Fenestrate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To possess a structure with openings similar to those of windows To exhibit characteristics that include window-like apertures throughout To have a design that features multiple voids resembling windows
2. To feature openings or perforations similar to windows in a structure or object
3. To display a pattern of gaps or holes resembling window-like shapes within a surface

Etymology: The Latin "fenestra" meant "window," and it is the root of this word's whole family of meanings. In Latin, "fenestrātus" was the past participle of "fenestrō," a verb meaning to provide something with windows or openings, so the word was built around the idea of being pierced with openings. English took it directly from that participle, and the verb as used today describes a surface marked with a regular pattern of small holes or gaps that look like windows. The English verb is also tied to a noun. Its source describes it as a back-formation from "Fenestrata," a name taken from zoology and paleontology, where it refers to a group of bryozoans, colonial marine animals whose colonies are perforated with small openings. Writers working from that Latin-based name formed the verb, which then reversed the usual direction of word-building: the noun came first in the scientific sense, and the verb was shaped out of it.

Synonyms: window, aperture