# Defenestration **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2007, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459 "2007-04-24T15:19:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/61 "2007-04-25T04:57:47Z")
For some reason, fenestra was one of the first words they taught us in Latin class so I knew what it meant the first time I saw it. Heh, I knew I wasn’t totally wasting my time. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/62 "2007-04-25T05:35:09Z")
As long as I get to make the antepenultimate post, I’ll feel content. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/63 "2007-04-25T07:01:27Z")
[QUOTE=Terrorcotta] It’s one of those odd words that _sounds_ like it should mean something closer to ‘removal’ such as ‘The peacock was defenestrated by Hurrican Andrew.’ I’ve known _of_ the word for years but never seemed to have any use for since I wasn’t 100% sure of the meaning. Thanks for clearing it up! [/QUOTE] Ah, see, I had the advantage of Catalan there… finestra = window. De- = minus, off. So Defenestrar: off the window. In Spanish it can also be used to mean “to drop someone (can be oneself) off a high point that’s part of a building.” A neighbor defenestrated himself from his 7th floor balcony after his wife’s funeral, you could see the dark spots on the concrete below for years. When people saw them and asked “what’s that,” we said “oh, some sorf of defect in the concrete.” ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/64 "2007-04-25T07:13:17Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] As long as I get to make the antepenultimate post, I’ll feel content. [/QUOTE] And if this post closes the thread, then your ambition will have been achieved. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/65 "2007-04-25T07:37:43Z")
This thread has seen me, rather perversely, going about my daily chores and chanting many new odd words that were not part of my regular vocabulary until this very day. While drawing my tub: “SA-PON-IF-ICK-AYYY-SHUN!” While washing potatoes: “DEEEEEE-FEN-ES-TRAY-SHUN!” Bud-a-budum-bum-bum-bum! Dadadada! Totally subconsciously. I don’t realise I’m doing it until I try to figure out what the hell tune I’m trying to sing, because I’ve lost my place. That, or my husband asks me what the hell kind of song is _that_. You people will be the education of me, yet. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/66 "2007-04-25T08:19:10Z")
[QUOTE=Lightray] auto-de-fénestration. [/QUOTE] Totally a band name. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/67 "2007-04-25T08:20:42Z")
[QUOTE=norinew] Okay, here’s one: uxurious. [/QUOTE] I first came across that in a sociology class in college (Marriage and family life in China) with the term **uxorolocal** : a marriage in which the couple lives in the wife’s household (as opposed to the wife moving in with the husband’s family, as most couples did). ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/68 "2007-04-25T12:56:02Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] I still say defensetrate means to remove windows, and to throw someone through the window would be to transfenstrate them. [/QUOTE] A fenestration is the _opening_ in the window, it’s the air, not the wood and glass. It’s used in medicine as in a fenestrated surgical drape, or the fenestra ovalis, an opening between the middle ear and the cochlea. Defenestration seems to have a narrower meaning. Darn. **VetBridge** , how did I miss your post? What he said. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459/69 "2007-04-25T19:59:42Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] I first came across that in a sociology class in college (Marriage and family life in China) with the term **uxorolocal** : a marriage in which the couple lives in the wife’s household (as opposed to the wife moving in with the husband’s family, as most couples did). [/QUOTE] There’s also _uxoricide_, the killing of one’s wife. As a [clerihew](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clerihew) I wrote begins: Bay Village resident [Dr. Sam Sheppard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Sheppard) By accusations uxoricidal was peppered. Other victim-specific terms for murder include _mariticide_ (the killing of one’s husband), _sororicide_ (the killing of one’s sister), _fratricide_ (the killing of one’s brother), _parricide_ (the killing of one’s parent), and _filicide_ (the killing of one’s child). [This list](http://phrontistery.info/kill.html) includes all those, as well as terms for such acts as killing partridges or tapeworms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defenestration/401459.md?page=3)