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Re: Hoist with/by/from your own petard

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BikerDonFeb 5, 2008

> just to add to what is being said, it's a phrase used when someone accuses someone else of some crime or offence and then commits the same offence.

> For example, if someone posted about someone else's grammatical errors, and then made some of their own, it would be hoist with your own petard.

I'm afraid I have to disagree to some extent here.

What Dean quoted above are two possible examples of being 'hoist on/with/by/from your own petard', the second being far better than the first really.

It means that a plan or plot that you are concocting (normally to do some damage or harm to someone else) backfires and it turns back on yourself.

I hope you can see it applies more to the second example than the first.

It was used by 'Bill' Shakespeare in Hamlet - one of the very many phrases in common usage that is only used because of his usage.

One of the many joys of the English language.

Cheers

Don __o
-\<,
..... O/ O