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
A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever reflect a power differential? And: a community choir director wants a term for “the act of...
A listener in Unadilla, New York, says her husband, whose family is French-Canadian, uses the phrase That burns my onions when something irritates him. There are several kitchen-related metaphors used to express anger, including that steams my...
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…