| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 783.1 | in brief | MARVIN::KNOWLES | intentionally Rive Gauche | Fri Mar 02 1990 14:51 | 16 |
| From the Shorter Oxford:
Abbreviator: ... 2 [I think] Vatican official who draws up the Pope's
briefs
I'm still not sure whether this was intentional.
There was also the case of an OUP editor who actually lost his job
because of a whimsical entry in _Crockford's_, but
a I've forgotten the details - I think it involved
a vicar called `Pigeon'; I could probably find out
b _Crockford's_ isn't a dictionary, it's a directory
b
|
| 783.2 | Didn't realise we needed a word for this | CHEFS::BUXTONR | | Tue Sep 07 1993 05:35 | 9 |
| Buxton again, following a long absence....
Seeking clarification of American 'defense' -vs- British 'defence'
my Collins Concise reveals the following new word for me:
Defenestration - The act of throwing someone out of a window.
Bucko...
|
| 783.3 | | KAOFS::S_BROOK | DENVER A Long Way | Tue Sep 07 1993 06:18 | 6 |
| Interesting ... I thought defenestration (from the french fenetre ... window)
resulted from teh period when there was a tax on windows, so they were bricked
up, boarded or otherwise generally removed ... hence dewindowed ... or
defenestred and the act thereof ... defenstration.
Stuart
|
| 783.4 | Further back than French | DRDAN::KALIKOW | Supplely Chained | Tue Sep 07 1993 06:36 | 8 |
| The Latin word for "window" is FENESTRA.
(Said he, noting from a termulator inside Microsoft FENESTRAS (non-TM))
(or -- shouldn't that be/have been FENESTRAE??)
:-)
|
| 783.5 | Not a nice thing | TLE::JBISHOP | | Tue Sep 07 1993 06:40 | 7 |
| .2 is right: consider the "Defenestration of Prague" where some
politicans were thrown out some windows a few centuries ago.
You're not meant to survive it, and you'll probably die in
pain--think of it as the Renaissance equivalent of "necklacing".
-John Bishop
|
| 783.6 | | PRSMAI::MAILLARD | Denis MAILLARD | Tue Sep 07 1993 23:58 | 14 |
| Re .2, .5: That was a popular Czech way of getting rid of unwanted
people. However in the "defenestration of Prague" (1618), which marks
the start of the thirty years war, the two imperial delegates in
Bohemia were not killed. They fell from some window 18 meter high, but
the rioters who threw them off had forgotten that the castle of Prague
had huge stables, which also means an even huger pile of manure, that
happened to be located just under the said window. All in all, the
delegate ended intact but heavily stinking. They apparently didn't like
it and complained to emperor Ferdinand. That was the beginning of a war
that left most of Germany ruined, and which is one of the most
complicated to understand, with interventions by the Austrian
Habsburgs, the Spanish Habsburgs, the Swedes, the French, the German
protestant princes, and a lot of other minor forces.
Denis.
|
| 783.7 | Why not ex? | FORTY2::KNOWLES | DECspell snot awl ewe kneed | Wed Sep 08 1993 05:19 | 6 |
| Yes - chucking people out of a window. I've always felt the whoever
coined the word in English (translating from Czech?) should have made
it exfenestrate.
b
ps Dan - I imagine `inside' would take a dative - FENESTRABUS, I think.
|
| 783.8 | | SMURF::BINDER | Sapientia Nulla Sine Pecunia | Wed Sep 08 1993 06:17 | 8 |
| Re .7
Not ex because de means from in the sense of down from. When one is
defenestrated, one then progresses downward.
Inside (as distinct from in) is intro, and it takes the accusative.
"Noting from a termulator inside Microsoft Windows(tm)" would be "ex
aemulatore tubi intro Fenestras Mollimicronis notandus"
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| 783.9 | Verbum sat | FORTY2::KNOWLES | DECspell snot awl ewe kneed | Thu Sep 09 1993 04:16 | 8 |
| Re ex: now I get it - `de' in the sense of `down from'. I suppose it
can also have the sense `up from', as in `de profundis clamavi...' ?
Re in/intro: Silly mistake - I blame cross-talk from `in' [towards -
taking accusative] and `in' [resting in a place - taking dative] -
thanks.
b
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