There are some words so special that they comfort you in your
declining years. One such is 'defenestration' which means the act of
throwing something out of a window. That such a specialised word
could exist is wonderful and I try not to miss any opportunity to use
it, to roll it off the tongue. My OED does not offer a verb
'defenestrate' in either an active or passive sense but it seems a
reasonable step and I have been defenestrated in my youth. It hardly
hurt at all.
(From 'fenestra' L. window)
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 05/04/2007, at 9:31 PM, Walt Wayman wrote:
> As best I recall -- it's been many a year -- from when I took two
> years of German as my foreign language requirement in college,
> "Fenster" is German for window, so "defensteration" is sort of a
> basterdization of the English language. But, hell, we borrowed
> about half of it from other folks, which may account for why it's
> got over 600,000 words and still growing.
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