When my dad was young he worked for awhile laying railroad track, one day his foreman sent for a "two inch dutchman". My father, thinking this was a hazing prank, went off to look for one, he walked down the track around a bend and sat down for about a half-hour. When he returned he found out that there really was such an item.
I remember when one of my co-workers sent a FNG to get a set of muffler bearings for our pipe stretcher.