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defenestration - 4 dictionary results
de⋅fen⋅es⋅tra⋅tion
[dee-fen-uh-strey-shuh
n] 
–noun
| the act of throwing a thing or esp. a person out of a window: the defenestration of the commissioners at Prague. |
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To defenestration
| de·fen·es·tra·tion (dē-fěn'ĭ-strā'shən) n. An act of throwing someone or something out of a window. [From de- + Latin fenestra, window.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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defenestration
n. [mythically from a traditional Czech assasination method, via SF fandom]1. Proper karmic retribution for an incorrigible punster. "Oh, ghod, that was _awful_!" "Quick! Defenestrate him!"
2. The act of exiting a window system in order to get better response time from a full-screen program. This comes from the dictionary meaning of `defenestrate', which is to throw something out a window.
3. The act of discarding something under the assumption that it will improve matters. "I don't have any disk space left." "Well, why don't you defenestrate that 100 megs worth of old core dumps?"
4. Under a GUI, the act of dragging something out of a window (onto the screen). "Next, defenestrate the MugWump icon."
5. The act of completely removing Micro$oft Windows from a PC in favor of a better OS (typically Linux).
Jargon File 4.2.0
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defenestration
1620, "the action of throwing out of a window," 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."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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