
Defenestration - conse_lad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration
======
rzr
Some of French use this term when installing Linux over Windows on a
computer... :)

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klyrs
Not just the French! I'm from the US and recall using it as early as 2006...

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BLKNSLVR
Harry was unsuccessful in his oral defenestration of the grape seeds, which
were now sliding ungracefully down the inside of the half open passenger
window of Sally's otherwise immaculately kempt vehicle, leaving a trail of the
kind that remains visible until chemicals are used in the cleaning.

~~~
jtms
What a fantastic paragraph... is this from a book?

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BLKNSLVR
Thank you friend :)

As dhess pointed out below it's a moment from a scene in the movie When Harry
Met Sally. The wording above, however, is my own.

That scene just happened to pop into my head when I read the word
defenestration, so I decided I'd like to "use it in a sentence". I've read
some Pynchon in my time, too, so I have a penchant for densely descriptive
prose. I'm glad it was appreciated.

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jtms
You’re welcome! I’ve always wanted to read Pynchon, but have never made the
time. Any recommendations on which book to start with?

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BLKNSLVR
The Crying of Lot 49, it's more a novella, but is still quite dense.

Bleeding Edge was relatively straight forward compared to Vineland. I haven't
had the courage to tackle some of the larger tomes of Pynchon's yet.

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contingencies
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/defenestration](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/defenestration)

 _The act of throwing something or someone out of a window. [from c. 17th c.]

(Britain) The high-profile removal of a person from an organization.

(computing, humorous) The act of removing the Microsoft Windows operating
system from a computer in order to install an alternative one._

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suddensleep
"In December 1840, Abraham Lincoln and four other Illinois legislators jumped
out of a window in a political maneuver designed to prevent a quorum on a vote
that would have eliminated the Illinois State Bank."

Imagining something like this happening today is ... difficult, to say the
least.

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salawat
Oregon ended up having State Senators flee across State lines. Even one going
so far as to warn law enforcement to send unmarried men without families to
try to forcibly collect them.

[https://kval.com/news/local/oregon-senator-on-governor-
sendi...](https://kval.com/news/local/oregon-senator-on-governor-sending-
police-send-bachelors-and-come-heavily-armed)

When there is as much on the line as there is in America's legislative system,
you will be surprised the shenanigans that ensue.

The business of the Congress at one point had to ban the practice of dueling.
Not necessarily because it wasn't seen as a way to settle a dispute, but that
it happened so often. Kentucky I think is the state that specifically
disqualifies legislators based on participation in duels.

[https://www.sos.ky.gov/admin/land/resources/articles/Documen...](https://www.sos.ky.gov/admin/land/resources/articles/Documents/CodeDuello.pdf)

Robert's Rules of Order are often looked upon those with a darker sense of
humor in the same light as the Third-man out rule in hockey. Ruins all the
good fights.

Though Asia has been known for some doozies. I recall the use of either a
chainsaw or fire axe at one point.

Ah! Taiwan was it.

[http://loweringthebar.net/2017/07/brawling-again-in-
taiwan.h...](http://loweringthebar.net/2017/07/brawling-again-in-taiwan.html)

South Koreans seem to prefer the legislative Sledgehammer.

[https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-korea-
fight28-2009jan28-...](https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-korea-
fight28-2009jan28-story.html)

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suddensleep
I stand wholly corrected!

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ErikAugust
Reminds of a particular Family Guy episode, as it is the only time I have
heard the term:

Dennis Miller: Now I don't want to go on a rant here, but America's foreign
policy makes about as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at
the first Battle of Antietam. I mean, when a neo-conservative defenestrates,
it's like Raskalnikov filibuster deoxymonohydroxinate.

Peter: What the hell does "rant" mean?

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blaser-waffle
There was a 2nd Battle of Antietam?

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tempsy
Is this term not widely known?

remember learning this term as the cause of some wars you learn about in grade
school

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tiborsaas
It's not that widely known, but WW1 started with:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Fran...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand)

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riffraff
Is this a joke? The assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand was always the
explanation for the start of WWI for me and everyone I've had the chance to
speak, and there are at least two world wide known bands related to the event.

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feintruled
The wars OP referred to are much older ones, e.g. : "The term was coined
around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618 which became
the spark that started the Thirty Years' War."

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jweir
And here I thought maybe there was a new Defenestration in San Francisco

[https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/defenestration](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/defenestration)

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dhosek
There’s a generation of nerds who learned this word from the glossary of the
Apple ][ manual which included, ” __defenestration __: The act of throwing
something or someone out of a window.“

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anotherevan
I was in my kid's secondary school student support office one morning where
one student was telling his friend about the time his dad threw him through a
window. It wasn't a big, heavy conversation, just a recounting of it as
something that was a bit of a novelty.

So I pipe up and say, "Hey, there's even a word for that!" which in a strange
way left them somewhat pleased.

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ksaj
When I was in high school, we used to refer jokingly to "defenstration of an
ecdysiast." I don't remember where we got it from, but it usually was brought
up in connection to the highly exaggerated and dramatic way teens tend to tell
a lengthy story about their day as if it was the most interesting story ever.

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mey
Tom Francis has been working on a Defenestration Trilogy. Video games that
feature defenestration.

[https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34631927](https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34631927)

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kangnkodos
One of the greatest things on YouTube.

Defenestration: The Movie

Seven minutes of very short clips from Hollywood movies involving
defenestration.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_tV49vsIXc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_tV49vsIXc)

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giorgioz
I wonder if that happened like in a violent fashion like when someone is
tossed out of a bar by a bouncer or did it happen like in the cartoons when a
prisoner walks slowly over a board into the sea from a pirate ship.

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undebuggable
Probably the greatest Czech contribution to the European history and heritage.

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kazinator
Not "robot"?

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blaser-waffle
Or Jaromir Jagr?

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pssflops
Easy to see the connection for this word when learning that the German word
for "window" is "Fenster."

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llcoolv
And it is quite cute how civilised throwing someone out of a window sounds
once there is a sophisticated word for it :D

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racl101
My fave word for something that sounds innocuous but is actually severe is:
_vivisection_.

If you didn't look up, it almost sounds like something you might casually get
at a spa.

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RodgerTheGreat
"My friends spent the summer waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay."

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dekhn
to me defenestration is always sounded like a process that removes intestines
but every time I mention it to someone who knows German they say fenster means
window

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tsjq
Disembowelment you mean?

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dekhn
yes.

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racl101
TIL?

