gerb
n.— «We go to a testing zone to light a lively gerb (a fire fountain named after the French word for “spray”).…In one room, I meet a jovial French couple who are busy sticking fuses into pink tubes which turn out to be multi-coloured gerbs.» —“The retired clergyman whose fireworks factory has made people go ‘Ooooohh’ for 50 years” by Robert Hardman Daily Mail (United Kingdom) Nov. 1, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What kind of book do people ask for most often in prison? Romance novels? No. The Bible? No. The most requested books by far are … dictionaries! A number of volunteer organizations gather and distribute used dictionaries to help inmates with...
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...
In French, it’s “gerbe”.
And although it’s not about English, some may find this fun… The verb form, “gerber” is a colloquial and very common way to say “to vomit” (as in many other languages, in French there are many, many ways to say “to vomit”). But it also has a different meaning in more technical language, meaning “to stack” (for example boxes of goods in a warehouse). You can often see the expression “ne pas gerber” (do not stack) printed on packing crates and boxes. My first inclination is always to wonder why they think I’m about to barf…