Nov
19
Defenestration
Filed Under D
Because a word meaning “to throw out a window” is so amazingly awesome.
Matt
Somewhere
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12 Responses to “Defenestration”
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Filed Under D
Because a word meaning “to throw out a window” is so amazingly awesome.
Matt
Somewhere
12 Responses to “Defenestration”
Leave a Reply
Please allow me to correct your grammar, Matt.
“To throw (someone or something) out a window” would be to “defenestrate”. “Defenestration” is the ACT of throwing (something) out of a window. “Defenestration” is a noun, not a verb.
Also – I can suggest another meaning. Perhaps one could get away with using it to describe the act of removing windows, as in construction work or demolition of buildings. There are agencies and companies with “Fenestration” in their names, in the construction industry. In French, “fenetre” is “window” and in Spanish it’s “fenestra”.
Well, I could see how that would work. deFENEstration could kind of be like the french word for window which is FENEtre. And then DE, could be used like, to remove. Hmmm….
I love this word. I use it whenever it is appropriate, and sometimes when not! It really confuses people.
There is a dark side to this word. It also means, as I described in a poem once, “the art, habit, or practice of jumping out of windows.” The thrust of the poem was that a suicide by defenestration could be prevented by getting into a dialogue with the unhappy person about which foot should go over the windowsill first, and why. Naturally, the people in the poetry seminar who had had suicides among friends raised the devil with me for being so light-hearted about such a serious subject. I have been careful since, but I still like the word.
Please allow me to correct your translation, Terry.
Fenestra means nothing in Spanish, mainly because it is Latin.
Thanks for the word Matt. It’s really a great one!
Actually, Alex, in the RAE dictionary (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española) Fenestra is featured with the meaning “window”. It does exist in Spanish as well. Anyway, I have to acknowledge that such a word was unknown to me until now, and I am a native Spanish speaker. As for the word “defenestration” it is truly a great word.
Greetings from Colombia.
Well, Helldunkel, you almost got it. Fenetre is French, fenestra is Spanish and Italin, fenster is German, fresta is Ancient Portuguese, and it all comes from the same Latin root, which is “fenestra.”
Amazingness, as you wanted to know about its formation, DE is a prefix indicating removal (in the case), FENESTRA is the root for window, and TION is the suffix for an action (again, in the case). I hope I made myself clear on this one.
And yes, Terry was right, it is a noun. The verb is “defenestrate.”
My son is a fenestrationist by trade. He examines windows to make sure they are built to spec. Imagine being asked what you do for a living??? “I’m a fenestrationist”. That’s a conversation stopper!
would the sentence “Hermann dreams of becoming a rock artist on tour since he enjoys defenstrating hotel TV’s.” be correct, gramaticly speaking?
It’s correct, though it’s probably better if you left out the apostrophe in “TV’s”; thus–just “TVs.”
I always liked the word ‘parcel’…just has a nicer phonemic ring to it than ‘package’ or ‘box’ in my opinion. Plus it has nice associations…most likely contains something benign somebody just bought from a local shop…cookies, pastry, some item of clothing or accessory. (Barton Fink notwithstanding.) Finally it brings a picturesque image to mind. Why? Because it’s wrapped up in string, that’s why.
I believe there’s a school of thought which holds that defenestration does not merely mean to throw something out of a window, or even to throw someone out of a window, but that it specifically means to kill someone by throwing them out of a window, as famously occurred in Bohemia during the civil disturbances of the 15th and 17th centuries. If you don’t believe me, czech for yourself.