Origin Story
In the days before glass windows, how did the people of northern Europe air out their homes? The Vikings cut small holes high in the roof or wall. Through these holes the smoke from inside escaped, while the wind and light of the outside came in. They called such a hole a "wind eye." In Old Norse, wind was vindr and eye was auga, and joined together they became vindauga — as if the house had an eye to gaze upon the world outside. Carried to Britain along with Viking raids and trade, the word became windōwe, and at last today's window. Now it is sealed with glass and lets in not a breath of air, yet within the word the "wind eye" still lives on.
English once had its own native word, eyethurl ("eye-hole"), but it was pushed out by the more poetic Norse window. The same image carries on in the computer operating system "Windows" — each screen a window looking out upon the world beyond.
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Online Etymology Dictionarywindow (n.): c. 1200, literally "wind eye," from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr "wind" + auga "eye"
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Oxford English Dictionarywindow: Middle English windoȝe, from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr wind + auga eye
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Merriam-Webster DictionaryMiddle English windowe, from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr wind + auga eye
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
See wind + ow and picture a "wind eye." A window is the eye through which a house looks out at the world.
""Sealed with glass or not, a window is still a wind eye.""
