the.com/window seat

means A seat next to a window, prized for the view and the extra inch of wall to lean on.

from Straightforward compound of 'window' plus 'seat.' The window itself traces to Old Norse vindauga — literally 'wind-eye,' an opening for air before glass was common — joined with Old English setl, 'a place to sit.' The phrase's modern charge comes less from etymology than from airplanes and road trips, where it became shorthand for a small, coveted privilege.