yeah, yeah, "blog" is the word of the year. who cares. the exciting thing about Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2004 list is that an old favorite and completely badass word broke the top ten for no apparent reason at all. That word ranked #10 this year and that word is......"defenestration." From MW:
Pronunciation: (")dE-"fe-n&-'strA-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: de- + Latin fenestra window
: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window
also awesome about this word is that it, like me, is somewhat czech in its origins. from britannica online's "concise encyclopaedia":
Defenestration of Prague
(May 23, 1618)
Incident of Bohemian resistance to Habsburg authority.
In 1617 Catholic officials in Bohemia closed Protestant chapels in violation of the religious-liberty guarantee of 1609. At an assembly called by the Protestants, the imperial regents were found guilty of violating the guarantee and were thrown from the windows of the council room of Prague Castle. Though the victims were not seriously hurt, the incident sparked the Bohemian revolt against Emperor Ferdinand II and led to the Thirty Years' War.
(emphasis mine).
word.
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