Monday, January 03, 2005
Word of The Day #2
defenestrate
- v : throw through or out of the window
[dictionary.com - WordNet 2.0, 2003 Princeton University]
- v : back-formation from defenestration, "the action of throwing out of a window," 1620, from L. fenestra "window." A word invented for one incident: the "Defenestration of Prague," May 21, 1618, when two Catholic deputies to the Bohemian national assembly and a secretary were tossed out the window (into a moat) of the castle of Hradshin by Protestant radicals. It marked the start of the Thirty Years War. Some linguists link fenestra with Gk. verb phainein "to show;" others see in it an Etruscan borrowing, based on the suffix -(s)tra, as in L. loan-words aplustre "the carved stern of a ship with its ornaments," genista "the plant broom," lanista "trainer of gladiators."
[etymonline.com - online etymological dictionary]
examples:
"The rebels stormed the palace and defenestrated the President"
[dictionary.com]
"I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!"
[--Lane Smith, quoted in "Who's News," Time for Kids September 25, 1998 : dictionary.com - word of the day, 25/01/2000]
