djmullen
Posts: 327
Joined: Jan. 2006
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| Quote (jeffox @ Nov. 12 2007,23:10) | Aesahaettr, on the "blog reading level" thread, wrote:
| Quote | Gosh, Barry, looks like you can’t catch a break today. It’s supposed to be “hoisted BY my own petard,” not “ON my own petard.” Why, it almost sounds like you don’t even know what a “petard” is.
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Well, he certainly has the last 4 letters down. :)
Aside, I wonder how long this comment will last there? |
I always wondered just what a "petard" was, so here's dictionary.com's definition:
1. an explosive device formerly used in warfare to blow in a door or gate, form a breach in a wall, etc.
4. hoist by or with one's own petard, hurt, ruined, or destroyed by the very device or plot one had intended for another.
But the fun part's the eytemology:
[Origin: 1590–1600; < MF, equiv. to pet(er) to break wind (deriv. of pet < L péditum a breaking wind, orig. neut. of ptp. of pédere to break wind) + -ard -ard]
So it's a kind of a farTard.
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