Defenestration is most often used to refer to a usually swift dismissal or expulsion, as from a political party or office. It is also used to refer to a throwing of a person or thing out of a window.

// Once fancying itself something of a big tent, the group now seeks the defenestration of any local leader who isn't aligned with the current mayor's administration.

// Ingrid's annoyance at the alarm clock’s persistent drone led to the clock's sudden defenestration from her eighth-floor bedroom.

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"Since his defenestration, Michael had dabbled in investing, but he was open to returning to the cutthroat world of Silicon Valley start-ups." — Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, 2024

These days, defenestration—from the Latin fenestra, meaning "window"—is often used to describe the forceful removal of someone from public office or from some other advantageous position. History's most famous defenestration, however, was one in which the tossing out the window was quite literal. On May 23, 1618, two imperial regents were found guilty of violating certain guarantees of religious freedom and were thrown out the window of Prague Castle. The men survived the 50-foot tumble into the moat, but the incident marked the beginning of the Bohemian resistance to Hapsburg rule that eventually led to the Thirty Years' War and came to be known as the Defenestration of Prague. It was, in fact, the third such historical defenestration in Prague, but it was the first to be referred to as such by English speakers.

Appreciable describes things that can be perceived or measured.

// Researchers found that the temperature change made no appreciable difference in the chemical reaction.

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“Digital transformations have made an appreciable impact on society. Whether it's conspicuous guidance or subtle suggestion, technology influences our everyday decisions.” — Glenn Harvey, Business Insider, 1 June 2024

If you assumed that appreciable means “able to be appreciated,” we see you and we appreciate you. You’ve got a good eye for word families: appreciable does indeed share an ancestor with appreciate. However, the former does not describe things that are worthy of gratitude or admiration for their value, but rather things that are noticeable or measurable, as in “an appreciable difference between the two shades of green.” Appreciable comes, via French, from the Late Latin verb appretiare (“to appraise” or “to put a price on”), and is one of several English adjectives that can be applied to something that can be detected, felt, or measured. When it comes to vocabulary, it’s hard to put a price on having an abundance of options.

Zest refers to an enjoyably exciting quality, or to keen enjoyment itself. In culinary use, zest refers to small pieces of the peel of a lemon, lime, orange, or other citrus fruit used as flavoring.

// His humor added zest to the presentation's admittedly dry material.

// The couple has a zest for travel and adventure.

// Lime zest adds a burst of brightness to the dessert's rich flavor.

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"In 1773, J.A.E. Groeze, a German pastor with a zest for microscopy, first identified the tardigrade.... Because tardigrades are micro-sacs of goo (albeit with mouths, rectums, and esophagi), they don’t fossilize. But three of their intact remains from deep time have been found—all in amber, spread out over nearly sixty years of painstaking searching between 1964 and 2022." — Daniel Lewis, Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future, 2024

When life hands you lemons, the saying goes, make lemonade. The message of this zingy aphorism is to take situations that are metaphorically sour and make them sweeter. You could do this by squeezing entire lemons to restore some excitement and enjoyment to your life, but you could also just take a little of the zest. Zest of course, refers to tiny pieces of citrus rind that are used to brighten, or enhance, the flavor of food and beverages. English speakers adopted the French word zest (zeste in modern French) in the late 1600s with this meaning, but it didn’t take long for them to spice up their language with an additional sense referring to any quality that adds enjoyment to something in the same way that the zest of a citrus fruit adds flavor to food. Later they extended the word to gusto—that is, enthusiastic enjoyment—itself, whether it be gustatory or not.

Fugacious is a formal word that describes something that lasts only a short time.

// The rock band’s early success proved fugacious; within two years its members had moved on to other careers.

// Savor the enduring pleasures of life as intensely as the fugacious ones.

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“The Handel & Hendrix [House], on 23 and 25 Brook Street in central London, reopens 18 May.... The 18th century German composer George Frideric Handel called number 25 home for some 36 years, up until his death in 1759. Here, he manufactured hits like coronation/Champions League belter Zadok the Priest, and the Music for the Royal Fireworks with such voraciousness, his manuscripts were often bespattered with food and beer stains. Perhaps you'd equate such sloppiness with Jimi Hendrix; his tenancy in a flat at 23 Brook Street was altogether fugacious; he was only here from 1968-9—though in that time, used it for countless interviews, jam sessions—and referred to it as the only place he ever lived that felt like home.” — Will Noble, The Londonist, 18 May 2023

The word fugacious is too rare and unusual to qualify as vanilla, but the vanilla plant itself can be useful for recalling its meaning. Fugacious (which comes from Latin fugax, meaning “swift, fleeting,” and ultimately from fugere, “to run away”) describes the ephemeral—that is, those things in life that last only a brief time before fleeing or fading away. The word is often used to describe immaterial things, such as emotions, but botanists like to apply the word to plant parts (such as seeds, fruits, petals, and leaflets) that are quickly shed or dropped. Vanilla plants, for example, are said to have fugacious blossoms, as their flowers last only a single day during the blooming season. You may remember this the next time you’re baking with vanilla, and perhaps wishing that its rich, fugacious aroma would linger just a little bit longer.

To exact something (such as payment or revenge) is to demand it and get it, especially by using force or threats. Exact is also used in phrases like "exact a terrible toll" and "exact a high/heavy price" to say that something has caused a lot of suffering, loss, etc.

// The novel's protagonist is undeterred by either time or circumstance in her effort to exact revenge.

// Our mistakes exacted a heavy price.

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"... Milo did fake his death last season and has ever since been lurking in the shadows, waiting to exact revenge on Iris and others." — Noel Murray, Vulture, 28 July 2024

To exact something is to not only demand it, but also obtain it. The most common things exacted—revenge, retribution, and that ilk—often require physical force, but other things exacted—such as penalties and prices, promises and concessions—can be obtained with gentler forms of persuasion. The variation is present in the word’s Latin ancestor too: exigere means “to drive out; to demand; and to measure.” Do not confuse the verb exact with the more common verb extract. Extract is primarily about removing something, and need not involve a demand: a dentist extracts a tooth from (we hope) a willing patient, and extracting juice from an orange carries no connotation of insistence. Note, though, that there are cases in which either verb can be used: confessions, for example, are sometimes said to be exacted or extracted, with both typically implying significant effort by the one obtaining the confession.

A rendition, simply put, is the act or result of rendering something. That thing may be a performance or interpretation, a depiction, or a translation. In US law, rendition refers to the surrender by a state of a fugitive to another state that is charging the fugitive with a crime.

// Their signature meat loaf is a fine rendition of a classic recipe.

// Theatergoers have been eager for an English rendition of the acclaimed French play.

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"Clement Scott, Dorothy Stewart, and Maewa Kahihau wrote 'Now Is the Hour' in the early 20th century. Bing Crosby recorded one of the most famous renditions of the song in the late 1940s." — Matthew Strauss, Pitchfork, 7 Feb. 2024

When a singer performs their rendition of someone else's song, or a chef adds a few twists to someone else’s recipe to concoct their own unique rendition, each is—in a sense—returning: returning to something old in order to create something new. Fittingly, the word rendition, which has been part of English since at least the early 1600s, traces back ultimately to the Latin verb reddere, meaning "to return." Reddere is also the ancestor of the English verb render, whose many meanings include "to give a performance of" and "to give up or yield." Although render took a different path from reddere than did rendition, it's perhaps no surprise that the latter fundamentally means "an act or result of rendering something," and may be applied to everything from a performance, depiction, or translation of something, to a surrender (surrender being another reddere descendent), as in "fugitives awaiting rendition to a neighboring state."

Taciturn is a formal word that describes someone who tends to be quiet or who tends to speak infrequently.

// One of the twins was taciturn and shy, while the other one was more outgoing.

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“Joan Didion looks straight at the camera, with her fist curled in front of her mouth—as if to indicate it is through her hands that the taciturn thinker speaks.” — Evelyn McDonnell, The World According to Joan Didion, 2023

Even if you consider yourself a person of few words, taciturn is a good one to keep in your pocket, if for no other reason than it’s an efficient way to describe your own particular deportment. While ramblers ramble and babblers babble, the taciturn among us turn things down a notch, preferring to keep mum rather than add their voices to the verbal hubbub. Taciturn traces back ultimately to the Latin verb tacēre, meaning “to be silent.” While English users were quicker to adopt other tacēre descendants such as the adjective tacit (“expressed without words” or “implied”) in the 1600s and even the noun taciturnity in the 1400s, taciturn wasn’t on anyone’s lips until the 1700s.

To ideate is to form an idea or conception of something.

// Jocelyn used the education seminar's lunch hour to talk with other teachers and ideate new activities to use in the classroom.

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“Well, luckily, at the same time that I was working within these industry spaces, I was also building ARRAY. It’s over a decade old, it is a distribution company, we distribute films by women and filmmakers of color, we have public programming for free, for the community, all around cinema. We have a four-building campus in Echo Park where we edit and we ideate and we educate and we do all kinds of beautiful things.” — Ava DuVernay, Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso [podcast], 14 Jan. 2024

Like idea and ideal, ideate comes from the Greek verb idein, which means “to see.” The sight-thought connection came courtesy of Plato, the Greek philosopher who based his theory of the ideal on the concept of seeing, claiming that a true philosopher can see the essential nature of things and can recognize their ideal form or state. Early uses of idea, ideal, and ideate in English were associated with Platonic philosophy; idea meant “an archetype” or “a standard of perfection,” ideal meant “existing as an archetype,” and ideate referred to forming Platonic ideas. But though ideate is tied to ancient philosophy, the word itself is a modern concoction, relatively speaking. It first appeared in English only about 400 years ago.

Verbatim is an adverb meaning "in the exact words," or in other words, "word for word."

// The coach was quoted verbatim in the article announcing that she would retire at the end of the season.

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"The case is drawn from astonishing real-life events and much of the dialogue is lifted verbatim from court transcripts." — Lisa Wong Macabasco, Vogue, 13 Jan. 2023

As every bona fide word nerd knows, English is rich with Latin descendants. While most have undergone changes in spelling, some are the same—in other words, they are spelled verbatim. We won't list examples of such ad nauseam, but a few include caveat, ego, vice versa and, of course, verbatim. This last word comes to us from the Medieval Latin word verbātim which also means "word for word." As you may have noticed, there’s a verb in verbatim, and that’s no mere coincidence. Both verb and verbatim come from verbum, the Latin word for "word." The influence of verbum can be seen in other common English words such as proverb, verbose, adverb, et cetera. And speaking of adverbs, verbatim isn’t just an adverb; it’s also used as an adjective to mean "being in or following the exact words" (as in "a verbatim report") and on rare occasions as a noun referring to an account, translation, or report that follows the original word for word.

A scapegoat is a person who is unfairly blamed for something others have done.

// The CFO was made the scapegoat for the company’s failures.

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"It's a lively, funny movie, as more of Littlehampton's locals start getting aggressive letters packed with the same redundant profanity, and respond to them with absolute horror—and a certain amount of glee at having such a deliciously transgressive scandal to chew over, and such a perfect scapegoat as Rose to blame for all of it." — Tasha Robinson, Polygon.com, 27 July 2024

On Yom Kippur, the ancient Hebrews would sacrifice one goat for God and lead another one, over whom all the sins of Israel had been confessed, into the wilderness to bear the sins of the people away. The ceremony is described in Leviticus, where it is said that one lot shall be cast for God and one for "Azazel." Modern scholars usually interpret Azazel (ʽazāzēl in Hebrew) as being the name of a demon living in the desert, but ancient biblical translators thought ʽazāzēl referred to the goat itself, apparently confusing the word with the Hebrew phrase ʽēz 'ōzēl, meaning "goat that departs." Thus, in a 16th century English translation, the word for Azazel/the goat was rendered as scapegoote—that is, "goat that escapes." The extended senses of scapegoat we use today evolved from this biblical use.