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el gato malo's avatar

defenestration is a word because people used to throw a lot of stuff (including slop and excrement) out of windows. little was thrown in, so we did not develop a word.

there are lost of words that have a negative but no positive.

gormless.

i've never seen gorm or gormful as a positive.

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Cynthia Ford's avatar

My father, gone now, taught me that men always walk on the outside, say on a sidewalk, or boulevard, for that very reason. In the age of chivalry, I guess, chamberpot liquids hurled out windows and women trussed up in bonnets and layers of petticoats with whalebone stays. No Whirlpool or GE or dry cleaning either, so easier on the servant class. A kind of trickle down (so to speak) compassion, inadvertent but real.

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Pi Guy's avatar

Das Fenster is German for The Window.

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SnowInTheWind's avatar

affenestration ought to work, if we ever need one.

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One Steady Wish's avatar

I know you can be overwhelmed, and I know you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?

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YM's avatar

Defenestration is so apparently so common there is not just one, but two, defenestrations of Prague!

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

three actually

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

The defenestrations of Prague

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kertch's avatar

Gormful - wise or full of wisdom and common sense.

See, it's easy.

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