squib \skwib\,
noun:
1. a short and witty or sarcastic saying or writing.
2. Journalism. a short news story, often used as a filler.
verb:
1. to write squibs.
2. to shoot a squib.
This last is a sarcastic squib partly based on an experience of Gérard de Nerval's in Vienna.
-- Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), translated by Richard Holmes, "My Fantoms," published in 2008
His tendency to uphold technical views gave rise to a very clever squib by the late Mr. Justice Hayes, in which the spirit of the baron is supposed to arrive in Hades…
-- William Ballantine, "Some Experiences of a Barrister's Life," 1883
Squib is of unknown origin, though it entered English in the 1500s.
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