[FRIAM] flattening -isms

[Nick Thompson]

Hi, Russ, 

 

Oh, gosh.  You have always done right by me, and now I have to confess a sin.  I have accurately traced the word back to the Latin word for "fart".  However, in order to be more colorful, I left out an intermediate step in the etymology <https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=petard> .  I am afraid the French got in there.  During the middle ages when people were running around laying siege to one another’s castles, somebody invented a bomb which soldiers would place against the lock of the castle doors in order to blow them open.  To maximize the force exerted on the doors, the bombs were heavily packed.  Hence, when they went off, they went Pfffft! rather than Boom!  Hence the name, Petard,, I think.  So, in fact, I was a little bit pulling your leg.  I like the idea that being hoist by one's petard is a reference to a particular form of falling from one's high horse.  As a former academic, being flung from the saddle of your High Horse by your own hot air, seems a proper way to go.  

 

So, in fact, all of this is an example of itself. 

 

Shamefacedly, 

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Russell Standish
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2019 1:30 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] flattening -isms

 

On Sun, Nov 17, 2019 at 12:27:39PM -0700, Nick Thompson wrote:

> 

> By the way, speaking of etymology, to be hoist by one’s own petard is 

> to be ejected from one’s own saddle by the force of one’s own fart.  Look it up.

 

Thanks for this. I always knew that petard meant fart, since schoolboy French anyway, but did ocasionally wonder how you get hoisted by a fart.

 

 

 

-- 

 

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Dr Russell Standish                    Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)

Principal, High Performance Coders

Visiting Senior Research Fellow         <mailto:hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au> hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au

Economics, Kingston University          <http://www.hpcoders.com.au> http://www.hpcoders.com.au

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