defenestration
- The act of throwing someone or something out of a window.
- Informally, the abrupt removal of someone from a position of power.
In a sentence
- The Defenestration of Prague in 1618, when Protestant nobles threw Catholic officials from a castle window, helped ignite the Thirty Years' War.
- Tech journalists gleefully described the CEO's sudden firing as a corporate defenestration.
Usage note. The humorous extended sense — dismissing someone from a job or role — is common in journalism and informal writing, but purists reserve the word for the literal act of window-throwing.
Where it comes from
English defenestration · entered English 17th c.
Formed in English from the Latin prefix 'de-' (down from, out of) and 'fenestra' (window). The word is closely associated with the Defenestrations of Prague in 1618 and 1419, though the Latin root was available long before the word was formally coined; it appears in English records by the early 17th century.