A South Carolina teen calls to ask why the English language has a word meaning “to throw someone out of a window,” but no word for “the day after tomorrow.” The word defenestrate, from Latin fenestra, “window,” was coined in the 17th century specifically to refer to the so-called Defenestration of Prague in May 1618, when Catholic officials and a secretary were tossed out the window of the castle there, sparking the Thirty Years’ War. Latin fenestra is also the source of the French word for “window,” fenêtre, and German Kirchenfenster, literally “church window,” used to denote what English-speaking wine lovers call the long, spindly legs of a glass of wine. English does have a word for “the day after tomorrow,” although it’s rarely used. It’s overmorrow. This is part of a complete episode.
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
Debbie from Crawfordsville, Florida, says that when she and her husband reach an impasse while working on something, they’ll say Let’s grok about it, which they use to mean “Let’s think about it.” Grok was coined by...
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