Defenestration.
Jun. 28th, 2002 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bladesparkThis story was just so funny I had to share. I've mentioned that I like odd words, and I've used my favorite unusual word, defenestrate, a time or two in this journal thingummy. It means to throw out a window, and I just get a kick out of the fact that there's a word just for throwing things out of windows. I mean how weird is that? So anyhow, anyone who knows me eventually learns that word, and my family knows it well.
My brother Alan, has this ISB of an English teacher. Well, actually as a person in person she's nice, but she's one of those teachers that believe in making her students work really hard for their grades, and she's quite strict about classroom discipline, orderliness, etc. So my brother is a hard worker and a great guy, but he's also a bit messy in his habits (his room is a disaster!) and he was sitting in class with his backpack next to his desk, his papers and books spilling untidily out of it when the teacher walked by and said, "Alan, if you don't pick that up right now, I'm going to throw it out the window." Apparently this had been a problem before, so he ought to have known better. But he has a great sense of humor, and he couldn't resist, so Alan said in a squeaky little mock-terrified voice, "No, no, please don't defenestrate my backpack!" And the teacher stopped and started laughing. Turns out she reads the David Eddings series where I originally got the word from and she was so impressed that Alan knew what it meant that she forgave him for his mess.
So there you have it, "defenestrate" is even more useful than "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
My brother Alan, has this ISB of an English teacher. Well, actually as a person in person she's nice, but she's one of those teachers that believe in making her students work really hard for their grades, and she's quite strict about classroom discipline, orderliness, etc. So my brother is a hard worker and a great guy, but he's also a bit messy in his habits (his room is a disaster!) and he was sitting in class with his backpack next to his desk, his papers and books spilling untidily out of it when the teacher walked by and said, "Alan, if you don't pick that up right now, I'm going to throw it out the window." Apparently this had been a problem before, so he ought to have known better. But he has a great sense of humor, and he couldn't resist, so Alan said in a squeaky little mock-terrified voice, "No, no, please don't defenestrate my backpack!" And the teacher stopped and started laughing. Turns out she reads the David Eddings series where I originally got the word from and she was so impressed that Alan knew what it meant that she forgave him for his mess.
So there you have it, "defenestrate" is even more useful than "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
