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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Petard' Hoist on his own petard. Caught in his own trap, involved in the danger he meant for others.
The petard was a conical instrument of war employed at one time for blowing open gates with
gunpowder. The engineers used to carry the petard to the place they intended to blow up, and fire it at the
small end by a fusee. Shakespeare spells the word petar. “'Tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with
his own petar.” (Hamlet, ii. 4.)
If externalized borborrymi amuse you, look up "Le Petomane"/
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Blue Peter:
Blue Peter A flag with a blue ground and white square in the centre, hoisted as a signal that the ship is
about to sail. Peter is a corruption of the French partir (leave or notice of departure). The flag is hoisted
to give notice to the town that any person having a money-claim may make it before the ship starts, and
that all about to sail are to come on board.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Blue Stocking A female pedant. In 1400 a society of ladies and gentlemen was formed at Venice,
distinguished by the colour of their stockings, and called della calza. It lasted till 1590, when it appeared
in Paris and was the rage among the lady savantes. From France it came to England in 1780, when Mrs.
Montague displayed the badge of the Bas-bleu club at her evening assemblies. Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet
was a constant attendant of the soirées. The last of the clique was Miss Monckton, afterwards Countess
of Cork, who died 1840.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Blue Talk Indecent conversation, from the French, Bibliothèque Bleu. (Harlots are called “Blues” from
the blue gown they were once compelled to wear in the House of Correction.)
Blue movies is euphemism for pornographic movies.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Blunderbuss A short gun with a large bore. (Dutch, donderbus, a thunder-tube.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Peter the Great of Russia built St. Petersburg, and gave Russia a place among the nations of Europe. He
laid aside his crown and sceptre, came to England, and worked as a common labourer in our dockyards,
that he might teach his subjects how to build ships.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Petitio Principii (A). A begging of the question, or assuming in the premises the question you undertake
to prove. Thus, if a person undertook to prove the infallibility of the pope, and were to take for his
premises- (1) Jesus Christ promised to keep the apostles and their successors in all the truth; (2) the popes
are the regular successors of the apostles, and therefore the popes are infallible- it would be a vicious
syllogism from a petitio principii.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Petrel The stormy petrel. So named, according to tradition, from the Italian Petrello (little Peter), in
allusion to St. Peter, who walked on the sea. Our sailors call them “Mother Carey's chickens.” They are
called stormy because in a gale they surround a ship to catch small animals which rise to the surface of the
rough sea; when the gale ceases they are no longer seen.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Petto It petto. In secrecy, in reserve (Italian, in the breast). The pope creates cardinals in petto - i.e. in
his own mind- and keeps the appointment to himself till he thinks proper to announce it.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Why Mother Carey's chickens? I have heard this but never understood it.
dxb
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