Angry pixies is shop humor for electric current, picturing it as tiny creatures that run happily through the wires until something lets them out. Electricians blame a scorched receptacle or a popped breaker on the angry pixies and tell apprentices to keep the pixies in the wires. Like magic smoke, the joke wraps a healthy respect for what current can do.
Heard on the job
Loose neutral on that receptacle, the angry pixies have been cooking it for months.
Also heard as
- pixies