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by dismalaf 84 days ago
Or defenestrate...
2 comments

I love that the existence of this word implies being thrown out of a window was so common it required its own word
People used to empty chamber pots by throwing them out the window.
A uniquely... English word, that.
Also used in Italian and presumably in many other languages.

Like with any word, it's use in colloquial form may vary from generation to generation, from subculture to subculture etc

Not at all. It's just the Latin prefix "de" (out of) plus "fenester" meaning window. Not an English word except by borrowing.
The joke was that [to my then knowledge] it's not used in Romance languages, but it is used in English.
I believe the term originates with this historical event:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague

And if you believe Wiki, it was used originally in Middle French.

Is it? I know of that word in at least 3 languages.