Front Porch: Sometimes a word’s meaning isn’t as fun as it sounds

Today it’s Fun with Words – snowy winter day version.

I am always attracted to interesting words and anticipate at year’s end the annual listing of the words of the year. Not so much this time around.

These are the words of the year for 2016 according to a variety of sources: post-truth (Oxford Dictionaries), surreal (Merriam-Webster Dictionary), dumpster fire (American Dialect Society), paranoid (Cambridge Dictionary), xenophobia (Dictionary.com) and Brexit (Collins Dictionary).

I’ve mulled over, used, considered, debated and otherwise engaged these words a whole lot last year and am in no mood to revisit them now. So instead, on this snowy day when I’m house-bound, I’m spending time considering two words which, frankly, I enjoyed researching and learning about in the past. Granted, they don’t pop up in conversation all that often, but they’ve stuck in my head since I first encountered them.

Let’s start with “defenestration.” It feels fun when saying it, though in fact it’s not a fun thing. I heard it spoken the first time 12 or so years ago when visiting Prague, Czech Republic, where it’s a big part of the nation’s history there.

The word itself has a Latin root, fenestra (window), and the prefix de- (out or away from) and is defined as throwing someone or something out a window. Again, sounds nicer to the ear than the experience feels.

The term originated from two events in history, both in Prague, when seven town officials were thrown from a window in town hall, precipitating the Hussite War in 1419, and in 1618 when two imperial governors and a secretary were tossed from a window at Prague Castle, thus igniting the Thirty Years War.

There are abundant instances of defenestration in history, religion, film, TV and more. Consider that Jezebel in the Bible’s book of Kings II was defenestrated by her servants at Jezreel. Instances abound in film, including in “A Clockwork Orange,” “Braveheart,” “The Matrix” and “The Avengers.” For TV fans, remember when the character John Locke was pushed out a high-rise window by his own father in “Lost?”

There is a poem on the subject by R.P. Lister and an online reference to its humorous use in describing the removal of Microsoft Windows from a computer.

Usually defenestration is fatal, but not always, nor is it always an act of hostility. In 1840 Abraham Lincoln and a few other Illinois legislators jumped from a window to prevent there being a quorum for a vote that would have eliminated the Illinois State Bank. Such acts are known as self-defenestration or autodefenestration.

Self-defenestration is a popular means of suicide, should you wish to know, though less so in America, where 2005 statistics show only 2 percent of suicides are by this means. In Hong Kong, however, 2006 numbers reveal that 52 percent of suicides are by self-defenestration, possibly because of the easy accessibility of tall buildings, according to the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong.

And as a footnote, the death in 1948 of Jan Masaryk, Czech foreign minister, was ruled a suicide when he was found in the courtyard below his bathroom window. But a police investigation in 2004 concluded he was likely defenestrated by Czech communists and their Soviet advisers for his opposition to the February 1948 Communist takeover of the country. This is now sometimes known as the third defenestration of Prague.

There’s way more information to be learned about defenestration, should one be interested, but maybe this is enough for now.

Moving on to today’s second word for discussion, I offer the truly fun-to-say word “kerfuffle.” It comes from the Scottish English word “fuffle,” possibly going back to the 16th century, which was a verb speaking to disheveling something. At first adding the prefix car- (from the Scottish Gaelic word meaning wrong or awkward), the 19th century noun carfuffle, sometimes curfuffle, emerged as a noun for a disorderly outburst or commotion.

In the 20th century, it was standardized into kerfuffle, though there isn’t clear understanding as to how that happened. However, there is one theory that it was influenced by such imitative words as “kerplunk” in which the ker- is added for emphasis.

However it came to be, it is a much more delightful way to describe a set-to or hubbub or brouhaha, though those words are kind of delightful in their own ways as well.

So many words to consider, to have fun with, especially when it’s snowing outside and the mind feels free to potter (origin: British; definition: putter or waste time).

Voices correspondent Stefanie Pettit can be reached by email at upwindsailor@comcast.net.