Monday's Word - defenestrate

My thanks to Ezra Barany* for this week's word - defenestrate (*See last wek's post 'The Torah Codes')

When Ezra mentioned that his favourite word was 'defenestrate' my ears pricked - not only is it an interesting and slightly weird word, but it reminded me of the Welsh word for windows - ffenestri.  And that gives a clue to the meaning - which is 'to throw someone or something through a window.'

Now don't tell me there haven't been times when you felt like throwing your pc or laptop through a window!

It's an ancient word, coined around the year 1618. The word comes from the Latin de- (down or away from) and fenestra (window or opening), almost identical to the Welsh word.

So, tell me - what would YOU like to throw out of the window?

(By the way, Ezra also had this to say:  "If I were to create a word it would be a phrase: "dream knowledge" and it would mean the stuff that makes no sense but makes perfect sense in a dream. For example, "In my dream, I was eating a file cabinet because according to my dream knowledge eating a file cabinet was the best way to get rid of the house's termites.")


Brilliant, Ezra - I love it. I seem to have a fair amount of 'dream knowledge' myself, LOL!

Mondays word - Peristorenic

So what have Autumn Pumpkins got to do with pigeons or writing?  Well, nothing actually.  I just thought that since it's October and everyone seems to be thinking of Halloween, perhaps I ought to have some Halloween type pictures on my blog, and I rather like the Autumn leaves and butterflies.  As for the pigeon, well this came up at Michael Quinion's* site this week and I thought it was rather an interesting word.  He says:


"Pigeon-fancying was especially strong in England in the nineteenth century, with great skill expended in breeding new varieties forshow. Charles Darwin became a fancier in 1855 to study variation within species as part of his research which became On the Origin of Species.

Like other bodies of the period, pigeon-fanciers' societies looked to the classical languages for suitably distinguished titles. At the time Darwin became involved, a London one was grandly calledthe Philoperisteron Society. "Philo-" means a lover of something,from Greek "philos", loving; "peristeron" was invented by a learnedfounder, which he took from Greek "peristera" for a wild pigeon ordove. The organisation changed its name in 1867 to the National Peristeronic Society (which still exists), in which "peristeronic"was another invented word, an adjective with the sense "relating to or concerned with pigeons". The change of name should not be taken as meaning that the members of the society had ceased loving their pigeons."

So now when you work a pigeon fancier into your romance novel, you know the correct term to use!

*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2010. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewds.
Reproduced with permission