English

Noun

defenestration ‎(plural defenestrations)

1. The act of throwing something, or someone, out of a window.
   • 1905, Rossiter Johnson (Ed.), The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11, pages 62–75,

     The "Defenestration" at Prague (A.D. 1618). ... The imperial Austrian Councillors are thrown out of the window of the castle of Hradschin by the enraged Bohemian Deputies

   • 1996, Adrian G. V. Hyde-Price, (Please provide the title of the work), page 40:

     The Third Defenestration of Prague occurred on 10 March 1948. During the closing stages of the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, the popular foreign minister and son of Tomas Masaryk, fell - or more likely was pushed - out of a window.

   • 2004, Carleton, Paul D, Concepts: a prototheist quest for science-minded skeptics of Catholic, and other Christian, Jewish, & Muslim backgrounds. Page 359.

     "15. About to die anyway - On September 11, 2001 when NYC's Twin Towers were impacted...some occupants trapped above the inferno facing certain death instead jumped from windows to their certain death (self defenestration)."

2. (Britain) High profile removal of a person from an organization.
   • 2005, Sunday Times, September 4

     Be that as it may, his defenestration was coldly abrupt, and in his place, the Football Association resurrected a veteran manager and former England star in Joe Mercer for seven games.

3. (neologism, humorous) The act of removing the Microsoft Windows operating system from a computer in order to install an alternative one.
   • 1998, "Dorian Bliss", He's dead, Jim (on Internet newsgroup rec.humor.oracle.d)

     Defenestration might be an option too. May I recommend Linux?

   • 1999, Graham Lea, "Stunned MS vows to fight on for freedom," The Register, :

     It's defenestration day in Redmond today.

   • 2002, Jon Kilburn, Palm Programming in Basic, Springer, ISBN 9781893115491, pg. 392 (unpaginated):

     No defenestration here. Ask questions about all aspects of Windows programming, get help on Microsoft technologies covered in Apress books, or provide feedback on any Apress Windows book.

   • 2004 February 12, Paul Murphy, "What Does Linux Cost?, on LinuxInsider:

     What's needed is defenestration -- throwing out the Windows mindset along with Microsoft's licenses and software -- but […]

   • 2005, December 1, Braue D, Gray P, Colquhoun L, Douglas J-V. Leaders of the pack. MIS Australia,

     "...defenestration is starting to be linked to the throwing out of Windows software."

Related terms

• autodefenestration
• defenestrate

Translations