>Sort of is an anachronism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard. It's more elegant than saying, "gee I f****d up".

Back home, "petarda" was a kids' toy... there'd be a narrow pipe (usually an old hollow key), a nail that fits into it, and some gunpowder in the pipe. The outer ends of the nail and the pipe would be tied with about 1.5m (5 ft) of wire, swung rapidly and hit against any solid object. The inertia would cause the nail to hit the gunpowder and fire it up. Basically, a rechargeable cracker.