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For the heavy metal band, see Defenestration (band).

Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window (in contrast to jumping or falling out a window). The word comes from the Latin de ("from; out of") and fenestra ("window"). Merriam-Webster's dictionary users named it as one of their favorite words of the year in 2004.

Defenestration is often fatal.

Defenestration throughout history

Historically, the word defenestration was used to refer to an act of political dissent. Notably, the Defenestrations of Prague in 1419 and 1618 helped to trigger prolonged conflict within Bohemia and beyond. Catholics ascribed the survival of those defenestrated at Prague Castle in 1618 to divine intervention, while Protestants claimed that it was due to their landing in a large pile of manure.

Other notable events in Prague's history include the defenestration of the Old-Town portreeve along with the bodies of seven murdered New-Town aldermen in 1483, and the death in 1948 of politician Jan Masaryk, whose body was found in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry, below his bathroom window. A 2004 police investigation into his death concluded that, contrary to the initial ruling, he did not commit suicide, but was defenestrated by his opponents.

• In the Bible, there is an account in 2 Kings 9:30-33 of Queen Jezebel's defenestration as part of the overthrow of Ahab's tyranical reign.

• It has been suggested by several chronicles (notably the Annals of Westhide Abbey) that King John killed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, by throwing him from a window in the castle at Rouen, France, in 1203.

• In 1383, Bishop Dom Martinho was defenestrated by the citizens of Lisbon, having been suspected of conspiring with the enemy when Lisbon was besieged by the Castilians.

• On April 26, 1478, after the failure of the "Pazzi conspiracy" to murder the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici, Jacopo de' Pazzi was defenestrated.

• In 1572, French King Charles IX's friend, the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny was killed in accordance with the wishes of Charles' mother, Catherine de Medici. Charles had allegedly said "then kill them all that no man be left to reproach me." Thousands of Protestants were killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre after soldiers attacked Coligny in his house, stabbed him, and threw him out the window.

• On the morning of December 1 , 1640, a group of noblemen who wanted to restore full independence to Portugal started a revolution, immediately supported by the people. They found Miguel de Vasconcelos, the hated Secretary of State, hidden in a closet, killed him and defenestrated him. His corpse was left to the public outrage.

• The Revolutions of 1848 in France led to a period of unrest in Germany. When an agitated crowd forced their way into the town hall in Cologne on March 3, two city councillors panicked and jumped out of the window; one of them broke both his legs. The event went down in the city’s history as the "Cologne Defenestration".

• In 1941, mafia informant Abe "Kid Twist" Reles fell to his death from a window on the sixth floor of the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island, on the eve of his scheduled testimony. The angle of trajectory suggests that he was defenestrated rather than trying to flee.

Defenestration in popular culture

Film

• In Cinderella, (1950), Bruno the dog defenestrates Lucifer the cat.
• In Rear Window (1954), Lars Thorwald defenestrates L.B. Jeffries.
• In Diamonds Are Forever (1971), henchmen working for Ernst Stavro Blofeld defenestrates Plenty O'Toole.
• In A Clockwork Orange (1971), Alex DeLarge defenestrates himself, attempting suicide.
• In The Exorcist (1973), the devil defenestrates Burke Dennings, and Father Karras defenestrates the devil/himself.
• In The Eagle Has Landed (1976), the patrons of a pub defenestrate Liam Devlin.
• In The Pumaman (1980), Vadinho defenestrates Tony Farms in order to find out if Tony is the legendary "Pumaman".
• In Die Hard (1988), John McClane attracts the attention of Sgt. Al Powell by defenestrating Marco, and later defenestrates Hans Gruber, the leader of the terrorists.
• In Child's Play (1988), the first victim of the movie, Maggie (the babysitter) is defenestrated on Chicago's Lincoln Park, from the apartment's windowed tower.
• In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Indiana Jones defenestrates a Nazi officer from a Zeppelin.
• In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Friar Tuck defenestrates a Bishop, after accusing him of corruption.
• In Batman Returns (1992), Max Schreck pushes Selina Kyle (later to become Catwoman) out of a window in his penthouse office, in an attempt at homicide; the attempt would prove unsuccessful.
• In Braveheart (1995), Longshanks (King Edward I) defenestrates his son's High Councillor, Philip.
• In Toy Story (1995), Sheriff Woody accidentally defenestrates Buzz Lightyear.
• In Hannibal (2001), Hannibal Lecter defenestrates Rinaldo Pazzi.
• In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), Mace Windu is defenestrated from Chancellor Palpatine's office by Palpatine's Force lightning.

Television

• In the second episode of the Firefly TV series, Malcom Reynolds is thrown through a holographic window, albeit fairly harmlessly.
• In the "Art Attack" episode of Dark Angel, Mr. Develia orders one of his men to defenestrate a man who failed to deliver his Norman Rockwell painting.
• The two talk shows hosted by David Letterman have often included a gag where someone defenestrates objects such as televisions, watermelons etc.
• In the NCIS episode "Silver War", Special Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo lists defenestration as an area in which he has investigating experience.
• In the Session #5 Ballad of Fallen Angels of the anime Cowboy Bebop, Vicious throws Spike out of a church window.

Video Games

• In the game Hitman: Blood Money, the player can throw targets out of windows and over balconies as methods of assassination.

Comics

• "A Nauseous Nocturne", an illustrated Calvin and Hobbes poem, includes the couplet
  "The monster, in his consternation,
  Demonstrates defenestration".
• In Hitman, a comic book by Garth Ennis, there is a character known as Defenestrator. His "power" consists of carrying around a plate glass window and throwing people through it.
• In Frank Miller's Sin City, defenestration is used as both an escape method, by Marv in The Hard Goodbye, and an offensive attack move, when Manute throws Dwight McCarthy out of a window in A Dame to Kill For; both are later blasted out of windows by Ava Lord. Wallace later throws Manute out of a window in Hell and Back.

Music

• In the mid 1970s, rock band Led Zeppelin would rent out entire floors of hotels, where they originated many of rock's most famous legends of drunken excess by allegedly trashing the rooms, motorcycling in the halls, and defenestrating television sets.
• The word defenestration is used in the Tom Tom Club song "Booming and Zooming" as a lyrical synonym for activating an ejection seat.
• "Defenestration" is the name of songs by Gundula Krause, Storyboard, and Cryptopsy.
• There is a free jazz band in Houston, Texas, called The Defenestration Unit.
• Defenstration (2001) is the second album of New Zealand based celtic band Jacky Tar.
• The popular children's song "Threw It Out the Window" inserts incongruous themes of defenestration into existing nursery rhymes .

An alternative modern usage of the word

• Defenestration has become popular as a term for switching from MS Windows to Linux or another operating system . It is claimed that this usage originated in the University of Helsinki in the mid-1990s.

External links

• Defenestration - Humor-oriented literary magazine.
• defenestrate - dictionary.com's Word of the Day for Tuesday January 25, 2000
• Defenestration Building - a large art installation in San Francisco, California
• The Bohemian rebels inspired some Philadelphia anarchists to publish a newspaper: the defenestrator.

• Violence