[voxadam]

What amazes me the most is that physicists managed to turn a ferret into a pig[0] and that they did it in 1971.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigging

[GuB-42]

In French, the wire-like tool used by plumbers to unclog pipes is called a furet (ferret). Although it is not the proper term, cable pullers, used by electricians to pull wires into ducts may also be called furet.

Maybe a French physicist took the term literally.