The True Meaning of Window

The True Meaning of Window

 In olden English, the word ‘window’ literally meant “wind-eye” . So that's what it means. Before that, they were calling it an “eye-hole” and an “eye-door”. And for a long time they were even using the word “fenester” like everybody else, but that term grew out of fashion. 

When William Shakespeare said that "Eyes are the windows of the soul" what he really said was "Eyes are the wind-eyes of the soul". He is basically just saying that eyes are wind-eyes, and that souls are basically wind, too.

 

But speaking of fenester, in modern times, every once in a while someone unpretentiously uses the term ‘defenestration’, which, of course,  means to toss something out of a window (or out of a wind-eye, if you prefer). This term comes from a later artificial reconstruction of the original Latin form, though.  It was not naturally passed down through the English fenester, so don’t get too excited.

 Well, now that you know the true meaning of window, you don’t have to feel so weird about always pretending that houses are faces and that the windows are the eyes.  Because they really are.