# Lost Column on Defenestration of Prague **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 29, 2012, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328 "2012-02-29T09:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/1 "2012-02-29T09:12:04Z")
Help! I have a vivid recollection of a column Cecil wrote about the (or just “a”) Defenestration of Prague, only instead of Hussites tossing out the screaming bodies of corrupt Catholic Church officials, this story involved students at the University of Prague giving a despised professor the heave-ho. Did I imagine this? Was this column deemed apocryphal and somehow deleted? Pretty sure it was from the late 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/2 "2012-02-29T12:51:36Z")
Beyond my searching. I’ll pass your question over to Ed, see if he can help. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/3 "2012-02-29T15:09:26Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Help! I have a vivid recollection of a column Cecil wrote about the (or just “a”) Defenestration of Prague, only instead of Hussites tossing out the screaming bodies of corrupt Catholic Church officials, this story involved students at the University of Prague giving a despised professor the heave-ho. Did I imagine this? Was this column deemed apocryphal and somehow deleted? Pretty sure it was from the late 1980s. Cecil has written no such column. The closest thing that comes to mind is the following small masterpiece: [Did a mob of angry Dutch kill and eat their prime minister?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2616/did-a-mob-of-angry-dutch-kill-and-eat-their-prime-minister) However, this appeared relatively recently, not in the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/4 "2012-02-29T15:57:03Z")
Ah, well. I’m on day 3 of a 5-day stay in Prague and was hoping this memory was not some hallucination. Wonder where this oddly-specific story came from? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/5 "2012-02-29T16:32:57Z")
Wikipedia talks about several. > **[Defenestrations of Prague | Further defenestrations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague#Further_defenestrations)** > > More events of defenestration have occurred in Prague during its history, but they are not usually called defenestrations of Prague. > Sometimes, the name the fourth or the third defenestration of Prague is used, although it has no standard meaning. For example, it has been used to describe the death of Jan Masaryk, who was found below the bathroom window of the building of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 10 March 1948. The official report listed the death as a suicide. However, i... “The First Defenstration of Prague”, “The Second Defenstration of Prague”, an unnamed defenestration (sometimes called the one and one half defenstration) and one and that may or may not have been a self-defenestration. None of them sound like they involved students or professors. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/6 "2012-12-23T17:49:10Z")
Merriam-Webster has a video entry for ‘defenestration’ and I thought it’d be nice to add it to the thread. > **[Ask the Editor Videos](https://www.merriam-webster.com/video)** > > Our entertaining video series on confusing language usage, uncommon word histories, and other fun facts. Featuring the editors of Merriam-Webster. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/7 "2012-12-23T23:27:42Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Merriam-Webster has a video entry for ‘defenestration’ and I thought it’d be nice to add it to the thread. > > [Language Usage and Word History Videos | Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0039-defenestration.htm?&t=1356284811) WARNING: The video does _not_ show anyone being thrown out a window!!! Huge disappointment. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/8 "2012-12-25T05:13:42Z")
Thanks for the warning! I almost wasted part of my life watching that for no payoff. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/9 "2012-12-25T16:39:21Z")
Walt Kelly’s _Pogo’s Jack Acid Society Black Book_ featured the following exchange: First character: Defenestrate him! Death to the enemies of our country! Second character: Defenestration’s too good for him. Chunk him out the window! ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/10 "2012-12-25T18:20:53Z")
One of the novels in Eric Flint’s _1632_ series speaks of the first defenestration of Prague. Then, in the storyline’s new history, there is a second. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/11 "2012-12-26T01:26:17Z")
I keep trying to figure out how Prague could get thrown out a window. “All of it? At once?” That would be a big window. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-column-on-defenestration-of-prague/614328/12 "2012-12-26T22:38:50Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > WARNING: The video does _not_ show anyone being thrown out a window!!! > > Huge disappointment. It contains a great example of [“vocal fry”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=644035), though. 😉