My Quest to Find Out What The Hell 'Props' Means...and I don't mean everday items used on a stage.

I've been wondering this for a while now. In fact, I asked Papa Rooster the other day, What the hell does 'props' mean like when someone says, I've got to give 'props 'to the person who thought up that great idea? Papa Rooster looks at me as if I'm about half retarded (if that's even a possibility to be half retarded). He says, What the hell are you talking about? I've never heard that term before.

I found a definition for it here: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=props
And here it is for all you other half retarded people out there:
# S: (n) props (proper respect) "I have to give my props to the governor for the way he handled the problem"

I can't believe I found the definition for that on a Princeton education website. Why can't people just say, "I have to give my respect to the gov for the way he managed to cover his ass"?

I don't think it's possible for someone to be half retarded. I do, however, think it's possible to "go retarded" as in "I'm going insane." So I must be going retarded...okay. Okay. Insane works as well.