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Amaranth (known in the USA as Red no 2) is a red dye used to dye wool and silk and in photography. Although banned for use in food, drugs and cosmetics by the FDA amaranth is used to colour food in other parts of the world.
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Amaurophilia is sexual arousal by a partner who is unable to see one due to artificial means, such as being blindfolded or having sex in total darkness.
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Ambaree is a fibre similar to jute and largely used in India. It is obtained from Hibiscus cannabinus.
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In mediaeval Europe, an amber was a liquid measure of 48 sesters.
In mediaeval England, an amber was a dry measure, being one penny worth of salt.
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Ambidextrous is having the facility to use the left hand as effectively as the right.
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Amboyna Wood is a beautiful curled orange or brownish coloured wood brought from the Moluccas, and yielded by Pterospermum indicum.
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The Ambrosian Library is a famous library in Milan, founded in 1602 by Carlos Borromeo, and named in honour of St Ambrose, the patron saint of the city.
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An ambry was a cupboard or chest designed to contain the tools of one's profession. In a church, the ambry was a niche or cupboard near the altar designed to hold the utensils requisite for conducting worship - sacred vessels, the Host, holy oil etc. In monasteries an ambry was a pantry or linen press.
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An ambulance is a wagon, litter or other means of transport used for the conveyance of the sick and disabled.
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Amedei of Tuscany, Italy is probably the world's finest chocolate manufacturer. The small company was founded by a brother and sister, Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri in 1990, and manufactures chocolate from the start to finish, selecting the finest cocoa beans primarily from Venezuela and the Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad, Grenada), Ecuador and Madagascar and turning them into chocolate - in contrast to large chocolate companies which buy blocks of chocolate from large commercial factories which use low grade cocoa beans from large plantations and refined sugar to make the chocolate they then sell on.
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An amendment is a proposal brought forward in a meeting of some public or other body, either in order to get an alteration introduced on some proposal already before the meeting, or entirely to overturn such proposal. In parliament an amendment denotes an alteration made in the original draught of a bill whilst it is passing through the houses. Amendments may be made so as totally to alter the nature of the proposition; and this is a way of getting rid of a proposition, by making it bear a sense different from what was intended by the movers, who are thus compelled to abandon it.
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American is a term referring to someone or something that comes from, or is found in, America.
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The American Arbitration Association is a non-profit organization that provides arbitrators for the arbitration of disputes.
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The American Association was an association formed among the American colonists in 1774 to enforce their claim of rights against the British government. Fourteen articles were agreed to, pledging the associates to an entire commercial non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland and the West Indies, denouncing the slave trade and appointing committees to detect and publish the names of violators of the articles. The association was formed against such acts as the Sugar, Stamp, Tea and Quartering Acts and the Boston Port Bill.
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The American Legion is an organisation of demobilised American soldiers and sailors, that was set up in 1919 for those who had served during the Great War.
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The first elected representative legislature in America was that which met at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The colonies of Southern New England started with primary assemblies, from which representative assemblies were soon developed. In New York the first true legislature was assembled in 1683. In general the colonial legislatures were modelled on the British Parliament, the procedure of which they followed closely. To king, lords and commons corresponded the governor, the council appointed by him, and the representatives of the people, variously called house of burgesses, house of delegates, assembly, or house of representatives. These last were elected by voters having a property qualification, two members or more for each county in the Middle and Southern States, one or two from each town in New England.
The American Revolution broke up the upper houses or councils, and the new constitutions substituted what in Virginia (1776) and then in the other States was called a senate. Pennsylvania and Georgia had at first legislatures of but one house. The legislatures of the Southern States were generally given the power to choose the governor. The Constitution of 1787 gave the State Legislatures the right to choose US Senators. All the amendments to the Federal Constitution have been ratified by them. During the later half of the 19th century it was generally felt that State Legislatures had been declining in excellence during the last two generations, state constitutions having imposed more and more restrictions upon their action.
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An Americanism is defined as a term, phrase, or idiom peculiar to the English language as spoken in America, and not yet forming part of the language spoken in England. Americanisms often become absorbed into proper English. Thus the word 'stampede' which originated from Mexican Spanish in the USA during the mid-19th century was considered an Americanism around 1900, but by the late 20th century was absorbed into the English language proper.
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Amicus curiae is a legal term for a barrister advising the court in a legal case as a neutral person, not representing either side. In England and Wales, for example, where the public interest is concerned, the Attorney General (or his or her representative) may be asked to express an opinion. Professional bodies such as the Law Society may be represented to give an opinion on matters affecting their members. In the USA, a person with a strong interest in or views on the subject matter of an action, but who is not a party to it, may be given the court's permission to act as amicus curiae, usually only in matters of broad public interest.
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The ammoniaphone was an instrument of the 19th and early 20th centuries, consisting of a metallic tube containing some substance saturated with ammonia, peroxide of hydrogen, and a few flavouring compounds, fitted with a mouthpiece to breathe through, which was said to render the voice strong, clear, rich, and ringing by the inhalation of the ammoniacal vapour. It was invented by Dr. Carter Moffat, and was suggested by the presence of ammonia in some quantity in the atmosphere of Italy - the country of fine singers.
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Amnesty is an act granting forgiveness (literally, forgetfulness) to political and other offenders.
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Amoebean poetry is poetry in which persons are represented as speaking alternately, as in some of Virgil's eclogues.
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Amok is a Malay term denoting a sudden frenzy that seizes an individual, sometimes because of intoxicants, but often unaccountably.
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Amomaxia is the practice of having sex in a parked car.
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The Amphictyonic League or council, was in ancient Greece, a confederation of tribes for the protection of religious worship, but which also discussed questions of international law, and matters affecting their political union. The most important was that of the twelve northern tribes which met alternately at Delphi and Thermopylae. The tribes sent two deputies each, who assembled with great solemnity; composed the public dissensions, and the quarrels of individual cities, by force or persuasion; punished civil and criminal offences, and particularly transgressions of the law of nations, and violations of the temple of Delphi. Its calling on the states to punish the Phocians for plundering Delphi caused the Sacred Wars, of 595 to 586, 448 to 447 and 357 to 346 BC.
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Amphigons are words strung together without any real connection.
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Amphigouri is nonsense verse. Later it was adopted for use in burlesque theatre and the term also applies to a nonsensical burlesque composition.
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An amphitheatre is a circular or ovular arena surrounded by tiers of seats designed for various shows. The seats were tiered either by utilising a natural slope, or constructed. The first known amphitheatres date from the first century BC, and become common throughout the Roman Empire especially in the Latin west.
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An amphora was a Roman two-handled vessel, generally made of clay, used for holding, wine, oil, honey and the bones or ashes of the dead. The amphora was a Roman unit of liquid measure containing 48 sectari, equivalent to about six gallons, the Greek amphora holding about nine gallons.
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The amphoreus was an ancient Greek unit of liquid measure equivalent to about nine gallons.
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In antiquity an ampulla was a vessel bellying out like a jug, that contained unguents for the bath. The term was also used for a vessel for drinking at table. The ampulla has also been employed for ceremonial purposes, such as holding the oil or chrism used in various church rites and for anointing monarchs at their coronation. The ampulla of the English sovereigns now in use is an eagle, weighing about 10 oz, of the purest chased gold, which passed through various hands to the Black Prince.
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Ana is the neuter plural termination of Latin adjectives in -anus, often forming an affix with the names of eminent men to denote a collection of their memorable sayings - thus Scaligericanca, Johnsoniana, the sayings of Scaliger, of Johnson; or to denote a collection of anecdotes, or gossipy matter, as in boxiana. Hence, as an independent noun, books recording such sayings; the sayings themselves.
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Anabaptists (from the Greek anabaptisein, to rebaptize) was a name given to a Christian sect by their adversaries, because, as they objected to infant baptism, they re-baptized those who joined their body. The founder of the sect appears to have been Nicolas Storch, a disciple of Luther's, who seems to have aimed also at the reorganization of society based on civil and political equality. Gathering round him a number of fiery spirits, among whom was Thomas Munzer, he incited the peasantry of Suabia and Franconia to insurrection - the doctrine of a community of goods being now added to their creed. This insurrection was quelled in 1525, when Munzer was put to the torture and beheaded. After the death of Munzer the sectaries dispersed in all directions, spreading their doctrines wherever they went. In 1534 the town of Miinster in Westphalia became their centre of action. Under the leadership of Bockhold and Matthias their numbers increased daily, and being joined by the restless spirits of the adjoining towns, they soon made themselves masters of the town and expelled their adversaries. Matthias became their prophet, but he fell in a sally against the Bishop of Munster, Count Waldeck, who had laid siege to the city. Bockhold then became leader, assuming the name of John of Leyden, king of the New Jerusalem, and Munster became a theatre of all the excesses of fanaticism, lust, and cruelty. The town was eventually taken in June, 1535, and Bockhold and a great many of his partisans suffered death. This was the last time that the movement assumed anything like political importance.
In the meantime some of the apostles, who were sent out by Bockhold to extend the limits of his kingdom, had been successful in various places, and many independent teachers, who preached the same doctrines, continued active in the work of founding a new empire of pure Christians. It is true that they rejected the practice of polygamy, community of goods, and intolerance towards those of different opinions which had prevailed in Munster; but they enjoined upon their adherents the other doctrines of the early Anabaptists, and certain heretical opinions in regard to the humanity of Christ, occasioned by the controversies of that day about the sacrament. The most celebrated of those Anabaptist prophets were Melchior Hoffmann, the founder of the Hoffmannists or Millenarians; Galenus Abrahamssohn, from whom the sect of the Galenists were called; and Simon Menno, founder of various sects known as Mennonites.
Menno's principles are contained in his Principles of the True Christian Faith, 1556, a work which is held as authoritative on points of doctrine and worship among the Baptist communities of Germany and the Netherlands. The application of the term Anabaptist to the general body of Baptists throughout the world is unwarranted, because these sects have nothing in common with the bodies which sprung up in various countries of Europe during the Reformation, except the practice of adult baptism. The Baptists themselves repudiate the name Anabaptist, as they claim to baptize according to the original institution of the rite, and never repeat baptism in the case of those who in their opinion have been so baptized.
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Anabasis is the Greek title of Xenophon's celebrated account of the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The title is also given to Arrian's work which records the campaigns of Alexander the Great.
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An anachronism is an error of chronology by which things are represented as coexisting which did not coexist. The term is also applied also to anything foreign to or out of keeping with a specified time. Thus it is an anachronism when Shakespeare, in Troilus and Cressida, makes Hector quote Aristotle.
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Anacoluthon is a want of grammatical and logical sequence in the structure of a sentence.
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An anagnost was a domestic servant employed by wealthy Romans to read to them at meals.
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Anal sex is penetration of the anus. In heterosexual relationships it has been traditionally used in some cultures as a form of contraception, and of preserving vaginal virginity prior to marriage.
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Iin comparative anatomy, analogue refers to an organ in one species or group having the same function as an organ of different structure in another species or group, as the wing of a bird and that of an insect, both serving for flight. Organs in different animals having a similar anatomical structure, development, and relative position, independent of function or form, such as the arm of a man and the wing of a bird. are termed homologues.
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Analogy is the mode of reasoning from resemblance to resemblance. When we find on attentive examination resemblances in objects apparently diverse, and in which at first no such resemblances were discovered, a presumption arises that other resemblances may be found by further examination in these or other objects likewise apparently diverse. It is on the belief in a unity in nature that all inferences from analogy rest. The general inference from analogy is always perfectly valid. Wherever there is resemblance, similarity or identity of cause somewhere may be justly inferred; but to infer the particular cause without particular proof is always to reason falsely. Analogy is of great use and constant application in science, in philosophy, and in the common business of life.
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Analysis is the resolution of an object whether of the senses or the intellect, into its component elements. In philosophy it is the mode of resolving a compound idea into its simple parts, in order to consider them more distinctly, and arrive at a more precise knowledge of the whole. Analysis is opposed to synthesis, by which we combine and class our perceptions, and contrive expressions for our thoughts, so as to represent their several divisions, classes, and relations.
In mathematics, analysis is, in the widest sense, the expression and development of the functions of quantities by calculation;
in a narrower sense the resolving of problems by algebraic equations. The analysis of the ancients was exhibited only in geometry, and made use only of geometrical assistance, whereby it is distinguished from the analysis of the moderns, which extends to all measurable objects, and expresses in equations the mutual dependence of magnitudes. Analysis is divided into lower and higher, the lower comprising, besides arithmetic and algebra, the doctrines of functions, of series, combinations, logarithms, and curves, the higher comprising the differential and integral calculus, and the calculus of variations.
In chemistry, analysis is the process of decomposing a compound substance with a view to determine either (a) what elements it contains (known as qualitative analysis), or (b) how much of each element is present (known as quantitative analysis). Thus by the first process we learn that water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, and by the second that it consists of one part of hydrogen by weight to eight parts of oxygen.
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Anamorphosis is a term denoting a drawing executed in such a manner as to present a distorted image of the object represented, but which, when viewed from a certain point, or reflected by a curved mirror or through a polyhedron, shows the object in its true proportions.
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Anarchists (from the Greek word anarchia, meaning non-rule) believe that every form of government is evil. Towards the end of the last century anarchists assassinated Czar Alexander of Russia and other political leaders to draw attention to their theories. There was a strong anarchist movement in Spain during the 1930s.
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Anarchists are a revolutionary sect or body setting forth as the social ideal the extreme form of individual freedom, and holding that all government is injurious and immoral, that the destruction of every social form now existing must be the first step to the creation of a new world (Anarchy). Their recognition as an independent sect may be dated from the secession of Bakunin and his followers from the Social Democrats at the congress of the Hague in 1872, since which they have maintained an active propaganda. Their principal journals have been La Revolte published in Paris, the Freiheit published in New York, Liberty published in Boston, and the Anarchist published in London. The Anarchist congress held at London in 1881 decided that all means were justifiable as against the organized forces of modern society.
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Anastatic printing is a mode of obtaining facsimile impressions of any printed page or engraving by transferring it to a plate of zinc, which, on being subjected to the action of an acid, is etched or eaten away with the exception of the parts covered with the ink, which parts, being thus protected from the action of the acid, are left in relief so that they can readily be printed from.
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Anasteemaphilia is the preference for sexual partners of a different height to oneself.
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Originally an anathema was a gift hung up in a temple (the word comes from the Greek anatithemi, to lay up), and dedicated to some god, a votive offering; but it gradually came to be used for expulsion, curse. The Roman Catholic Church pronounces the sentence of anathema against heretics, schismatics, and all who wilfully pursue a course of conduct condemned by the church. The subject of the anathema is declared an outcast from the church, all the faithful are forbidden to associate with him, and utter destruction is denounced against him, both body and soul.
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Ancient lights is a legal term for light enjoyed for 20 years or more through a defined aperture (such as a window) in a building. Under the Prescription Act (1832) the owner of the building has a right to such light, which may not thereafter be obstructed. Before the passing of this Act it was very difficult to obtain rights to any light, as the common law recognises no natural right to light.
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The Ancient Mariner is a poem by Coleridge, published in 'Lyrical Ballads' in 1798. The idea appears to have been taken from Captain Shelvocke's ' Voyage Round the World' published in 1757.
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An andiron (fire-dog) is a metal utensil consisting of two upright and generally ornamental pillars set at some distance from each other with a horizontal bar connecting them. They were originally designed to prop up the extremities of logs of wood while they were being burnt. Later they were used to support the ends of a spit.
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The angelus is a Roman Catholic devotion in honour of the Incarnation, instituted by Urban II. It consists of three texts, each said as versicle and response, and followed by the salutation of Gabriel.
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Anglicanism is a family of Christian churches. The family includes the Church of England, the US Episcopal Church, and those holding the same essential doctrines. Anglicanism holds the Lambeth Quadrilateral 1888 Holy Scripture as the basis of all doctrine, the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, and the historic episcopate.
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Properly, angling is the art of catching fish with a baited hook or angle. The basic equipment for angling is a rod, a line and a hook. But many anglers supplement the basics with other equiment such as reels, weights, floats and nets etc.
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The Anglo-Japanese Treaty was a treaty signed by Great Britain and Japan on January 30th 1902, by which the two powers agreed to safeguard their common interests in China and Korea. In the event of one of them being at war with a foreign power, the other would maintain a strict neutrality, but would assist her ally if a second foreign power joined the first. The treaty also stated that neither party would enter into agreements without the consent of the other and would confide fully in the other if common interests were endangered. The treaty was agreed for five years.
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Angostura Bark is the aromatic bitter medicinal bark obtained chiefly from Galipea officindlis, a tree of between three and six metres high, growing in the northern regions of South America, of the natural order Rutaceae. The bark is valuable as a tonic and febrifuge, and is also used for a kind of bitters (Angostura bitters). From this bark being adulterated, indeed sometimes entirely replaced, by the poisonous bark of Strychnos Nux Vomica, its use as a medicine had been almost given up by around 1900.
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Anima Mundi was a term applied by some of the older philosophers to the ethereal essence or spirit supposed to be diffused through the universe, organizing and acting throughout the whole and in all its different parts; a theory closely allied to Pantheism.
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Animal training are sex games in which one or more partners, take on the role of an animal, such as a horse (pony girl) or dog. The 'animal' may imitate animal behaviour, wearing items such as collars, leads, bridles and so on, or carry out tasks associated with the animal, such as pulling a vehicle.
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Animal worship is a practice found to prevail, or to have prevailed, in the most widely distant parts of the world, both the Old and the New, but nowhere to such an amazing extent as in ancient Egypt, notwithstanding its high civilization. Nearly all the more important animals found in the country were regarded as sacred in some part of Egypt, and the degree of reverence paid to them was such that throughout Egypt the killing of a hawk or an ibis, whether voluntary or not, was punished with death. The worship, however, was not, except in a few instances, paid to them as actual deities. The animals were merely regarded as sacred to the deities, and the worship paid to them was symbolical.
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Animism is the system of medicine propounded by Stahl, and based on the idea that the soul (anima) is the seat of life. In modern usage the term is applied to express the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings, and especially to the tendency, common among primitive races, to attribute souls or spirits to inanimate things, and to explain phenomena not due to obvious natural causes by attributing them to spiritual agency. Amongst the beliefs of animism is that of a human apparitional soul, bearing the form and appearance of the body, and living after death a sort of semi-human life.
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The anker was a measurement used in Britain and Germany for beer, spirits and the like. It was equivalent to 8.5 gallons. The Scottish anker contained 20 Scottish pints.
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Annals are a history of events in chronological order, each event being recorded under the year in which it occurred. The name is derived from the first annual records of the Romans, which were called annales pontificum or annales maximi, drawn up by the pontifex maximus (chief pontiff). The practice of keeping such annals was afterwards adopted also by various private individuals, as by Fabius Pictor, Calpurnius Piso, and others. The name hence came to be applied in later times to historical works in which the matter was treated with special reference to chronological arrangement, as to the Annals of Tacitus.
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Annatto is an orange-red colouring matter, obtained from the pulp surrounding the seeds of Bixa Orellana, a shrub native to tropical America, and cultivated in Guiana, St Domingo, and the East Indies. It was sometimes used as a dye for silk and cotton goods though it does not produce a very durable colour, but it is much used in medicine for tinging plasters and ointments, and to a considerable extent by farmers for giving a rich colour to cheese, and by the food industry as a food colouring.
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Queen Anne's fan is a popular gesticulation of contempt involving placing the thumb on the nose and spreading the fingers.
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In literature, annual is the name given to a class of publications which at one time enjoyed an immense yearly circulation, and were distinguished by great magnificence both of binding and illustration, which rendered them much sought after as Christmas and New Year presents. Their contents were chiefly prose tales and ballads, lyrics, and other poetry. The earliest was the Forget-me-not, started in 1822, and followed next year by the Friendship's Offering. The Literary Souvenir was commenced in 1824, and the Keepsake in 1827. Among the names of the editors occur those of Alaric A. Watts, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Harrison Ainsworth, Lady Blessington, Mary Howitt, etc. The popularity of the annuals reached its zenith about 1829, when no less than seventeen made their appearance; in 1856 the Keepsake, the last of the series, leased to exist. During the 20th century following the Second World War annuals aimed at children started to be produced, based upon existing childrens' magazines and television programmes and are still very popular.
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Annunciation Day or Lady Day is a feast of the Christian church in honour of the annunciation. It is celebrated on the 25th of March.
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Annus luctus was the period formerly during which a widow was morally supposed to remain chaste. The reasoning went that should the woman remarry within nine months of the death of her husband, and a child was born, then the paternity of the child could be questionable.
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Anointing is the rubbing the body or some part of it with oil, often perfumed. From time immemorial the nations of the East have been in the habit of anointing themselves for the sake of health and beauty. The Greeks and Romans anointed themselves after the bath. Wrestlers anointed themselves in order to render it more difficult for their antagonists to get hold of them. In Egypt it seems to have been common to anoint the head of guests when they entered the house where they were to be entertained. In the Mosaic law a sacred character was attached to the anointing of the garments of the priests and things belonging to the ceremonial of worship. The Jewish priests and kings were anointed when inducted into office, and were called the anointed of the Lord, to show that their persons were sacred and their office from God. In the Old Testament also the prophecies respecting the Redeemer style him Messias, that is, the Anointed, which is also the meaning of his Greek name Christ. The custom of anointing still exists in the Roman Catholic Church in the ordination of priests and the confirmation of believers and the sacrament of extreme unction. The ceremony is also frequently a part of the coronation of kings.
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Anolinctus is the sex act of stimulating the anus with the tongue.
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Anolingus is the sex act of inserting the tongue into the anus.
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In grammar, an antecedent is the noun to which a relative or other pronoun refers; as, Solomon was the prince who built the temple, where the word prince is the antecedent of who.
In logic, an antecedent is that member of a hypothetical or conditional proposition which contains the condition, and which is introduced by if or some equivalent word or words; as, if the sun is fixed, the earth must move. Here the first and conditional proposition is the antecedent, the second the consequent.
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The term antediluvian refers to before the flood or deluge of Noah's time; relating to what happened before the deluge. In geology the term has been applied to organisms, traces of which are found in a fossil state in formations preceding the Diluvial, particularly to extinct animals such as the paleotherium, the mastodon, etc.
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An anthelion is a luminous ring, or rings, seen by an observer, especially in alpine and polar regions, around the shadow of his head projected on a cloud or fog-bank, or on grass covered with dew, fifteen or twenty metres distant, and opposite the sun
when rising or setting. It is due to the diffraction of light.
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In September 2001 the USA was attacked by letters containing the phrases 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel' infected with anthrax being sent through the post. Five people died, 18 more were injured, and 35000 were forced to take precautionary antibiotics. Official reports suggested that the anthrax was released by the Muslim al-Qaeda terrorist movement, but investigations by forensic scientists at the FBI revealed that the sender of the poisoned letters was most likely a member of the American CIA, probably trying to encourage support for President Bush's 'war on terrorism' by spreading terror and paranoia throughout the western world directed at the more fundamental Islamic countries.
The FBI's conclusion was further proved when on the 17th of June, 2003 the head of the British intelligence service, MI5 Ms Manningham-Buller, warned that an attack on a Western city was 'only a matter of time', and went on to say 'We are faced with a realistic possibility of a form of unconventional attack that could include chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN)'. 'It is only a matter of time before a crude version of a CBRN is launched on a Western city.' Clearly indicating that to date no such terrorist attack had taken place, and that the FBI were correct in their finding that the Anthrax attack had been carried out by a member of the CIA, though suggesting that he was not a rogue criminal at all.
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Anthropolite is a petrifaction of the human body or skeleton, or of parts of the body, by the incrusting action of calcareous waters, and hence hardly to be considered fossil or sub-fossil.
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Anthropometry is a system of recording body measurements for the purpose of confirming the identities of convicted criminals. Anthropometry was invented by Alphonse Bertillon in 1880 as Bertillonage and adopted by Scotland Yard in 1894 - under the name anthropometry - under the recommendation of the Troup Committee. Anthropometry was replaced by fingerprinting following the Belper Committee in 1900.
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Anthropomorphism is the representation or conception of a deity under a human form, or with human attributes and affections. Anthropomorphism is founded in the natural inaptitude of the human mind for conceiving spiritual things except through sensuous images, and in its consequent tendency to accept such expressions as those of Scripture when it speaks of the eye, the ear, and the hand of God, of his seeing and hearing, of his remembering and forgetting, of his making man in his own image, etc, in a too literal sense. The term is also applied to that doctrine which attributes to animals mental faculties of the same nature as those of man, though much lower in degree: strictly called biological anthropomorphism, to distinguish it from anthropomorphism proper, or theological anthropomorphism.
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Anthropophagy is the scientific term for man-eaters, cannibalism Little is known of the history of cannibalism, but there is no doubt that it was practised in very ancient times, and claims of its practice have long been a popular propaganda tool in effecting public opinion against a race of people. Superstitious ideas are often associated with cannibalism among those who practise it. The Caribs were cannibals at the time of the Spanish conquest, and the word 'cannibal' is derived from their name.
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Anthroposcopy is divination by observing facial features.
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The Anti-Corn Law League was an organisation formed in 1838 with its headquarters at Manchester, to effect the repeal of the corn laws in Britain. It was led by Cobden, Bright, Villiers, Joseph Hume and Roebuck. The league held meetings, oratories and published a paper (the League) and was an organised, aggressive and effective body. With its objectives achieved by the royal assent given to repeal the corn laws in 1846 to 1849 the league was dissolved.
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The Anti-Jac'obin was a famous magazine published from 1797 until 1818, the original object of which was to satirize the Jacobin principles of the Fox section of Whigs. Its principal contributors were Gifford, Canning, Frere, and Ellis.
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The Anti-Monopoly Party was an American political party formed on May the 14th 1884 at Chicago, demanding economical government, equitable laws, including an Interstate Commerce law, laws establishing labour bureaus and providing industrial arbitration, direct vote for senators, graduated income tax, payment of the national debt as it matures, and 'fostering-care' for agriculture, and denouncing the tariff and the granting of land to corporations. The Anti-Monopoly Party later joined with the Green-Back Labour party to form the 'People's Party'.
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The Anti-Nebraska Men was a name given to the American Northern Whigs to distinguish them from the Southern Whigs in respect of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The Anti-Nebraska Men were joined by Anti-Slavery Democrats and gained control of the House in the Thirty-Fourth Congress before becoming the Republican Party.
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Anti-Semitism, hostility to the Jews (Semites), has long been actively exhibited in severities and attacks of various kinds. A movement of the late 19th century manifested in various countries, especially Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Romania, and France. It may have been attributed to different motives in different countries, but on the whole owed its origin less to the fact of the Jews being a 'peculiar people' by race and religion, than to the comparatively high position won by them in the financial and political worlds.
In Western Russia there was a great outburst against the Jews in 1881, in which men, women, and children were slaughtered. The Russian government, by its anti-Jewish policy, may be said to have sanctioned this murderous outbreak, which was followed by harsh laws and actual persecutions, though afterwards there was a mitigation of the severity shown towards the Jews. Yet in 1903 the world was startled by a terrible massacre of Jews at Kishinef, in Bessarabia, connived at by the authorities on the spot; and towards the end of 1905, in connection with the Russian revolutionary movement, there were dreadful massacres of Jews in Odessa, Kishinef, and other towns, the authorities being similarly involved. In Russia, hatred of the Jews was party due to the position they occupied throughout the country as money-lenders.
In Rumania their position resembled what it was elsewhere in mediaeval times, and was less favourable than it was even under the Turks. In Germany, even before Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party the movement was worked chiefly by politicians for their own ends, though the racial and religious question also had some influence; and among the ignorant the .belief that the Jews murder Christian children for ritual purposes was revived, as also in Austria-Hungary. In Austria-Hungary the movement was partly political, partly social and economic, partly religious.
In France anti-Semitism was employed chiefly as a weapon by monarchists and clericals as against republicanism, and by the socialists as against capitalism, racial antipathy having also its influence in the movements. In Britain, anti-Semitism was much less severe, owing to there having been a very large influx of Jews from the Continent, forming part of Britian's immigration policy.
Anti-Semitism hit a climax in the 1930's with Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party with the wholesale slaughter of Jews throughout Europe, which provided an excuse for other world powers to oppose Germany's expansion through war - though economic reasons seem much more likely - and culminated in the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, subsequently named Israel, following the end of the Second World War.
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The Anti-Vivisection Society was formed in London in 1876 to oppose vivisection.
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Anti-rentism was a movement among the leaseholders of certain counties in New York State, USA during 1839 to 1847 to resist the feudal dues appertaining to the Dutch manorial and patronship rights still remaining, though virtually abolished in 1775. In 1839 the heirs of one of the largest landowners in Albany county tried to evict those tenants who had not paid the feudal rents. The tenants resisted, the movement spread, ant-rent associations were formed and disturbances occurred. Repressive measures were adopted, and the resistance was put down. In 1846 feudal tenures of all kinds were abolished, and agricultural leases were limited to a maximum period of twelve years.
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Antimacassar was a former covering for chairs, sofas, couches, etc, made of open cotton or worsted work, to preserve them from being soiled, as by the oil applied to the hair.
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The Antinomians were a Christian religious sect founded in Germany by John Agricola. Antinomians believed that the law was of no use or obligation under the dispensation of the Gospel, and that good works availed nothing toward salvation. Antinomianism arrived in the USA with Anne Hutchinson, an English Antinomian who arrived in 1634 and supported the preachings of John Cotton and John Wheelwright. She was tried in 1637, and banished along with John Wheelwright and others. A number of her followers were fined or otherwise punished and the rule of the Puritan hierarchy was firmly established at the expense of freedom of thought and speech.
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In geography, antipodes are two places precisely opposite one another on the earth, such as Barfleur in Normandy and Antipodes Island, south-east of New Zealand. At antipodes the hours and seasons are reversed, so that when it is midnight in summer in Barfleur it is noon in winter on Antipodes.
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Antipope is the name applied to those who at different periods have produced a schism in the Roman Catholic Church by opposing the authority of the pope, under the pretence that they were themselves popes. The Roman Church cannot admit that there ever existed two popes; but the fact is, that in several cases both competitors for the papal chair (sometimes there were three or even four) were equally popes; that is to say, the claims of all were equally good. Each was frequently supported by whole nations, and the schism was nothing but the struggle of political interests.
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Antiquaries are those devoted to the study of ancient times through their relics, as old places of sepulchre, remains of ancient habitations, early monuments, implements or weapons, statues, coins, medals, paintings, inscriptions, books, and manuscripts, with the view of arriving at a knowledge of the relations, modes of living, habits, and general condition of the people who created or employed them. Societies or associations of antiquaries have been formed in all countries of European civilization. In Britain the Society of Antiquaries of London was founded in 1572, revived in 1717, and incorporated in 1751. The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland was founded in 1780, incorporated in 1783, and has the management of a large national antiquarian museum in Edinburgh.
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Antithesis (opposition) is a figure of speech consisting in a contrast or opposition of words or sentiments; as, 'When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves we leave them'', 'The prodigal robs his heir, the miser robs himself'.
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Antitype is that which is correlative to a type; by theological writers the term is employed to denote the reality of which a type is the prophetic symbol.
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An Anton Piller order is a court injunction ordering the defendant to allow the plaintiff to enter named premises to search for and take copies of specified articles and documents. These orders are obtained by the plaintiff 'ex parte' (without the other party being present in court) to allow him to preserve evidence in cases in which he has grounds to think it will be destroyed. It is especially useful in 'pirating' cases. The order is not a search warrant, so entry cannot be forced, but the defendant will be in contempt of court if entry is refused. A solicitor must serve the order. It is named after an order made in the High Court in 1976 against Anton Piller KG.
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In rhetoric, antonomasia is the use of the name of some office, dignity, profession, science, or trade instead of the true name of the person, as when his majesty is used for a king, his lordship for a nobleman; or when, instead of Aristotle, we say, the philosopher; or, conversely, the use of a proper noun instead of a common noun; as, a Solomon for a wise man.
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An anvil is an instrument on which pieces of metal are laid for the purpose of being hammered. The common smith's anvil is generally made of seven pieces, namely, the core or body; the four corners for the purpose of enlarging its base; the projecting end, which contains a square hole for the reception of a set or chisel to cut off pieces of iron; and the beak or conical end, used for turning pieces of iron into a circular form, etc. These pieces are each separately welded to the core and hammered so as to form a regular surface with the whole. When the anvil has received its due form, it is faced with steel, and is then tempered .in cold water. The smith's anvil is generally placed loose upon a wooden block. The anvil for heavy operations, such as the forging of ordnance and shafting, consists of a huge iron block deeply embedded, and resting on piles of masonry.
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Aorist is the name given to one of the tenses of the verb in some languages (as the Greek), which expresses indefinite past time.
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Ap is a Welsh prefix indicating 'son', as ApRobert, son of Robert, now often reduced to simply Probert.
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An aparejo is a kind of American packsaddle made of stuffed leather cushions.
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Apartheid is the policy of racial segregation of people. It was first established in South Africa in 1948 restricting the rights of non-whites and establishing blacks only homelands.
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The aphelion is the point at which an object travelling around the sun in an elliptical orbit is at its furthest from the sun.
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An aphorism is a brief, sententious saying, in which a comprehensive meaning is involved, as 'Familiarity breeds contempt'; 'Necessity has no law.'
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An aphrodisiac is a medicine or food believed to be capable of exciting sexual desire.
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An apiary is a shed or stand for bee-hives.
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Apocalypse is the name frequently given to the last book of the New Testament, in the English version called The Revelation of St John the Divine. It is generally believed that the Apocalypse was written by the apostle John in his old age around 95 to 97 A.D. in the Isle of Patnios, whither he had been banished by the Roman Emperor Domitian. Anciently its genuineness was maintained by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and many others; while it was doubted by Dionysius of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostorn, and, nearer our own times, by Luther and a majority of the eminent German commentators. The Apocalypse has been explained differently by almost every writer who has ventured to interpret it, and has furnished all sorts of sects and fanatics with quotations to support their creeds or pretensions. The modern interpreters may be divided into three schools - namely, the historical school who hold that the prophecy embraces the whole history of the church and its foes from the time of its writing to the end of the world; the Praeterists, who hold that the whole or nearly the whole of the prophecy has been already fulfilled, and that it refers chiefly to the triumph of Christianity over Paganism and Judaism; and the Futurists, who throw the whole prophecy, except the first three chapters, forward upon a time not yet reached by the church - a period of no very long duration, which is immediately to precede Christ's second coming.
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In Christianity, the apocalyptic number is the mystic number 666 found in Revelations XIII verse 18. As early as the second century ecclesiastical writers found that the name Antichrist was indicated by the Greek characters expressive of this number. By Irenasus the word Lateinos was found in the letters of the number, and the Roman empire was therefore considered to be Antichrist. Protestants generally believe it has reference to the Papacy, and, on the other hand, Catholics connected it with Protestantism.
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Apocrypha (from the Greek, 'things concealed or spurious') is a term applied in the earliest churches to various sacred or professedly inspired writings, sometimes given to those whose authors were unknown, sometimes to those with a hidden meaning, and sometimes to those considered objectionable. The term is specially applied to the fourteen undermentioned books which were written during the two centuries preceding the birth of Christ. They were written, not in Hebrew, but in Greek, and the Jews never allowed them a place in their sacred canon. They were incorporated into the Septuagint, and thence passed to the Vulgate. The Greek Church excluded them from the canon in 360 at the Council of Laodicea. The Latin Church treated them with more favour, but it was not until 1546 that they were formally admitted into the canon of the Church of Rome by a decree of the Council of Trent. The Anglican Church says they may be read for example of life and instruction of manners, but that the church does not apply them to establish any doctrine. All other Protestant churches in Britain and America ignore them. The following fourteen books form the Apocrypha of the English Bible: - The first and second Books of Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the rest of the Book of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus, Baruch the Prophet, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna and the Elders, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the first and second Books of Maccabees.
Besides the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament there are many other books composed in the earlier ages of Christianity, and published under the names of Christ and his apostles, or of such immediate followers as from their character or means of intimate knowledge might give an apparent plausibility for such forgeries. These writings comprise: 1st, the Apocryphal Gospels, which treat of the history of Joseph and the Virgin before the birth of Christ, of the infancy of Jesus, and of the acts of Pilate; 2d, the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles; and 3d, the Apocryphal Apocalypses, none of which have obtained canonical recognition by any of the churches.
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In grammar, the apodosis is the latter member of a conditional sentence (or one beginning with if, though, etc) dependent on the condition or protasis; as, if it rain (protasis) I shall not go (apodosis).
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The apollo asteroids are a group of small asteroids whose orbits cross that of the earth. They were first discovered in 1932 and then lost until 1973.
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The Apollo Project was the US space project to land a person on the moon in order to prove to the world the ideological superiority of the American system over that of Communist Russia. It was reportedly achieved by Apollo 11 in July 1969. The three-stage vehicle to carry the astronauts to the moon was code named Saturn, and the contract to develop the Apollo three-man spacecraft was awarded to North American Aviation Incorporated in 1961 by NASA. The first launch into orbit of an Apollo command module was made by Saturn SA-6 on May the 28th 1964, and the first manned flight was made after a fire during ground tests killed the three astronauts - Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee - on January the 27th 1967.
Controversy surrounds the supposed moon landing, with theories abounding that in 1969 it was technically impossible to land on the moon, and as a result NASA faked the moon landing, filming the 'landing' at the top secret military base, Area 51, in the Nevada desert while the astronauts actually orbited the earth for eight days before returning. This theory was later illustrated in the film 'Capricorn One' which told the fictional story of a faked landing on the planet Mars.
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Apollonius of Tyre was the hero of a tale which had an immense popularity in the middle ages and which furnished the plot of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The story, originally in Greek, first appeared in the third century after Christ.
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An apologue is a story or relation of fictitious events intended to convey some useful truths. It differs from a parable in that the latter is drawn from events that pass among mankind, whereas the apologue may be founded on supposed actions of brutes or inanimate things. Aesop's fables are good examples of apologues.
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An apophthegm is a short pithy sentence or maxim. Julius Caesar wrote a collection of them, and we have a collection by Lord Bacon.
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Aposiopesis is an abrupt breaking away from a sentence and leaving it unfinished for the sake of greater effect. For example 'his character is such - but it is better I should not speak of that.'
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Apostasy is a renunciation of opinions or practices and the adoption of contrary ones, usually applied to renunciation of religious opinions. It is always an expression of reproach. What one party calls apostasy is termed by the other conversion. Catholics, also, call those persons apostates who forsake a religious order or renounce their religious vows without a lawful dispensation.
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An Apostle jug is an old fashioned kind of jug the outer surface of which is divided into twelve panels, each decorated in more or less high relief with a representation of one of the apostles.
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Apostle spoons were spoons with figures of the apostles crowning the handles. They were given as baptismal presents during the 16th and 17th centuries.
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The apostrophe is a rhetorical figure by which the orator changes the course of his speech, and makes a short impassioned address to one absent as if he were present, or to things without life and sense as if they had life and sense. The same term is also applied to a comma when used to contract a word, or to mark the possessive case, as in 'John's book.'
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Apotemnophilia is sexual arousal by the thought of losing a limb, or having a body part surgically removed.
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In a general sense, an apothecary was one who kept a shop or laboratory for preparing, compounding, and vending medicines, and for the making up of medical prescriptions. In England the term was long applied to a regularly licensed class of medical practitioners, being such persons as were members of, or licensed by, the Apothecaries Company in London. The apothecaries of London were at one time ranked with the grocers, with whom they were incorporated by James I in 1606. In 1617, however, the apothecaries received a new charter as a distinct company. They were not yet regarded as having the right to prescribe, but only to dispense, medicines; but in 1703 the House of Lords conferred that right on them, and they latterly became a well-established branch of the medical profession. In 1815 an act was passed providing that no person should practise as an apothecary in any part of England or Wales unless after serving an apprenticeship of five years with a member of the society, and receiving a certificate from the society's examiners. As in country places every practitioner had to be to some extent an apothecary, this act gave the society an undue influence over the medical profession. Dissatisfaction therefore long prevailed, but nothing of importance was done until the Medical Act of 1858, which brought the desired reform. The Apothecaries' Society later prescribed a course of medical instruction and practice which candidates for the license of the society had to pass through. After 1874 apprenticeship was not necessary. Apothecaries were replaced by pharmacists and pharmacies in the 20th century.
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Apotheosis (deification) was a solemnity among the ancients by which a mortal was raised to the rank of the gods. The custom of placing mortals, who had rendered their countrymen important services, among the gods was very ancient among the Greeks. The Romans, for several centuries, deified none but Romulus, and first imitated the Greeks in the fashion of frequent apotheosis after the time of Caesar. From this period apotheosis was regulated by the decrees of the senate, and accompanied with great solemnities. The greater part of the Roman emperors were deified.
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An appellant is a person or organisation that appeals against the decision of a court. The party resisting the appeal is called the respondent.
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The apple of Sodom is a fruit described by old writers as externally of fair appearance, but turning to ashes when plucked. It was probably the fruit of Solanum sodomeum.
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Applique is a type of embroidery used to create pictures or patterns by applying pieces of material to a background fabric.
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In grammar, an apposition is the relation in which one or more nouns or substantive phrases or clauses stand to a noun or pronoun, which they explain or characterize without being predicated of it, and with which they agree in case; as Cicero, the orator, lived in the first century before Christ; the opinion, that a severe winter is generally followed by a good summer, is a vulgar error.
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April is a month of the year. It is known as the opening month, and derives its name from the Latin aperire - to open. April is so named on account that during April the trees open their new buds and lambs are born.
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The Arab League (properly the League of Arab States) is a group of Arab states formed in 1945 to promote economic and cultural links and to minimise conflicts between Arab states. It has its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, and official language of Arabic.
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The Arabian Nights or The Thousand and One Nights is a celebrated collection of Eastern tales, long current in the East, and supposed to have been derived by the Arabians from India, through the medium of Persia. They were first introduced into Europe in the beginning of the eighteenth century by means of the French translation of Antoine Galland. Of some of them no original manuscript is known to exist; they were taken down by Galland from the oral communication of a Syrian friend. The story which connects the tales of the Thousand and One Nights is as follows: The Sultan Shahriyar, exasperated by the faithlessness
of his bride, made a law that every one of his future wives should he put to death the morning after marriage. At length one of them, Shahrazad, the generous daughter of the grand-vizier, succeeded in abolishing the cruel custom. By the charm of her stories the fair narrator induced the sultan to defer her execution every day until the dawn of another, by breaking off in the middle of an interesting tale which she had begun to relate. In the form we possess them these tales belong to a comparatively late period, though the exact date of their composition is not known. Lane, who published a translation of a number of the tales, with valuable notes, is of opinion that they took their present form some time between 1475 and 1525. Two complete English translations were printed around 1900, giving many passages that previous translators had omitted on the score of morality or decency.
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Arabic figures are the characters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. They are of Indian origin, and were introduced into Europe by the Moors. They did not come into general use until after the invention of printing.
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Arable land is land which is wholly or chiefly cultivated by the plough, as distinguished from grass-land, wood-land, common pasture, and waste.
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Araf is the Muslim purgatory, a raised wall of separation between heaven and hell.
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Arbitration is the determination of a dispute by an arbitrator or arbitrators rather than by a court of law. Any civil (i.e. non-criminal) matter may be settled in this way; commercial contracts often contain arbitration clauses providing for this to be done in a specified way. If each side appoints its own arbitrator, as is usual, and the arbitrators fail to agree, the arbitrators are often empowered to appoint an umpire, whose decision is final. Arbitration is made binding on the parties by the Arbitration Acts (1950 and 1975). Various industries and chambers of commerce set up tribunals for dealing with disputes in their particular trade or business.
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Arbor Day was a day set apart by most of the States and Territories of the USA for the planting of trees. Arbor Day was inaugurated by the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture in 1874. Arbor Day was held on the second Wednesday of April.
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An arboretum is a place in which a collection of different trees and shrubs is cultivated for scientific or educational purposes.
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Arboriculture includes the culture of trees and shrubs, as well as all that pertains to the preparation of the soil, the sowing of the seeds, and the treatment of the plants in their young state, the preparation of the land previous to their final transplantation, their just adaptation to soil and situation, their relative growth and progress to maturity, their management during growth, and the proper season and period for felling them.
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The term archaic generally means something old, ancient or antiquated. The term is disparagingly used to describe things which are out of date, and in language to describe words that were part of an older vocabulary, and are no longer in common use.
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Archil or orchil is a red, violet, or purple colouring matter obtained from various kinds of lichens, the most important of which are the Roccella tinctoria and the Roccella fuciformis, natives of the rocks of the Canary and Cape Verde islands, Mozambique and Zanzibar, South America, etc, and popularly called dyer's-moss. The dye was used for improving the tints of other dyes, as from its want of permanence it could not be employed alone. The aniline colours largely superseded it. Cudbear and litmus are of similar origin.
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An archipelago is a group of islands.
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The are is a French measurement of 100 square metres.
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Areopagus was the oldest of the Athenian courts of justice, an assembly having a position indeed more august than an ordinary court, and in its best days exercising a general supervision over public morals. It obtained its name from its place of meeting, on the Hill of Ares, near the Acropolis or citadel of Athens. It existed from very remote times, and the crimes tried before it were wilful murder, poisoning, robbery, and arson, while it had under its control also dissoluteness of morals, and innovations in the state and in religion. Its meetings were held in the open air, and its members were selected from those who had held the office of archon. The tribunal latterly lost much of its powers, but it continued to exist in name at least as late as the time of Cicero or later, having had an existence of seven or eight hundred years.
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An arete is a steep angular mountain ridge.
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Argo-Navis is the southern constellation of the Ship, containing nine clusters, three nebulae, thirteen double and 540 single stars, of which about sixty-four are visible.
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Argument is a term sometimes used as synonymous with the subject of a discourse, but more frequently appropriated to any kind of method employed for the purpose of confuting or at least silencing an opponent. Logicians have reduced arguments to a number of distinct heads, such as the argumentum ad judicium, which founds on solid proofs and addresses to the judgment; the argumentum ad verecundiam, which appeals to the modesty or bashfulness of an opponent by reminding him of the great names or authorities by whom the view disputed by him is supported; the argumentum ad ignorantiam, the employment of some logical fallacy towards persons likely to be deceived by it; and the argumentum ad hominem, an argument which presses a man with consequences drawn from his own principles and concessions, or his own conduct.
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Aries is a sign of the zodiac. Represented by the ram. It is a northern constellation of 156 stars, of which fifty are visible. It is the first of the twelve signs in the zodiac, which the sun enters at the vernal equinox, about the 21st of March. The first point in Aries is that where the equator cuts the ecliptic in the ascending node, and from which the right ascensions of heavenly bodies are reckoned on the equator, and their longitudes upon the ecliptic. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes the sign Aries no longer corresponds with the constellation Aries, which it did 2000 years ago.
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Aristocracy (from the Greek meaning best rule) is a form of government in which the sovereign power is vested in a small number of citizens who are theoretically the best qualified to rule, as opposed to monarchy, in which the supreme authority is vested in one person, and to democracy, in which the ultimate authority is exercised by the entire body of citizens or their representatives. In an aristocracy, although the power of government is wielded by a few, theoretically the administration of government is carried on for the welfare of the many. Whenever the interests of the people as a whole are made subservient to the selfish interests of the rulers, aristocracy becomes a form of government known as oligarchy. Athens, before the period of the Persian wars of the 5th century BC, and Sparta, during practically its entire history, were aristocracies. The same was true of Rome during the period of the Republic, lasting from the 6th to the 1st century BC.
During the Middle Ages no true aristocracy existed, for although political power reposed in the hands of a few, each feudal lord was sole master in his own domain. In England, the government from the accession of the house of Hanover in 1714 through the 19th century, although parliamentary in form, was in fact an aristocracy, since king and Parliament alike were under the control of a few great Whig families.
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Arithmancy is divination by numbers.
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The Arkansas Gazette was the first newspaper published in Arkansas. The first edition, with less than 100 copies printed, was issued at the then territorial capital of Arkansas Post on November 20 1819 by William E Woodruff. The Arkansas Gazette ceased publication in 1991, when it was sold to the rival Democrat-Gazette newspaper and became the 'Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'.
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The Armed Neutrality was an alliance, suggested by Russia, and formed in 1780 by almost all maritime powers of Europe and also the USA for protection against continued British attacks upon their shipping.
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Armenian bole is a red earth powder dusted on to the thin tissue pages, which separate the leaves of gold in a book of gold leaf, so that the gold leaf doesn't stick to the tissue.
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Arminianism is a doctrine in Christianity, formulated in the 17th century and named after the Dutch Calvinist Jacobus Arminius, which declares that human free will can exist without limiting God's power or contradicting the Bible. Arminius believed predestination was biblical and true - that God had intended some persons for heaven and others for hell, as indicated by Jesus' reference to ' sheep and goats.' But he focused on God's love more than on God's power in speaking of election, the process by which God chose those intended for heaven. After Arminius died, a group of ministers who sympathised with his views developed a systematic and rational theology based on his teachings. In their declaration, a remonstrance issued in 1610, the Arminians argued that election was conditioned by faith, that grace could be rejected, that the work of Christ was intended for all persons, and that it was possible for believers to fall from grace. At the Synod of Dort, or Dordrecht, the High Calvinists prevailed over the Arminian party and condemned the Remonstrants.
The Synod of Dort declared that Christ's work was meant only for those elect to salvation, that people believing could not fall from grace, and that God's election depended on no conditions. Remonstrants were not tolerated at all in Holland until 1630, and then not fully until 1795. They have, however, continued an Arminian tradition in the Netherlands into the late 20th century. The British theologian John Wesley studied and affirmed the work of Arminius in his Methodist movement during the 18th century in England. American Methodists for the most part have leaned toward the theology of the Remonstrants. In popular expression Arminianism has come to mean that no predestination exists and people are free to follow or reject the gospel.
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An armistice is a temporary suspension of hostilities between two belligerent powers or two armies by mutual agreement, often concluded for only a few hours to bury the slain, remove the wounded, and exchange prisoners, as also sometimes to allow of a parley between the opposing generals. A general armistice is usually the preliminary of a peace.
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The Armory Show was an art exhibition in New York City in 1913 that was the first major showing of avant-garde works in the USA.
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The Army Act was an act of Parliament passed first in 1881, in lieu of an act of 1879 that superseded the old Mutiny Act, investing the crown with large powers to make regulations for the good government of the army, and to frame the Articles of War, which formed the military code. It was brought into force each year by a special act, which also could introduce new provisions in regard to matters of discipline, etc.
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Arn-monat (meaning barn month) was the Anglos-Saxon name for the month we call August. The month was so called on account that it was the month when the corn was harvested and gathered in.
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The aroura or arura was an ancient Greek measure of surface, equal to 21,904 English square feet, or 9 poles 106.3 feet.
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An arpent was a measure equal to 100 square perches.
The arpent was formerly a French measure for land, equal to five-sixths of an English acre; but it varied in different parts of France.
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In mathematics, an array is a collection of numbers (or letters representing numbers) arranged in rows and columns. A matrix is an array shown inside a pair of brackets; it indicates that the array should be treated as a single entity.
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Arroba was a Spanish unit of weight equal to about 25 lbs. It was also used in South and Central America, where it was equivalent to about 32 lbs.
The arroba was also a measure for wine, spirits, and oil, ranging from 2.75 gallons to about 10 gallons.
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The arschin was an old Chinese unit of measurement roughly equal to one metre (in the 18th century four arschin equalled three English yards).
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Arshin is a Russian unit of measurement equivalent to 28 inches.
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Arsis is a term applied in prosody to that syllable in a measure where the emphasis is put; in elocution, the elevation of the voice, in distinction from thesis, or its depression.
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Art Deco is the name given to a 1920s and 1930s style of design characterised by geometrical shapes, stylised natural forms and symmetrical designs. The style was used for furniture, ornaments, crockery and also architecture.
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Art Nouveau is a name given to a style of design from the 1880s to early 1900s characterised by the application of sinuous natural forms to objet d'art, costume, book bindings and architecture.
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An Art Union is an association for encouraging art, an object which it mainly pursues by disposing of pictures, sculptures, etc, by lottery among subscribers. They seem to have originated in France during the time of Napoleon I. They soon afterwards took root in Germany, where they have been very successful. The first art union established in Britain was that at Edinburgh in 1834.
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Artesian Wells, so called from the French province of Artois, where they appear to have been first used on an extensive scale, are perpendicular borings into the ground through which water rises to the surface of the soil, producing a constant flow or stream, the ultimate sources of supply being higher than the mouth of the boring, and the water thus rising by the well-known law. They are generally sunk in valley plains and districts where the lower pervious strata are bent into basin-shaped curves.
The rain falling on the outcrops of these saturates the whole porous bed, so that when the bore reaches it the water by hydraulic pressure rushes up towards the level of the highest portion of the strata. The supply is sometimes so abundant as to be used extensively as a moving power, and in arid regions for fertilizing the ground, to which purpose artesian springs have been applied from a very remote period. Thus many artesian wells have been sunk in the Algerian Sahara which have proved an immense boon to the district.
The water of most of these is potable, but a few are a little saline, though not to such an extent as to influence vegetation. The hollows in which London and Paris lie are both perforated in many places by borings of this nature. At London they were first sunk only to the sand B B, but latterly into the chalk c o. One of the most celebrated artesian wells is that of Crenelle near Paris, 1798 feet deep, completed in 1841, after eight years' work. Artesian wells are now common in many countries, and have been sunk to the depth of a mile or more. As the temperature of water from great depths is invariably higher than that at the surface, artesian wells have been made to supply warm water for heating manufactories, greenhouses, hospitals, fish-ponds, etc. Petroleum wells are generally of the same technical description. Artesian wells were later made with larger diameters than formerly, and altogether their construction was rendered much more easy after the industrial revolution.
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In Charles Dickens' classic tale, Oliver Twist, the Artful Dodger is a young thief, most perfectly adept in villainy who encounters young Oliver upon his arrival in London and recruits him into the band of thieves.
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In grammar, an article is a part of speech used before nouns to limit or define their application. In English a or an is usually called the indefinite article (the latter form being used before a vowel sound), and the, the definite article, but they are also described as adjectives. An was originally the same as one, and the as that. In Latin there were no articles, and Greek has only the definite article.
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Articled clerk is the name given to a trainee solicitor. The Law Society lays down provisions regulating the training of solicitors. All trainees are now graduates and will have taken professional examinations. They are then required to be articled to (i.e. to sign an agreement to learn from) a qualified solicitor for two years before being admitted as solicitors themselves.
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In English law, articles are summaries in writing of matters as are to be inquired of or presented before justices in eyre, or justices of assize, or of the peace, in their sessions.
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Artificial flowers are imitations of real flowers, made of various materials. These are not a modern invention. The Romans excelled in the art of imitating flowers in wax, and in this branch of the art attained a high degree of perfection. The Egyptian artificial flowers were made of thin plates of horn stained in different colours, sometimes also of leaves of copper gilt or silvered over. In modern times the Italians were the first to acquire celebrity for the skill and taste they displayed in this manufacture, but they are now far surpassed by English and French manufacturers, but more especially by the latter. During the Victorian period cambric, muslin, satin, velvet, and other woven fabrics, feathers, india-rubber, blown glass, mother of pearl, brass, etc were all employed in making artificial flowers, later silk and plastic were more commonly used, and good results may be had from dyed wood.
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An artificial person is a person whose identity is recognised by the law but who is not an individual. For example, a company is a person in the sense that it can sue and be sued, hold property, etc. in its own name. It is not, however, an individual or real person.
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The Artisans and Labourers' Dwellings Act was an English act of parliament passed in 1868 to empower town-councils and other local authorities to demolish or improve dwellings unfit for human habitation, and to build and maintain better dwellings in lieu therof. Other acts for the same object were passed in 1875, 1879 and 1882.
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Arts was the name given to certain branches of study in the middle ages, originally called the 'liberal arts' to distinguish them from the 'servile arts' or mechanical occupations. These arts were usually given as grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Hence originated the terms 'art classes,' 'degrees in arts,' 'Master of Arts,' etc, still in common use in universities, the faculty of arts being distinguished from those of divinity, law, medicine, or science.
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Arts and Crafts is a name given to a 19th century style of design inspired by and applied to everyday objects. The style stressed mediaeval styles and skilled craftsmanship in a reaction against industrialisation.
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The Arundel Society was a society instituted in London in 1848 for promoting the knowledge of art by the publication of facsimiles and photographs.
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The Arundelian Marbles are a series of ancient sculptured marbles discovered by William Petty, who explored the ruins of Greece at the expense of and for Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, who lived in the time of James I and Charles I, and was a liberal patron of scholarship and art. After the Restoration they were presented by the grandson of the collector to the University of Oxford. Among them is the Parian Chronicle, a chronological account of the principal events in Grecian, and particularly in Athenian history, during a period of 1318 years, from the reign of Cecrops (1450 BC) to the archonship of Diognetus (264 BC).
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The As was a Roman weight of 12 ounces, answering to the libra or pound, and equal to 237.5 grains avoirdupois, or 327-1873 grammes, French measure. In the most ancient times of Rome the copper or bronze coin which was called as actually weighed an as, or a pound, but in 264 BC it was reduced to 2 oz., in 217 to 1 oz., and in 191 to 0.5 oz.
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Asafetida is a fetid inspissated sap from Central Asia, the solidified juice of the Narthex Asafetida, a large umbelliferous plant. It was formerly used in medicine as an anti-spasmodic, and in cases of flatulency, in hysteric paroxysms, and other nervous affections. Notwithstanding its very disagreeable odour it is used as a seasoning in the East, and sometimes in Europe. An inferior sort is the product of certain species of Ferula.
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In the Christian calendar, Ascension Day is the day on which the ascension of Jesus is commemorated, often called Holy Thursday: it is a movable feast, always falling on the Thursday but one before Whitsuntide.
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Ash Wednesday is the first day of lent, the seventh Wednesday before Easter. Ash Wednesday is so named from the ancient custom in the Roman Catholic church of sprinkling ashes upon the heads of those condemned to do penance on this day.
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The Ashburton Treaty was a treaty negotiated between Great Britain and the USA by Alexander Baring (Lord Ashburton) and Daniel Webster at Washington in 1842. The Ashburton Treaty adjusted the boundary between the USA and the British possessions on the Northeast, the USA securing just over half of the disputed territory. The mutual extradition of criminals and arrangements for the suppression of the slave trade were stipulated by the treaty.
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An aspergillus is the brush used in Roman Catholic churches for sprinkling holy water on the people. It is said to have been originally made of hyssop.
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Aspirate is a name given to any sound like our h, to the letter h itself, or to any mark of aspiration, as the Greek spiritus asper, or rough breathing ('). Such characters or sounds as the Sanskrit kh, gh, bh, and the Greek ch, th, ph, are called aspirates.
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In British law, assault is an attempt or offer, with force and violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by striking at him with or without a weapon. If a person lift up or stretch forth his arm and offer to strike another, or menace any one with any staff or weapon, it is an assault in law. Assault, therefore, does not necessarily imply a hitting or blow, because in trespass for assault and battery a man may be found guilty of the assault and acquitted of the battery. But every battery includes an assault.
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Assaying is the estimation of the amount of pure metal, and especially of the precious metals, in an ore or alloy. In the case of silver the assay is either by the dry or by the wet process. The dry process is called eupellation from the use of a small and very porous cup, called a cupel, which is usually made of well-burned and finely-ground bone-ash or of magnesia. The cupel, being thoroughly dried, is placed in a fire-clay oven about the size of a drain-tile, with a flat sole and arched roof, and with slits at the sides to admit air. This oven, called a muffle, is set in a furnace, and when it is at a red heat the assay, consisting of a small weighed portion of the alloy wrapped in sheet-lead, is laid upon the cupel. The heat causes the lead to volatilize or combine with the other metals, and to sink with them into the cupel, leaving a bright globule of pure metallic silver, which gives the amount of silver in the alloy operated on. In the wet process the alloy is dissolved in nitric acid, and to the solution are added measured quantities of a solution of common salt of known strength, which precipitates chloride of silver. The operation is concluded when no further precipitate is obtained on the addition of the salt solution, and the quantity of silver is calculated from the amount of salt solution used.
An alloy of gold is first cupelled with lead as above, with the addition of three parts of silver for every one of gold. After the cupellation is finished the alloy of gold and silver is beaten and rolled out into a thin plate, which is curled up by the fingers into a little spiral or cornet. This is put into a flask with nitric acid, which dissolves away the silver and leaves the cornet dark and brittle. After washing with water the cornet is boiled with stronger nitric acid to remove the last traces of silver, well washed, and then allowed to drop into a small crucible, in which it is heated, and then it is weighed. The assay of gold, therefore, consists of two parts: cupellation, by which inferior metals (except silver) are removed; and quartation, by which the added silver and any silver originally present are got rid of. The quantity of silver added has to be regulated to about three times that of the gold. If it be more the cornet breaks up, if it be less the gold protects small quantities of the silver from the action of the acid. Where, as in some gold manufactured articles, these methods of assay cannot be applied, a streak is drawn With the article upon a touchstone consisting of coarse-grained Lydian quartz saturated with bituminous matter, or of black basalt. The practised assayer will detect approximately the richness of the gold from the colour of the streak, which may be further subjected to an acid test. The Goldsmith's Company of London is the statutory assay-master of all England.
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Assiento was the permission of the Spanish government to a foreign nation to import negro slaves from Africa into the Spanish colonies in America, for a limited time, on payment of certain duties. It was accorded to the Netherlands about 1552, to the Genoese in 1580, and to the French Guinea Company (afterwards the Assiento Company) in 1702. In 1713 the celebrated assiento treaty with Britain for thirty years was concluded at Utrecht. By this contract the British obtained the right to send yearly a ship of 500 tons, with all sorts of merchandise, to the Spanish colonies. This led to frequent abuses and contraband trade; acts of violence followed, and in 1739 a war broke out between the two powers. At the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, four years more were granted to the British; but in the Treaty of Madrid, two years later, 100,000 pounds sterling were promised for the relinquishment of the two remaining years, and the contract was annulled.
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Assize of Battle was by the old law of England, a means whereby a man charged with murder might fight with the appellant, thereby to make proof of his guilt or innocence. The law was struck off the statute book in 1819.
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Assizes is a term chiefly used in England to signify the sessions of the courts held at Westminster prior to Magna Carta, but thereafter appointed by successive enactments to be held annually in every county. Twelve judges, who are members of the highest courts in England, twice in every year perform a circuit into all the counties into which the kingdom is divided (the counties being grouped into seven circuits), to hold these assizes, at which both civil and criminal cases are decided. Occasionally this circuit is performed a third time for the purpose of jail-delivery. In London and Middlesex, instead of circuits, courts of nisi prius are held. At the assizes all the justices of the peace of the county are bound to attend. Special commissions of assize are granted for inquest into certain causes.
Among the more important historic uses of the term assize are its application to any sitting or deliberative council, and its transference thence to their ordinances, decrees, or assessments. In the latter sense we have the Assizes of Jerusalem, a code of feudal laws formulated in 1099 under Godfrey of Bouillon; the Assizes of Clarendon (1166), of Northampton (1176), and of Woodstock (1184) ; also the assisoe venalium (1203), for regulating the prices of articles of common consumption; the Assize of Arms (1181), an ordinance for organizing the national militia, etc.
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The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a political and economic grouping of the capitalist nations of South East Asia, formed in 1967 and comprising: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and Brunei. The countries are very diverse. For example the per capita income of Singapore in 1986 was some 12 times that of Indonesia; interests often diverge accordingly. While committed to strengthening economic ties, progress has been limited. There has also been political co-operation, for example over policy towards Indochina. There are regular consultations between ASEAN and the major industrialised countries.
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In poetry, assonance is a term used when the terminating words of lines have the same vowel-sound but make no proper rhyme. Such verses, having what we should consider false rhymes, are regularly employed in Spanish poetry; but cases are not wanting in leading British poets. Mrs. Browning not only used them frequently, but justified the use of them.
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An asteroid is a minor planetary body.
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The Aston Martin DB2 was a classic British car first produced in 1950, and then produced in modified forms until 1959. The Aston Martin DB2 was powered by a 2580 to 2922 cc DOHC straight six engine providing from 107 to 196 bhp and a top speed of between 185 and 209 kmh, depending upon the variant.
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The Aston Martin DB5 was a British sports car of the 1960s produced from 1963 to 1965. The DB5 evolved from the earlier touring DB4, and was immortalised in the James Bond film 'Goldfinger'. The DB5 was powered by a 3955 cc straight six engine providing 282 bhp and a top speed of 225 kmh.
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The Aston Martin DB7 was a classic and exclusive (only 700 were made each year) British car first produced in 1994 and produced until 2003. The original Aston Martin DB7 was powered by a 3239 cc six-cylinder engine providing 335 bhp and a top speed of 249 kmh. In 1999 a six-litre V12 engine version was produced Although the Aston Martin DB7 is fitted with four seats, in reality it is a two-seater sports car. The rear seats being totally inpracticable. The Aston Martin DB7 was produced in a standard coupe edition and in a convertible model known as the Volante.
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The Aston Martin Lagonda was a British, hand-built, four-door car hailed as the 'space age car' when it was introduced in 1976. It was a variant of the Aston Martin V8 and featured touch sensitive switches, including the gear change, and electronically controlled instruments with graphic digital displays controlled by a micro-processor. The speedometer could be changed from mph to kmh by the touch of a switch. The 5340 CC engine had eight-cylinders in a V-configuration.
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The Aston Martin V8 was a family of British cars produced by the Aston Martin company between 1969 and 1990. The Aston Martin V8 was powered by a 5340 cc V-eight engine providing between 340 and 436 bhp and a top speed of 257 kmh. Models were produced with either a 5-speed manual or a 3-speed automatic transmission.
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The Aston Martin V8 Vantage is a British hand-crafted two-seater sports car produced in a coupe and a soft-top convertible roadster model, both powered by a 4.7-litre V8 engine delivering 420 bhp providing a top speed of 180 mph and acceleration of 0 to 60 mph in just under five seconds. The Aston Martin V8 Vantage has a six-speed manual gear box and is rear-wheel drive.
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The Astor Library was a public library founded in New York City by John Jacob Astor, and opened in 1853 following a bequest of $400,000 left by John Jacob Astor, followed by bequests of $200,000 and $450,0000 by his son and grandson.
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Astraea is one of the asteroids, discovered in 1845. It revolves round the sun in 1511.10 solar days, and is about 2.5 times the distance of the earth from the sun.
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Astragalomancy is divination using dice or knuckle bones. It seems to have developed around the 17th century.
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Astrolatry is the worship of celestial objects.
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Asylum was a sanctuary or place of refuge, where criminals and debtors sheltered themselves from justice, and from which they could not be taken without sacrilege. Temples were anciently asylums, as were Christian churches in later times. The term in the 19th century was usually applied to an institution for receiving, maintaining, and, so far as possible, ameliorating the condition of persons labouring under certain bodily defects or mental maladies. Later the term was applied to a refuge for the unfortunate, such as those suffering persecution in their own country.
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An asyndeton is a figure of speech by which connecting words are omitted; as 'I came, saw, conquered.'
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The Ateliers Nationaux or national workshops, were established by the French provisional government in 1848. They interfered much with private trade as about 100,000 workmen threw themselves on the government for work. The breaking up of the system led to disorders, but it was abolished in July, 1848.
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The Atellanae or Atellan gables were interludes in the Roman theatre introduced from Atella in Campania. They were performed not by the regular actors, but by freeborn young Romans. The characters of Macchus and Bucco are thought to be the foundations of the modern Punch and Clown.
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Atenism was a form of sun-worship practised in ancient Egypt around 14 BC.
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The Athanasian Creed is a creed or exposition of Christian faith, supposed formerly to have been drawn up by St Athanasius, though this opinion is now generally rejected, and the composition often ascribed to Hilary, bishop of Aries about 430. It is an explicit avowal of the doctrines of the Trinity (as opposed to Arianism, of which Athanasius was a great opponent) and of the incarnation, and contains what are known as the damnatory clauses, in which it declares that damnation must be the lot of those who do not believe the true and catholic faith. It is contained in the Book of Common Prayer, to be read on certain occasions.
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Atheism is the disbelief or denial of a god or gods. Throughout history the Christian church persecuted those who refuted the existence of a god, making such disbelief a crime punishable by death. Islam similarly punishes Muslims who disbelieve or question the teachings of it's prophet Mohammed, with death and non-Muslims with life imprisonment.
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The Atheism And Blasphemy Act, passed in England in 1606, made it a crime punishable by death without recourse to appeal for any person over the age of sixteen years, excepting those who were insane or obviously incapable, not to openly demonstrate a belief in God. In brief, atheism was a crime punishable by death.
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The Athenaeum was the temple of Athena or Minerva, at Athens. It was frequented by poets, learned men, and orators. The same name was given at Rome to the school which Hadrian established on the Capitoline Mount for the promotion of literary and scientific studies. In modern times the same name is given to literary clubs and establishments connected with the sciences.
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An Atmospheric Railway is a railway so called in consequence of the motive power being derived from the pressure of the atmosphere, or from compressed air. The idea of thus obtaining motion was first suggested by the French engineer Papin, about 1700. In 1810, and again in 1827, a Mr. Medhurst published a scheme for 'propelling carriages through a close-fitting air-tight tunnel by forcing in air behind them' and in 1825 a similar project was patented by a Mr. Yallance of Brighton. About 1835 a Mr. H. Pinkus, an American residing in England, patented a pneumatic railway. The carriages were to travel on an open line of rails, along which a cast-iron tube of between 3 and 4 feet diameter was to be laid, having a longitudinal slit from 1 to 2 inches wide and closed by a flexible valve along its upper side, through which a connection could be formed between the leading carriage and a piston working within the tube. This method was improved by Messrs. Clegg and Samuda, who in 1840 tried some experiments on a portion of the West London Railway with sufficient success to induce the government to advance a loan to the Dublin and Kingstown Railway Company, for the construction of a pneumatic line from Kingstown to Dalkey. It was opened for passenger traffic at the end of 1843, and was worked for many months. The London and Croydon Company subsequently obtained powers for laying down an atmospheric railway by the side of their other line from London to Croydon, and in experimental trips in 1845 a speed of 30 miles an hour was obtained with sixteen carriages, and of 70 miles an hour with six carriages. But during the intense heat of the summer of 1846 the iron tube frequently became so hot as to melt the composition which sealed the valve, and the line had to be worked by locomotives. The mechanical difficulty of commanding a sufficient amount of rarefaction led to the abandonment of the system for railway purposes. It was revived, however, for the conveyance of letters and
arcels in towns by means of tubes of moderate diameter laid beneath the streets, but not proceeded with. Within offices, however, atmospheric railways or rather pneumatic despatch systems are used notably within the supermarket chain Sainsburys where cash from tills is put into a cylindrical container which is closed and inserted into a pressurised pipe system for conveyance to the cash office.
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An atoll is a circular, or horseshoe-shaped coral island surrounding a lagoon with one or more openings to the sea.
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In Christian theology, atonement is the special work of Christ effected by his life, sufferings, and death. The first explicit exposition of the evangelical doctrine of the atonement is ascribed to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1093.
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In English law, attachment is a taking of the person, goods, or estate by virtue of a writ or precept. It is distinguished from an arrest by proceeding out of a higher court by precept or writ, whereas the latter proceeds out of an inferior court by precept only. An arrest lies only against the body of a man, whereas an attachment lies often against the goods only, and sometimes against the body and goods. It differs from a distress in that an attachment does not extend to lands, while a distress cannot touch the body. Foreign attachment answers to what in Scotland is termed arrestment, by means of which a creditor may obtain the security of the goods or other personal property of his debtor in the hands of a third person for the purpose of enforcing the appearance of the debtor to answer to an action, and afterwards, upon his continued default of obtaining the property absolutely in satisfaction of the demand.
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Attainder is the legal consequences of a sentence of death or outlawry pronounced against a person for treason or felony, the person being said to be attainted. It resulted in forfeiture of estate and 'corruption of blood,' rendering the party incapable of inheriting property or transmitting it to heirs; but these results now no longer follow. Formerly persons were often subjected to attainder by a special bill or act passed in parliament.
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In chivalry, the term attaint meant to strike the helmet and shield of an opponent so firmly with the lance held in a direct line, as either to break the lance or knock over the person struck.
In law, an attaint was formerly a writ at common law against a jury for a false verdict. It is now obsolete in England.
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In the East Indies, attar is a general term for a perfume made from flowers. In Europe the term is generally used only of the attar or otto of roses, an essential oil made from Rosa centifolia, the hundred-leaved or cabbage-rose, Rosa damascena or damask-rose, Rosa moschdta or musk-rose, etc, 100,000 roses yielding only 180 grains of attar. Cashmere, Shiraz, and Damascus are celebrated for its manufacture, and there are extensive rose farms in the valley of Kezanlik in Roumelia and at Ghazipur in Benares. The oil is at first greenish, but afterwards it presents various tints of green, yellow, and red. It is concrete at all ordinary temperatures, but becomes liquid about 84 degrees Fahrenheit. It consists of two substances, a hydrocarbon and an oxygenated oil, and is frequently adulterated with the oils of rhodium, sandal-wood, and geranium, with the addition of camphor or spermaceti.
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An attendant key is a key which when inserted in the appropriate lock of a slot-machine, displays much information about the slot-machine, including the target level of percentage pay-out which has been set, the current level of pay-out and how full the machine is. This information is invaluable to a professional gambler who can use it to locate slot-machines which are ready to pay out.
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In philosophy, an attribute is a quality or property of a substance, as whiteness or hardness. A substance is known to us only as a congeries of attributes.
In the fine arts an attribute is a symbol regularly accompanying and marking out some personage. Thus the caduceus, purse, winged hat, and sandals are attributes of Mercury, the trampled dragon of St George.
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Aucassin et Nicolette is a celebrated French romance of the 12th century, written in alternate prose and assonant verse of seven syllables. It recounts the love of Aucassin, son of the Count of Beaucaire, for Nicolette, the captive daughter of the king of Carthage.
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The Audi A2 is the world's first mass produced motor-car constructed from aluminium available in a five door hatchback design with either a 1.4 litre petrol model offering 60 mpg and a 1.4 litre diesel model offering 80 mpg.
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An auger is an instrument used for boring holes in wood, or other soft substances. It consists of a wooden or plastic handle and a steel shank terminated in a steel bit at the bottom.
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The augmentation court was a court erected by a statute of Henry VIII, to augment the revenues of the crown by the suppression of monasteries.
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The Augsburg Confession was a document which was presented by the Protestants at the Diet of Augsburg, 1530, to the Emperor Charles V and the diet, and being signed by the Protestant states was adopted as their creed. Luther made the original draught;
but as its style appeared too violent it was given to Melanchthon for amendment. The original is to be found in the imperial Austrian archives. Afterwards Melanchthon arbitrarily altered some of the articles, and there arose a division between those who held the original and those who held the altered Augsburg Confession. The former is received by the Lutherans, the latter by the German Reformed.
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Augury is divination from the behaviour of birds.
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The month of august was the sixth month of the Roman calendar and was originally called Sextilis, by a decree of the senate it received its present name in honour of Augustus Caesar in 8 BC.
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An auguste is a species of circus clown, characterised by dressing in ill-fitting or dishevelled clothes.
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Aulnage was formerly the official inspection and measurement of cloth. The term was also applied to the fee payable for the inspection.
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In paintings an aureola or aureole, is an illumination surrounding a holy person, as Christ, a saint, or a martyr, intended to represent a luminous cloud or haze emanating from him. It is generally of an oval shape, or may be nearly or quite circular, and is of similar character with the nimbus surrounding the heads of sacred personages.
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Auriculas Confession, in the strictest sense, is the disclosure of sins to the priest at the confessional, with a view to obtain absolution for them. The person confessing is allowed to conceal no sin of consequence which he remembers to have committed, and the father confessor is bound to perpetual secrecy. The practice of a public acknowledgment of great sins was altered by Pope Leo the Great, in 450, into a secret one before the priest, and the fourth general Lateran council in 1215 ordained that every one of the faithful, of both sexes, come to years of discretion, should privately confess all their sins at least once a year to their own pastor, an ordination still binding on members of the Roman Catholic Church. Confession is a part of the sacrament of penance. Some Anglican clergymen uphold it.
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In astronomy, auriga, the Waggoner, is a constellation of the northern hemisphere, containing sixty-eight stars, including Capella of the first magnitude.
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Aurora Borealis is a luminous meteoric phenomenon appearing in the north, most frequently in high latitudes, the corresponding phenomenon in the southern hemisphere being called Aurora Australia, and both being also called Polar Light, Streamers, etc. The northern aurora has been far the most observed and studied. It usually manifests itself by streams of light ascending towards the zenith from a dusky line of cloud or haze a few degrees above the horizon, and stretching from the north towards the west and east, so as to form an arc with its ends on the horizon, and its different parts and rays are constantly in motion. Sometimes it appears in detached places; at other times it almost covers the whole sky. It assumes many shapes and a variety of colours, from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood colour; and in the northern latitudes serves to illuminate the earth and cheer the gloom of the long winter nights.
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Among the ancient Romans, auspices, were strictly omens or auguries derived from birds, though the term was also used in a wider sense. Nothing of importance was done without taking the auspices, which, however, simply showed whether the enterprise was likely to result successfully or not, without supplying any further information. Magistrates possessed the right of taking the auspices, in which they were usually assisted by an augur. Before a war or campaign a Roman general always took the auspices, and hence the operations were said to be carried out 'under his auspices.'
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The Austin A90 Atlantic was the first British car designed specifically for the American market. The Austin A90 Atlantic was produced as a convertible with a power-operated hood and as a saloon model, from 1948 to 1952. It was powered by a 2660 cc OHV in-line four engine providing 88 bhp and a top speed of 145 kmh. The Austin A90 Atlantic could accelerate from 0-60 mph in 16.6 seconds and could achieve a fuel consumption of 25 mpg.
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The Austin Healey 3000 was a British motor car produced between 1959 and 1967. The Austin Healey 3000 was powered by a 6-cylinder 2912 cc engine providing between 124 and 150 bhp and a top speed of between 183 and 193 kmh, depending upon the type, later types being faster.
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The Austin Healey Sprite (known as the 'frogete') was a British sports car produced from 1958 to 1961. The Austin Healey Sprite was powered by a 948 cc in-line four engine providing 43 bhp and a top speed of 135 kmh, with a fuel consumption of 45 mpg attainable.
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Autagonistophilia is the sexual arousal of being on stage or of performing in front of a camera.
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In politics, authoritarian is a term denoting a dictatorial system of government.
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Auto da fe (Act of Faith) was the ritual execution of heretics by the Inquisition after a confession had been extracted. The ceremony always took place on a Sunday, but not at regular intervals, maybe once every two, three or four years. The victims were walked in procession wearing the san benito, the coroza, the rope around the neck, and carrying a yellow wax candle in their hand. The san benito was a penitential tunic of yellow cloth reaching to the knees and painted on it was a picture of the person who wore it, burning in flames with figures of dragons and devils in the act of fanning the flames. The costume indicated to the watching crowds the wearer was to be burned alive as an incorrigible heretic. If the person was only to do penance, then the san benito had on it a cross, and no painting or flames. If the victim was converted just before being led out, then the san benito was painted with the flames downward (known as fuego resuelto) and indicated that the wearer was not to be burned alive, but to be first strangled before burning.
At one time the san benito were hung up in the churches as monuments to the Inquisition. The coroza was a pasteboard cap, one metre high, ending in a point. On it were likewise painted crosses, flames and devils. Gags were kept on hand in case a victim insulted the tribunal or revealed what had occurred to them as they were led along to the place of execution where a large scaffold was erected.
The stake where the victim was to be burned varied in form, and was either a simple stake mounted in the ground, or was about three metres tall, with a small board near the top where the victim sat and was chained to the stake. Following prayers and attempts to convert the victim to the Roman Catholic faith, burning furzes were thrust into the face until the victim's face was burned before furzes around the base of the stake were ignited and the victim burned to death.
Victims were burned, because the inquisitors were forbidden to 'shed blood', the Roman Catholic church maintaining the line that it is untainted with blood.
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Autocracy is absolute rule by one man.
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Autoerotic asphyxia is the practice of partial strangulation during sex or masturbation.
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Autonomy is a word of Greek origin meaning 'self-government', and is thus the power of a state, institution, etc, to legislate for itself.
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Autopsy literally means a personal observation or inspection, but the term is commonly restricted to a postmortem examination.
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Autumn is the season between summer and winter, in the northern hemisphere traditionally regarded as embracing August, September, and October, or three months about that time. The beginning of the astronomical autumn is September the 22nd, the autumnal equinox; and the end is December the 21st, the shortest day. The autumn of the southern hemisphere takes place at the time of the northern spring.
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An avalanche is a large mass of snow or ice precipitated from the mountains, and distinguished as wind or dust avalanches, when they consist of fresh-fallen snow whirled like a dust storm into the valleys; as sliding avalanches, when they consist of great masses of snow sliding down a slope by their own weight; and as glacier or summer avalanches, when ice-masses are detached by heat from the high glaciers.
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Ave Maria ('Hail, Mary'), are the first two words of the angel Gabriel's salutation according to Luke I 28, and the beginning of the very common Latin prayer to the Virgin in the Roman Catholic Church. Its lay use was sanctioned at the end of the twelfth century, and a papal edict of 1326 ordains the repetition of the prayer thrice each morning, noon, and evening, the hour being indicated by sound of bells called the Ave Maria or Angelus Domini. The prayers are counted upon the small beads of the rosary, as the Paternosters are upon the large ones.
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An aviary is a building, or a portion of a building, netted off, or a large cage designed for keeping, breeding and rearing birds. Aviaries appear to have been used by the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, and are highly prized in China. In England they were in use at least as early as 1577, when William Harrison refers to 'ourcostlie and curious aviaries.' An aviary may be simply a kind of very large cage; but the term usually has a wider scope than this.
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Aviz was a Portuguese order of knighthood founded by Sancho I with the object of the subjugation of the Moors.
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The avoirdupois scale is a measurement of weight. The name comes from the French meaning 'goods having weight' or 'weight of goods'.
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An awl is a small, pointed tool used for piercing holes in leather, wood and other materials. Awls are particularly associated with shoemakers.
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Axillism is the use of the armpit for sex.
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Axinomancy is divination by means of an axe-head. Axinomancy was practised by the ancient Greeks with a view to discovering crime. An agate was placed on a red hot axe, and indicated the guilt or innocence of the accused by its motion - the names of suspected persons being uttered, the movements at a particular name indicated the criminal.
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In geography an axis is the imaginary line running from pole to pole through the centre of the earth.
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Azilian describes a Palaeolithic culture of Spain and south-west France that can be dated to the 10th millennium BC. It is characterised by flat bone harpoons and schematically painted pebbles.
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Azuline or azurine is the blue dyes belonging to the coal-tar class.
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