this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
1141 points (98.3% liked)

memes

10164 readers
2465 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 111 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (12 children)

They are called "casement" windows, specifically turn/tilt operation, and they do exist in the USA. They are typically more expensive than vinyl double hung, and home builders tend to shy away from anything "different" that might scare away home buyers. That's why you don't see them very often.

But if you want them, you can buy them and have them installed. You can even get them in patio door sizes, but the larger the door, the heavier it is when it tilts.

It's really common for people unfamiliar with the door function to lift the handle and think it's locked, and then a strong breeze blows the door inward. Between the noise and seeing the door falling inward, it can be pretty scary.

Source: I worked in construction in the US with European builders who loved these things and couldn't figure out why Americans didn't.

[–] Nerd02@lemmy.basedcount.com 52 points 9 months ago (8 children)

In Italian and French they are caled "Vasistas", from the German "Was ist das?" (What's that?), it's said they called it that way because the first German tourists who saw those windows in France were confused and kept asking for clarifications on how they worked.

[–] user134450@feddit.de 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

vasistas

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vasistas

its real, though not necessarily the type of window that you described. also exists in Turkish. i have a Turkish colleague who was very proud to explain the origin of that word to us in Germany :D .

[–] Nerd02@lemmy.basedcount.com 3 points 9 months ago

Interesting. Like I said in another comment in Italian it means exactly what I said. From the first line on the topic on Italian wikipedia:

A vasistas (also written wasistas) is a type of window that is also opeaneable on the inside [...]. The system allows the door to rotate down and the opening is delimited by special stops, called opening delimiters.

But apparently, after reading the French wikipedia page they use that word for something else. So it appears that we did steal the word from them, but used it to describe something different.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)