in my senior year in high school, i had dr. detlaff for my english teacher. she was this ridiculously proper old lady who spoke in the most perfect english...and kept her class completely silent and attentive. for a nice old granny, she had us totally controlled -- none of us dared to crack jokes or josh around in her class.
anyhoo, during that year, we read hamlet. one day, we were supposed to have read some passage for homework...blah blah. well, obviously, i hadn't. so to make sure i don't get called out, i was furiously reading ahead during class when i came to this passage:
...hoist with his own petard...
and oh man, i just could not hold it together. PEE-tard! how funny was that? i poked che-che, who sat next to me, and whispered, "look! PEEE-tard. hahahahahaha. you are a PEEE-tard." (i was very mature.) i proceeded to turn to everyone around me to call them a petard...and slowly the word was spreading through rest of the classroom.
then, dr. d arrived at the passage. she read (in her very serious tone), "hoist with his own peh-TARRRRD"...and the class just busted up. a peh-tard!!?! not peee-tard!!?!?! i don't buy it, dr. d.
thus, my revised dictionary entry, fob edition:
petard. n. 1) medival small bomb to blow up gates and walls. 2) trap. 3) one class above retard.
also can be petarded. adj. e.g. "sauj's blog is petarded." petardedly. adv. e.g. "sauj often acts petardedly."
3 comments:
I like these little blast from the past posts. They explain alot about who you are today! Petarded. -katie
where does motard fit in to the categorization? that's a cross b/t moron and retard.
Lindy
Good thing you kids didn't know the actual etymology of the word back then:
The French used petard (from pet: to fart), "a loud discharge of intestinal gas," for a kind of infernal engine for blasting through the gates of a city. "To be hoist by one's own petard," means "to blow oneself up with one's own bomb."
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