# word origin
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 17, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289 "2000-01-17T03:21:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@spudboy\_333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spudboy_333)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/1 "2000-01-17T03:21:00Z")
What is the origin of the word fart?
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### Author:  [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/2 "2000-01-17T04:36:00Z")
**fart** [oe] _Fart_ is a widespread and ancient word in the Indo-European languages, and goes back to a pre-historic Indo-European \*\*perd-\*, which may originally have been an imitation of the sound of a fart. Its other offspring besides _fart_ include German _farzen_ and _furzen_, Swedish _fjarta_, Danish _fjerte_, Russian _perdet’_, Polish _pierdziec_, Greek _pordizo_, and Welsh _rhechain_.
_ **Dictionary of Word Origins** _, John Ayto.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/3 "2000-01-17T16:04:00Z")
I believe, from a long-ago Shakespeare class, that the word “petard” (a primitive type of grenade) is cognate to the word “fart.”
You can just imagine some 15th century engineer thinking, “Well, it makes a big noise, it smells, so we’ll call it a …”
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and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel to toe
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/4 "2000-01-17T16:18:00Z")
IIRC, Chaucer used the word, spelled the same way, in “The Miller’s Tale.”
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### Author:  [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/5 "2000-01-17T17:40:00Z")
From The Miller’s Tale:
> [@](#):
>
> He was somdel squaymous Of fartyng.
I can’t frind any connection with petard other than the the French verb, to fart, is _péter_
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/6 "2000-01-17T21:48:00Z")
And that is the connection: Petard in French was the name for a small explosive charge; it roughly meant “little fart.” The word came into English as the name of the explosive.
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### Author:  [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/7 "2000-01-17T22:16:00Z")
Cecil wrote a column about the turn of the century French, uh, performing artist who specialized in farting. Mel Brooks fans will recognize the name – “Le Petomaine” (I’m unsure of the spelling).
I’ll see if I can find something in the archives. IIRC, it was in his (Cecil’s) first book.
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### Author:  [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2000, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/6289/8 "2000-01-17T22:21:00Z")
Here’s the column I was thinking of:
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_394.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_394.html)
A search of the archives for the word “fart” turned up a couple of dozen hits.