Dec

30

Defenestrate

Filed Under D 

When I first read it somewhere, “defenestrate” was a word I had to look up immediately. As someone with very little knowledge of Latin, I didn’t see any connection to windows, but the mere sound of the word struck me as mischievous and a bit dirty. Even so, I wasn’t disappointed to learn that assassination-by-throwing-from-a-window had its very own word. Where are all the other words in the English language for useful stuff like this? I want an elegant word for death by being tied to railroad tracks, or murder by encasement in a concrete foundation…. You get the picture. And even though it’s not very useful, “defenestrate” is worth learning just for the simple pleasure of telling off an annoying idiot by saying “Go defenestrate yourself” and watching his dumbfounded, and often disgusted, reaction.

Amy Lange

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