Hoisted on My Own Petard
Or is it by my own petard? I was so busy being hoisted, I forgot to check…
My blogging is still going to be sparse for at least a few more days, because I’ve got a bunch of deadlines and miles to go before I sleep. But I had to document a conversation with my 5-year-old I had earlier this evening:
Clark: Hey, hey, what does dammit start with?
RPM: Oh, buddy, let’s not say that word.
Clark: But what does dammit start with?
RPM: It starts with “d” but we’re not going to say that word anymore, OK?
Clark: But you said “dammit” a long time ago, remember?
RPM: Yeah I know buddy, I shouldn’t have said it. OK we’re not going to say that word anymore, because it’s a bad word.
Clark: I wasn’t trying to be bad, I was just asking you what dammit started with–
RPM: Hey! Stop saying it, OK?!
Definitely by your own petard. A petard was a little bomb used for breaking through enemy gates. Being “hoisted by your own petard” means you have been blown off your feet by your own bomb.
I looked this up a few months ago because 41 years of not knowing what it meant finally got to me!
Hmmm… So has English Bob foolishly revealed his age, or is he a 56-year-old whose memory of “petard” was wiped away in a farming accident as a teenager?
Whoops! I guess now it’s only a matter of days before I hear the knock on the door.
Hoist with his own petard
from shakespeare–
Hamlet:
For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petard, an’t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon.