Mysteries of vernacular: Window - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

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Metaphoric compounds, like the combination of the words wind and eye to represent a window, populated Norse and Old English. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel describe how this love of metaphor created the word window.

Lesson by Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel, animation by Jessica Oreck.

Mysteries of vernacular:

Window,

an opening constructed in a wall to emit light or air.

When the Scandinavian settlers invaded England

in the Middle Ages,

they brought with them a whole slew of words

whose modern descendants have become part

of our everyday vernacular.

Their word for window was related to the Old Norse word

for the same architectural feature,

vindauga.

Vindauga was a compound,

composed of two separate words:

vindr, meaning wind

and auga, meaning eye.

The word vindauga was probably quite old,

having come into being long before

windows were made of glass.

This type of metaphoric compound,

called a kenning,

was very popular in both Norse and Old English.

The beautiful literary trope was used

in the Norse word for ship,

literally "wave stead."

And, in the epic poem, "Beowulf,"

where the sea is described as a whale road

and blood is described as battle sweat

and slaughter dew.

From its literal yet lyrical beginning,

the word window has expanded

beyond its concrete definition

as a construction or design element

to be used figuratively

in phrases like the poetic

"window of opportunity."