defenestration
noun

- a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office)

- a throwing of a person or thing out of a window

- (computing) the act of removing the Microsoft Windows operating system from a computer in order to install an alternative one

Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

“Defenestration”, the action of “throwing out of a window”, derives from Latin fenestra "window”.

The word was invented for one incident: the "Defenestration of Prague”, on 21st May 1618, when two Catholic deputies to the Bohemian national assembly were tossed out the window of the castle of Hradschin by Protestant radicals (the pair landed in a trash heap and survived). It marked the start of the Thirty Years' War… and a new word for the English language!

The most common modern usage of “defenestration” refers to the forcible removal of a notable person from a position of high power — think Steve Jobs from Apple and most recently, Sam Altman from OpenAI.

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WORDS OF DISMISSAL

- be given one's walking papers = refers to receiving official documents terminating your employment.

- be on the receiving end of a pink slip = a pink slip is a termination notice, so this idiom means being fired.

- be made redundant = in British English when a job is eliminated due to restructuring or downsizing, not necessarily the employee's performance.

- be put out to pasture = often used humorously, implies being fired due to age or obsolescence.

- get the boot (the chop) = to be fired abruptly, unexpectedly, without warning

- get canned = a more informal term for being fired, often used in North America.

- get hung out to dry = suggests being fired and left to fend for oneself without support

- get shown the door = suggests being told to leave the workplace.

- get let go =  a more gentle way of saying someone is fired, implying the company doesn't necessarily hold it against them.

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SYNONYMS

axe (UK, ax (US), banishment, bouncing, boot, bullet, cashiering, chopping, chucking out, DEFENESTRATION, deposal, dethronement, dethroning, disbarment, discharge, dislodgement, dismissal, driving (drumming) out, ejection, ejecting, employment termination, eviction, expulsion, falling from grace (from power), firing, forcing out, furlough, getting the boot (the sack, the heave-ho), impeachment, kicking out, kiss-off, laid off, leaving against one's will, losing one's job, marching orders, notice, outing, pink slip, pushing out, removal (from office, from power), replacement, releasing, reshuffling, sack, sacking, suspension, termination, the door,  throwing out, toppling, turfing out, unfrocking, unseating, walking papers

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