Window
Etymology

The English language-word window originates from the Old Norse vindauga, from vindr 'wind' and auga 'eye'. In Norwegian, Nynorsk, and Icelandic, the Old Norse form has survived to this day (in Icelandic only as a less used word for a type of small open "window", not strictly a synonym for gluggi, the Icelandic word for 'window'). In Swedish, the word vindöga remains as a term for a hole through the roof of a hut, and in the Danish language vindue and Norwegian Bokmål vindu, the direct link to eye is lost, just as for window. The Danish (but not the Bokmål) word is pronounced fairly similarly to window.

Window is first recorded in the early 13th century, and originally referred to an unglazed hole in a roof. Window replaced the Old English eagþyrl, which literally means 'eye-hole', and eagduru 'eye-door'. Many Germanic languages, however, adopted the Latin word fenestra to describe a window with glass, such as standard Swedish fönster, or German Fenster. The use of window in English is probably because of the Scandinavian influence on the English language by means of loanwords during the Viking Age. In English, the word fenester was used as a parallel until the mid-18th century. Fenestration is still used to describe the arrangement of windows within a façade, as well as defenestration, meaning 'to throw out of a window'.
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