breaking of wind, from Latin pditum, from neuter past participle of pdere, to break wind. See pezd- in Indo-European Roots.] Word History: The French used pétard, “a loud discharge of intestinal gas,” for a kind of infernal engine for blasting through the gates of a city. “To be hoist by one's own petard,” a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare's Hamlet (around 1604) not long after the word entered English (around 1598), means “to blow oneself up with one's own bomb, be undone by one's own devices.” *The French noun pet, “fart,” developed regularly from the Latin noun pditum, from the Indo-European root pezd-, “fart.”** Interesting etymology.

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (107910)	8/29/2005 1:42:29 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

It was sweet of you to correct me, but alas (for you), both phrasings are correct. And here is Shakespeare using "with"- "For tis the sport to haue the enginer Hoist with his owne petar" ("Hamlet" III.iv.207). Perhaps you would like to correct old Will as well? He was shameless in his abuse of the King's English. "Got caught in his own petard We got curious about that phrase, which is actually “Got hoist on his own petard, (from {Pepys)” so we looked up “petard.” It’s not, as I always assumed, some kind of pike or polearm, but rather a primitive early bomb. In the late Middle Ages, when gunpowder was still new and unpredictable in European warfare, a soldier sent to the enemy castle’s gate with a lit petard sometimes ended up Hoist on it instead, when it went off prematurely. Would perhaps look just as comical to an observer as being snagged on your own pike, but a petard-hoisting would perhaps not be something that the hoistee could laugh about at that night’s campfire. Let’s hope Sam can recover from this particular petard accident." pepysdiary.com Think about it with fart- one could be hoist with their own fart, on their own fart, by their own fart, etc. Think about "hoist" as lifted up - you could be lifted up on your petard, by your petard, with your petard, etc. There are other variants I've seen- mostly in old novels and plays.