defenestration

[dee-fen-uh-strey-shuh n]

noun

the act of throwing a thing or especially a person out of a window: the defenestration of the commissioners at Prague.

Origin of defenestration

1610–20; de- + Latin fenestr(a) window + -ation

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for defenestration

Contemporary Examples of defenestration

Geddie, for his part, fought his defenestration but ultimately accepted defeat.
The View’s Bloody Backstage Politics: How Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie Lost Control of Their Show
Lloyd Grove
July 16, 2014

Historical Examples of defenestration

Slavata immediately resolved on refuting this work, written by the originator of the defenestration.
A History of Bohemian Literature
Count Ltzow
Many of the stormy meetings of the Bohemian nobles that preceded the defenestration of 1618 were held here.
The Story of Prague
Count Francis Ltzow
A tablet stating that the defenestration had been planned here was placed on this house, but almost immediately removed.
The Story of Prague
Count Francis Ltzow
The defenestration, in fact, only precipitated a conflict that was in any case inevitable.
A History of Bohemian Literature
Count Ltzow

British Dictionary definitions for defenestration

defenestration

noun

the act of throwing someone out of a window

Word Origin for defenestration

C17: from New Latin dēfenestrātiō, from Latin de- + fenestra window

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for defenestration

1620, "the action of throwing out of a window," from Latin fenestra "window" (see fenestration). 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 Greek verb phainein "to show;" others see in it an Etruscan borrowing, based on the suffix -(s)tra, as in Latin loan-words aplustre "the carved stern of a ship with its ornaments," genista "the plant broom," lanista "trainer of gladiators." Related: Defenestrate (1915); defenestrated (1620).