Monday, June 30, 2008

One of my favorite words: defenestrate

Here's a recent dictionary.com word of the day missive:

defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\, transitive verb:

To throw out of a window.

Some of his apparent chums . . . would still happily defenestrate him if they caught him near a window.
-- Andrew Marr, "No option bar the radical one", Independent, July 5, 1994

I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!
-- Lane Smith, quoted in "Who's News", Time for Kids, September 25, 1998

A woman, driven to fury by the manner in which her lover prefers to lavish his attention on a match on the telly rather than her, starts to throw his possessions out of the window. He's finally moved to stop her when she tries to defenestrate his new Puma boots.
-- Jim White, "Budgets substantial enough to buy most of the clubs in the Endsleigh", Independent, April 6, 1996

Defenestrate is derived from Latin de-, "out of" + fenestra, "window." The noun form is defenestration.


How awesome is that -- a single word for throwing something out a window. Turns out, it's one of Stud Farmhand's favorites as well. Go figure, birds of a feather.

Enjoy truly concise opportunities in language,

Bp

4 comments:

Shocho said...

/agreed

LT said...

Aus Das Fenster!

I think it's an odd word. In a good way. It's so important sounding, like haing a special word for closing a car door.

Bpaul said...

"like haing a special word for closing a car door."

Apt analogy, that cracks me up.

Anonymous said...

I'm using it! Amazing how many things need to go out the window around here... va momma