Defenestrates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Throws a person or object forcefully out of a window
2. Hurls someone or something out through a window with force
3. Propels a person or object out of a window by throwing

Etymology: The famous Defenestration of Prague in 1618, when Protestant nobles threw two Catholic royal officials and their secretary out of a window of Prague Castle, gave us the noun "defenestration," but the verb is a much later creation. It was formed by back-formation: someone took the noun and stripped off its ending to produce a verb, using the verb-forming suffix "-ate." The verb is first recorded in 1904, more than two centuries after the event that inspired it. The noun behind it is built from New Latin pieces. "De-" means "out" or "down," and "fenestra" is Latin for "window." The suffix "-ation" turns the action into a noun, so the whole thing means, roughly, "the act of throwing someone out of a window." The verb "defenestrate" simply means to do that.

Synonyms: throws out, ejects, expels, removes

Antonyms: admits, welcomes, retains