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Defenestration
- pssflops 7y agoEasy to see the connection for this word when learning that the German word for "window" is "Fenster."
- llcoolv 7y agoAnd it is quite cute how civilised throwing someone out of a window sounds once there is a sophisticated word for it :D
- racl101 7y agoMy fave word for something that sounds innocuous but is actually severe is: vivisection. If you didn't look up, it almost sounds like something you might casually get at a spa.
- RodgerTheGreat 7y ago"My friends spent the summer waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay."
- nostoc 7y agoKnowing more than one language can be really helpful to just grok these words quickly, even if you've never seen them before. alive is vivente, viviente, vivant and vida in italian, spanish, french and portuguese If you know what a dissection is, you can then connect the dots.
- blowski 7y agoQuidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur.
- davrosthedalek 7y agoMy favorite: Et situs vi late in isset ab ernit ("dialect" form of "Es sieht aus wie Latein, ist es aber nicht", "It looks like latin, but it isn't")
- jcranmer 7y agoThe French word for window is "fenêtre". And in French, the circumflex accent usually denotes a deletion of an 's', as in words such as "forêt", "hôpital", "île", "conquête".
- marton78 7y agoAlso, it's fenêtre in French and finestra in Italian and Catalan.
- marcosdumay 7y agoWhile Portuguese and Spanish have completely different words. Somewhere the chain was broken.
- kthejoker2 7y agoVentana and Window are root aligned (ventus, wind), fenestra in latin is "light opening", no idea how Portugal ended up with "door" for windows (Janus, janua, janela) .. More impacts of "climate change" : )
- cevn 7y agoHuh, you just enlightened me, I knew a guy named Fenstermacher and now I think I understand his name..
- telmo 7y agoYes, it all comes from the Latin "fenestram".
- blowski 7y agoSomething I learned here - the English word window comes from an old Germanic word vendauga meaning "wind eye". German started using something like fenster vendauga (I don't know the actual phrase) to mean "a window with glass in it", from the Latin word fenestra. It later dropped the vendauga bit entirely. English has now borrowed the word fenster from German, to mean the erosion of a new bit of rock exposing an older bit.
- racl101 7y agoTIL?
- BLKNSLVR 7y agoHarry was unsuccessful in his oral defenestration of the grape seeds, which were now sliding ungracefully down the inside of the half open passenger window of Sally's otherwise immaculately kempt vehicle, leaving a trail of the kind that remains visible until chemicals are used in the cleaning.
- jtms 7y agoWhat a fantastic paragraph... is this from a book?
- dhess 7y agoNo. Watch this: https://youtu.be/mp8chvACVBk https://youtu.be/mp8chvACVBk
- BLKNSLVR 7y agoThank you friend :) As dhess pointed out below it's a moment from a scene in the movie When Harry Met Sally. The wording above, however, is my own. That scene just happened to pop into my head when I read the word defenestration, so I decided I'd like to "use it in a sentence". I've read some Pynchon in my time, too, so I have a penchant for densely descriptive prose. I'm glad it was appreciated.
- jtms 7y agoYou’re welcome! I’ve always wanted to read Pynchon, but have never made the time. Any recommendations on which book to start with?
- BLKNSLVR 7y agoThe Crying of Lot 49, it's more a novella, but is still quite dense. Bleeding Edge was relatively straight forward compared to Vineland. I haven't had the courage to tackle some of the larger tomes of Pynchon's yet.
- dhosek 7y agoThere’s a generation of nerds who learned this word from the glossary of the Apple ][ manual which included, ”defenestration: The act of throwing something or someone out of a window.“
- mey 7y agoTom Francis has been working on a Defenestration Trilogy. Video games that feature defenestration. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34631927 https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34631927
- rzr 7y agoSome of French use this term when installing Linux over Windows on a computer... :)
- klyrs 7y agoNot just the French! I'm from the US and recall using it as early as 2006...
- contingencies 7y agohttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/defenestration https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/defenestration The act of throwing something or someone out of a window. [from c. 17th c.] (Britain) The high-profile removal of a person from an organization. (computing, humorous) The act of removing the Microsoft Windows operating system from a computer in order to install an alternative one.
- tempsy 7y agoIs this term not widely known? remember learning this term as the cause of some wars you learn about in grade school
- tiborsaas 7y agoIt's not that widely known, but WW1 started with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Fran...
- riffraff 7y agoIs this a joke? The assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand was always the explanation for the start of WWI for me and everyone I've had the chance to speak, and there are at least two world wide known bands related to the event.
- feintruled 7y agoThe wars OP referred to are much older ones, e.g. : "The term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618 which became the spark that started the Thirty Years' War."
- adamnemecek 7y agoIt didn't. It started Thirty Year War and Hussite Wars.
- tiborsaas 7y agoOP edited his comment.
- giorgioz 7y agoI wonder if that happened like in a violent fashion like when someone is tossed out of a bar by a bouncer or did it happen like in the cartoons when a prisoner walks slowly over a board into the sea from a pirate ship.
- jweir 7y agoAnd here I thought maybe there was a new Defenestration in San Francisco https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/defenestration https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/defenestration
- dekhn 7y agoto me defenestration is always sounded like a process that removes intestines but every time I mention it to someone who knows German they say fenster means window
- suddensleep 7y ago"In December 1840, Abraham Lincoln and four other Illinois legislators jumped out of a window in a political maneuver designed to prevent a quorum on a vote that would have eliminated the Illinois State Bank." Imagining something like this happening today is ... difficult, to say the least.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoIt must have been precipitated by something, and I'm guessing someone barred the door. Also a strange move.
- SamBam 7y agoWell, we certainly have had legislators hiding in motels across district lines in recent memory, and sherifs being sent to bring them back.
- Spooky23 7y agoDon't limit your imagination. All sorts of bizarre stuff is done to avoid triggering various parliamentary rules in legislative bodies. For example: https://www.wamc.org/post/nys-assembly-always-session https://www.wamc.org/post/nys-assembly-always-session
- wmil 7y agoI blame aging legislators and the obesity epidemic.
- salawat 7y agoOregon ended up having State Senators flee across State lines. Even one going so far as to warn law enforcement to send unmarried men without families to try to forcibly collect them. https://kval.com/news/local/oregon-senator-on-governor-sending-police-send-bachelors-and-come-heavily-armed https://kval.com/news/local/oregon-senator-on-governor-sendi... When there is as much on the line as there is in America's legislative system, you will be surprised the shenanigans that ensue. The business of the Congress at one point had to ban the practice of dueling. Not necessarily because it wasn't seen as a way to settle a dispute, but that it happened so often. Kentucky I think is the state that specifically disqualifies legislators based on participation in duels. https://www.sos.ky.gov/admin/land/resources/articles/Documents/CodeDuello.pdf https://www.sos.ky.gov/admin/land/resources/articles/Documen... Robert's Rules of Order are often looked upon those with a darker sense of humor in the same light as the Third-man out rule in hockey. Ruins all the good fights. Though Asia has been known for some doozies. I recall the use of either a chainsaw or fire axe at one point. Ah! Taiwan was it. http://loweringthebar.net/2017/07/brawling-again-in-taiwan.html http://loweringthebar.net/2017/07/brawling-again-in-taiwan.h... South Koreans seem to prefer the legislative Sledgehammer. https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-korea-fight28-2009jan28-story.html https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-korea-fight28-2009jan28-...
- undebuggable 7y agoProbably the greatest Czech contribution to the European history and heritage.
- kazinator 7y agoNot "robot"?
- blaser-waffle 7y agoOr Jaromir Jagr?
- adamnemecek 7y agoOr pilsner.
- ErikAugust 7y agoReminds of a particular Family Guy episode, as it is the only time I have heard the term: Dennis Miller: Now I don't want to go on a rant here, but America's foreign policy makes about as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the first Battle of Antietam. I mean, when a neo-conservative defenestrates, it's like Raskalnikov filibuster deoxymonohydroxinate. Peter: What the hell does "rant" mean?
- blaser-waffle 7y agoThere was a 2nd Battle of Antietam?
- kangnkodos 7y agoOne of the greatest things on YouTube. Defenestration: The Movie Seven minutes of very short clips from Hollywood movies involving defenestration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_tV49vsIXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_tV49vsIXc
- anotherevan 7y agoI was in my kid's secondary school student support office one morning where one student was telling his friend about the time his dad threw him through a window. It wasn't a big, heavy conversation, just a recounting of it as something that was a bit of a novelty. So I pipe up and say, "Hey, there's even a word for that!" which in a strange way left them somewhat pleased.
- ksaj 7y agoWhen I was in high school, we used to refer jokingly to "defenstration of an ecdysiast." I don't remember where we got it from, but it usually was brought up in connection to the highly exaggerated and dramatic way teens tend to tell a lengthy story about their day as if it was the most interesting story ever.