Defenestration (pronounced dee-fen-uh-strey-shuhn)
(1) The
act of throwing a person out of a window.
(2) In
casual, often humorous use, to throw anything out of a window.
(3) A
sardonic term in the business of politics which refers to an act which deposes
a leader).
(4) In
nerd humor, the act of removing the Microsoft Windows operating system from a
computer in order to install an alternative.
1618: From
New Latin dēfenestrātiō, the construct
being dē (from; out) + fenestra (window) + -atio (the suffix indicating an
action or process). It was borrowed also
by the Middle French défenestrer (which persists in Modern French) & défenestration. The German form is Fenstersturz; the verb
defenestrate formed later. The related
forms are defenestrate (1915) & defenestrated (1620).
The de- prefix was from the Latin dē-, from the preposition dē (of; from) It was used in the sense of “reversal, undoing, removing”; the similar prefix in Old English was æf-. The –ation suffix is from the Middle English –acioun & -acion, from the Old French acion & -ation, from the Latin -ātiō, an alternative form of -tiō (from which Modern English gained -tion). It was used variously to create the forms describing (1) an action or process, (2) the result of an action or process or (3) a state or quality. Fenestra is of unknown origin. Some etymologists link fenestra with the Greek verb phainein (to show) while others suggest an Etruscan borrowing, based on the suffix -(s)tra, as in the Latin loan-words aplustre (the carved stern of a ship with its ornaments), genista (the plant broom) or lanista (trainer of gladiators). Fenestration dates from 1870 in the anatomical sense, a noun of action from the Latin fenestrare, from fenestra (window, opening for light). The now rare but once familiar meaning "arrangement of windows" dates from 1846 and described a certain design element in architecture. The related form is fenestrated.
Although it was
already known in the Middle French, defenestrate entered English to lament
(or celebrate, depending on one’s view of such things) the Defenestration of
Prague in 1618, when Two Roman Catholic regents of Ferdinand II, representing
the Holy Roman Emperor in the Bohemian national assembly, were tossed from a third
floor window of Hradshin Castle by Protestant radicals who accused them of
suppressing their rights. All three
survived, landing either in a moat or rubbish heap defending on one’s choice of
history book and thus began the Thirty Years’ War. The artist called his painting the "Second Defenestration" because he was one of the school which attaches no significance to the 1438 event most historians now regard as the second of three.
The defenestration of 1618 that triggered the Thirty Years’ War wasn’t the first, indeed it was at the time said it had been done in "…good Bohemian style" by those who recalled earlier defenestrations, although, in fairness, the practice wasn’t exclusively Bohemian, noted in the Bible and not uncommon in Medieval and early modern times, lynching and mob violence a cross-cultural political language for centuries. The first governmental defenestration occurred in 1419, second in 1483 and the third in 1618, although the term "Defenestration of Prague" is applied exclusively to the last. The first and last are remembered because they trigged long wars of religion in Bohemia and beyond, the Hussite Wars (1419-1435) associated with the first and the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) with the Third. The neglected second ushered in the religious peace of Kutná Hora which lasted decades, clearly not something to remember. The 1618 event is the third defenestration of Prague).
The word has become popular as a vivid descriptor of political back-stabbing and is best understood sequentially, the churn-rate of recent Australian prime-ministers a good example: (1) Julia Gillard (b 1961) defenestrated Kevin Rudd (b 1957), (2) Kevin Rudd defenestrated Julia Gillard, (3) Malcolm Turnbull (b 1954) defenestrated Tony Abbott (b 1957), (4) Peter Dutton (b 1970) defenestrated Malcolm Turnbull (although that didn’t work out quite as planned, Mr Dutton turning out to be the hapless proxy for Scott Morrison (b 1968)). Given the recent history it's surprising no one has bother to coin the adjective defenestrative to describe Australian politics although given it's likely there are more defenestrations will be to come, that may yet happen.
Some
great moments in defenestration
King
John of England (1166-1216) killed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany (1187-1203),
by defenestration from the castle at Rouen, France, in 1203 (the method contested
though not the death).
In
1378, the crafts and their leader Wouter van der Leyden occupied the Leuven
city hall and seized the Leuven government. In an attempt to regain absolute control, they
had Wouter van der Leyden assassinated in Brussels. Seeking revenge, the crafts
handed over the patrician to a furious crowd. The crowd stormed the city hall
and threw the patricians out of the window. At least 15 patricians were killed
during this defenestration of Leuven.
In
1383, Bishop Dom Martinho (1485-1547) was defenestrated by the citizens of
Lisbon, having been suspected of conspiring with the enemy when Lisbon was
besieged by the Castilians.
In 1419
Hussite mob defenestrates a judge, the burgomaster, and some thirteen members
of the town council of New Town of Prague. (First
In the Bible, Jezebel was defenestrated at Jezreel by her own servants at the urging of Jehu. (2 Kings 9:33). Jezabel is used today to as one of the many ways to heap opprobrium upon women although it now suggests loose virtue, rather than the heresy or doctrinal sloppiness mentioned in the Bible.
Jezebel encouraged the worship of Baal and Asherah, as well as purging the prophets of Yahweh from Israel. This so damaged the house of Omride that the dynasty fell. Ever since, the Jews have damned Jezabel as power-hungry, violent and whorish. However, she was one of the few women of power in the Bible and there is something of a scriptural dislike of powerful women, an influence which seems still to linger among the secular.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You
tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she
misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed
to idols.
21 I have given her time to repent of her
immorality, but she is unwilling.
22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering,
and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless
they repent of her ways.
23 I will strike her children dead. Then all
the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay
each of you according to your deeds.
On 26 April 1478, after
the failure of the "Pazzi conspiracy" to murder the ruler of Florence,
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent 1449–1492), Jacopo de'
Pazzi (1423-1478) was defenestrated. In
1483, Prague's Old-Town portreeve and the bodies of seven murdered New-Town
aldermen were defenestrated.
In 1922, Italian politician and writer Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863-1938) was temporarily crippled after falling from a window, possibly pushed by a follower of Benito Mussolini. The Duce might almost have been grateful had he suffered the illustrious fate of defenestration, the end of not a few kings and princes. Instead, Italian communist partisans found him hiding in the back of a truck with his mistress Clara Petacci (1912-1945), attempting to flee to neutral Switzerland. Taken to a village near Lake Como, on 28 April 1945, both were summarily executed by firing squad, their bodies hung upside down outside a petrol station where the corpses were abused by the mob. When Hitler saw the photographs, he quickly summoned Otto Günsche (1917–2003), his personal SS adjutant, repeating his instruction that nothing must remain of him after his suicide.
On 10 March 10 1948, the Czechoslovakian minister of foreign affairs Jan Masaryk (1886-1948) was found dead, in his pajamas, in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window. The initial (KGB) investigation stated that he committed suicide by jumping out of the window. A 2004 police investigation concluded that he was defenestrated by the KGB. In 1968, the son of China's future paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (2004-1997), Deng Pufang (b 1944), was thrown from a window by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. In 1977, as a result of political backlash against his album Zombie, musician Fela Kuti's (1938-1997) mother (Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, 1900-1978) was thrown from a window during a military raid on his compound. In addition, the commanding officer defecated on her head, while the soldiers burned down the compound, destroying his musical equipment, studio and master tapes. Adding insult to injury, they later jailed him for being a subversive. On 2 March 2007, Russian investigative journalist Ivan Safronov (1956-2007), who was researching the Kremlin's covert arms deals, fell to his death from a fifth floor window. There was an investigation and the death was ruled to be suicide, a cause of death which of late has become uncommonly common in Russia, people these days often falling from windows high above the ground.
On 9 July 1993, in a case of self-defenestration, Toronto attorney Garry Hoy (1955-1993) fell from a window after a playful attempt to prove to a group of new legal interns that the windows of Toronto’s Dominion Centre were unbreakable. The glass sustained the manufacturer’s claim but, intact, popped out of the frame, the unfortunate lawyer plunging to his death. Mr Hoy actually also held an engineering degree and is said to have many times performed the amusing stunt. Unfortunately he didn’t live to explain to the interns how the accumulation of stresses from his many impacts may have contributed to the structural failure.
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