fumer — TO SMOKE

[feu-MEH] (v.) When a dude fumes it can be pretty entertaining: there's lots of stomping around, maybe some roars/groans punctuated with curses, a bit of chest beating and, hopefully, something thrown across the room. But when a cartoon dude fumes (think Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote) it's entertainment: the eyes bulge out comically, the complexion turns crimson, the body constricts and lifts in the air and, of course, there's smoke billowing from their ears. Well, now you know why they call getting super-angry fuming, because it's taken from the French word fumer, which means to smoke. (But in cartoons smoke only comes of the ears because they don't want kids thinking the overstressed Coyote smokes Marlboros.)