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Mysteries of vernacular: Window - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

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TEDEd Animation

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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.

The Scandinavians brought a slew of words to England in the Middle Ages. One was the combination of two words which came to mean window. The word they brought was vindauga. What does the last part of the word (auga) mean?

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Meet The Creators

  • Director Jessica Oreck
  • Producer Rachael Teel

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