Defenestrating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Throwing a person or object out through a window ; abruptly ousting someone from a job, post or position of power
2. Hurling someone or something out of a window ; forcing a person suddenly out of an office or position of authority
3. Pitching a person or thing through a window opening ; dismissing someone from a role or position in an abrupt, forceful way

Etymology: The most famous defenestration is the 1618 Prague incident, when Protestant nobles threw two Catholic royal officials and their secretary out of a window of the Bohemian chancellery, a moment that helped trigger the Thirty Years' War. The word itself is far newer than that event. It was built in English from New Latin "dēfenestrātiō", which combines "dē-" ("out"), "fenestra" ("window") and the noun-forming "-ātiō" ("-ation"). Its earliest recorded use dates to 1904. Because "defenestration" was the noun, English speakers later formed a verb from it, "defenestrate", by adding the verb-forming suffix "-ate", a process called back-formation. The verb is therefore a second step removed from Latin, built on a noun that was itself coined from classical parts.

Synonyms: throw out, eject, fling out

Antonyms: admit