thermal roughening
n.— «In February, crews started blasting the sidewalks with a blowtorch—or “thermal roughening,” as they call it—to burn away the slippery top layer of stone.» —“Mayor Bloomberg orders $1M worth of repairs on sidewalk near City Hall” by Adam Lisberg New York Daily News (New York City) Apr. 14, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
When Kentrell from West Memphis, Arkansas, worked for a granite company, his co-workers who were about to put two pieces of granite together would say I’m going to pull a seam. But why would they use the word pull for the action of pushing...
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...