feu de joie

• feu-de-joie

Unadapted borrowing from French feu de joie (literally “fire of joy”).

feu de joie (plural feux de joie)

1. (obsolete) A bonfire.
2. A celebratory salute made by firing guns into the air sequentially along a line.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Watches of the Night”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 60:

     while Platte was rolling over and over on the turf, like a shot rabbit, the watch and guard flew from his waistcoat—as an Infantry Major's sword hops out of the scabbard when they are firing a feu-de-joie

Literally, “fire of joy”, “joy fire”. Compare Dutch vreugdevuur, German Freudenfeuer.

• IPA^(key): /fø də ʒwa/

feu de joie m (plural feux de joie)

1. bonfire