If we search for Pétard in google translate, the results are petard, firecracker, squib, cracker, banger, maroon, backfire, whizz bang, which doesn’t seem to match your definition. If we try Petard, google translate auto-corrects into Pétard so I’m assuming this is what you meant.
Maybe google translate doesn’t know swear words though? To check that, I try to translate Putain, which is a foul word for prostitute. I will not write the results here, but you can check for yourself that the results match this definition.
If we go the other way around, and try to translate fuck you, we get a french sentence which I won’t write here either, but perfectly matches the english sentence.
I’m French. Pétard is a very minor swear word, on par with “great Scott!”
It’s not meant as an insult at all. The most common French swear word is probably “putain” (used like “fuck” is) and pétard is used as an attenuated version, (like saying “fudge”).
(As a frenchman, I also admit to the existence of a writhing snake inside my gut telling me to downvote this heretical post which dares! compare French cuisine with German cuisine. Luckily, I have learned enough rationality to override my primal instincts.)
Is it though? Where have you heard that?
If we search for Pétard in google translate, the results are petard, firecracker, squib, cracker, banger, maroon, backfire, whizz bang, which doesn’t seem to match your definition. If we try Petard, google translate auto-corrects into Pétard so I’m assuming this is what you meant.
Maybe google translate doesn’t know swear words though? To check that, I try to translate Putain, which is a foul word for prostitute. I will not write the results here, but you can check for yourself that the results match this definition.
If we go the other way around, and try to translate fuck you, we get a french sentence which I won’t write here either, but perfectly matches the english sentence.
What evidence supporting this can you provide?
[EDIT] You may also want to check Pétard(homonymie) on wikipedia
I’m French. Pétard is a very minor swear word, on par with “great Scott!”
It’s not meant as an insult at all. The most common French swear word is probably “putain” (used like “fuck” is) and pétard is used as an attenuated version, (like saying “fudge”).
(As a frenchman, I also admit to the existence of a writhing snake inside my gut telling me to downvote this heretical post which dares! compare French cuisine with German cuisine. Luckily, I have learned enough rationality to override my primal instincts.)
It’s also very old-fashioned. Can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone below 60 say “pétard” unironically.
I don’t think it was intended as a serious translation.
A petard is a bomb, and to be hoist means (or meant as Shakespeare used it, for the expression comes from Hamlet) to be blown up into the air.