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To: Pyro7480
"For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his owne petar"
-- Shakespeare, Hamlet III iv.

"Hoist" was in Shakespeare's time the past participles of a verb "to hoise", which meant what "to hoist" does now: to lift. A petard (see under "peter out" for the etymology) was an explosive charge detonated by a slowly burning fuse. If the petard went off prematurely, then the sapper (military engineer; Shakespeare's "enginer") who planted it would be hurled into the air by the explosion. (Compare "up" in "to blow up".) A modern rendition might be: "It's fun to see the engineer blown up with his own bomb."

3 posted on 11/07/2008 2:53:11 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: 2banana

Is there a particular book you found that in? The explanation of the Shakespeare quote I mean.


16 posted on 11/07/2008 2:57:20 PM PST by vladimir998 (Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. St. Jerome)
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To: 2banana

Dictionary goes on to say that “hoist with one’s own petard” means ... “destroyed by the very devices with which one meant to destroy others.”


29 posted on 11/07/2008 3:06:21 PM PST by OldNavyVet (Character counts)
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