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To: lilylangtree

Ha Ha -- a lawyer always counsels clients: Beware of asking a question if you don't know the answer!

Mmmm... Democrats hoisted on your own petard! Delicious!!

"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."

http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxhoistw.html


16 posted on 05/30/2005 12:15:31 PM PDT by victim soul
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To: victim soul

Thanks. :)


19 posted on 05/30/2005 12:26:18 PM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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