How rewarding, to be able to use the word, especially in an age when
we add prepositions to any word which feels too short (e.g. "head up",
"swap out")! But it's a transitive verb, of course, Andrew, and
requires a direct object. So if you want to keep it compact it would
have to be self-defenestrate.
But more to the point, what sort of undisciplined class do you run,
old chap, in which your students feel that it is acceptable to leave
by such untidy means?
:-))
Chris
On 31 Oct 2009, at 22:38, Andrew Fildes wrote:
> Speaking of Windows, Chris, I had the opportunity to use the verb
> 'defenestrate' the other day - they don't come around too often! A
> student jumped out of a classroom window while my back was turned, to
> avoid being kept in after class. But in writing the incident report
> for the co-ordinator, I was bothered. Did he simply defenestrate,
> defenestrate himself, self-defenestrate or auto-defenestrate? You're
> the man with the Latin - which is it? And can it be applied sensibly
> to someone who has sensibly migrated to Mac?
> Oh, and the co-ordinator had to go look it up and I did use the verb
> orchestrate in the next sentence, just for dramatic effect.
--
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