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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tommaso who wrote (57813)	4/28/1999 10:54:00 AM
From: IceShark	Respond to of 132070

You are right, since I recall learning that a petard was a shaped charge explosive used to knock down walls. Prior to that I thought a petard must be some sort of spear. -g-

To: Tommaso who wrote (57813)	4/28/1999 10:56:00 AM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

T, That was the straight meaning. It was used in jest when somebody broke wind rather loudly in public. <g>

To: Tommaso who wrote (57813)	4/28/1999 10:56:00 AM
From: Merritt	Respond to of 132070

T: My understanding is that the phrase was "Foisted by his own petard.", and that it originated during the Napoleonic Wars. French sappers (demolition "experts") would haul a satchel of explosives (a petard) to a weak point in a fortification, light the fuse, and throw it to the desired spot. Their fuses were extremely unreliable, and prone to premature explosion. So while they were sometimes hoisted, their efforts were foisted, by their own petard.

To: Tommaso who wrote (57813)	4/28/1999 11:24:00 AM
From: John Dally	Respond to of 132070

Here's the "full petard:" Petard: Hoist on his own petard. Caught in his own trap, involved in the danger he meant for others. The petard was a conical instrument of war employed at one time for blowing open gates with gunpowder. The engineers used to carry the petard to the place they intended to blow up, and fire it at the small end by a fusee. Shakespeare spells the word petar. “'Tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petar.” (Hamlet, ii. 4.) “Turning the muzzles of the guns Magdalawards, and getting a piece of lighted rope [the party] blazed away as vigorously as possible ... and tried to hoist Theodore on his own petar.” Daily paper. bibliomania.com