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Gentle ear-biting or ear-lobe nibbling is an ancient and natural mode of expressing affection and pleasure practised by many mammals including humans. References to ear-biting are common in English drama through the centuries, including in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
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Ear-cockle is a disease in wheat caused by the presence in the grain of worms belonging to the genus Vibrio. The disease is also called purples in some parts of England.
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Earth was old English for an animal's underground lair or hole. The term first occurs in the Domesday book referring to the village in Essex of Focsearde (now Foxearth), though the Oxford English Dictionary erroneously claims the term to first occur in a book published in 1575.
The earth is the name for third planet from the sun.
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An earth-closet is a toilet in which the faeces from the human body are received in a quantity of earth. The advantages of the earth-closet system are due to the fact that dry earth is one of the best disinfectants and deodorizers, and that the compound formed by the combination of the faecal matter and the earth is valuable and easily applied as manure. In large cities the earth-closet system would hardly be practicable on account of the expense of preparing and storing large quantities of earth, but in agricultural districts the system could be employed with great advantage, except for the inconvenience.
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Earth-currents are violent electrical disturbances of the nature of transient currents, which rush in one direction or the other, and by which telegraph lines, and particularly long submarine lines, were formerly constantly troubled. Their origin and nature are not thoroughly understood, but they are found to be very intimately connected with the perturbations of terrestrial magnetism called magnetic storms, and these, it is well known, are closely connected both with the appearance of the aurora borealis and with the occurrence of the sun's spots.
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An earthquake is a movement of the earth, caused either by volcanic activity below the surface or by a large area of earth, weaker than that which surrounds it, slipping a little downwards.
Earthquakes need not be severe. In some parts of the Pacific they are a daily, and not especially frightening, occurrence.
The motion occurs in very different ways, having sometimes a perpendicular, sometimes a horizontal undulating, and sometimes a whirling motion. It also varies much in degrees of violence, from a shock which is hardly perceptible to one which bursts open chasms and changes the appearance of the ground itself. During these shocks sometimes smoke and flames, but more frequently stones and torrents of water are discharged.
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An easel is a stand or support for an artist's canvas.
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Eastenders is a successful BBC television soap-opera, first aired in 1985, about the everyday lives of a fictional community in 'Albert Square' in the East End of London. The show's relentless melancholy inspired viewers to joke that the only game never played by the residents of Albert Square is 'Happy Families'.
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Easter is an ancient religious festival occurring at or around the vernal equinox. It originally marked the end of the old year and the dawn of a new year and was celebrated by the Anglo-Saxons in honour of their goddess of the east who was called Easter. In Rome the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta was rekindled on the first of March each year marking the start of the Roman year.
The practice of giving easter eggs at spring time is widely spread through ancient traditions from the Persians, Jews, Egyptians and Hindus and universally symbolises creation or the hatching of a new year. The Christian faith adopted the tradition as a symbol of resurrection, which of course spring is after the 'death' that is winter, and originally coloured their easter eggs red in allusion to the blood of their saviour.
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Eau de Cologne is a perfume said to have been invented by the Italian chemist, Johann Maria Farina, who settled at Cologne in 1709. The original recipe is unknown, though several chemists in Cologne have long claimed to be the sole owners of it. The general principle of Eau de Cologne is alcoholic vegetable extracts, essential oils and rectified spirits. The usual recipe prescribes twelve drops of each of the essential oils, bergamot, citron, neroli, orange and rosemary, with one dram of Malabar cardamoms and a gallon of rectified spirits which are distilled together. Later recipes used highly purified spirits and made further distillation unnecessary.
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Eau de Luce ('water of Luce'), so called from the name of its inventor, is made by dissolving white soap in spirit of wine, and adding oil of amber and sal ammoniac. It is a milky fluid, antispasmodio and stimulant.
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An eaves-dropper is someone who stands under the eaves or near the window or door of a house to listen and hear what is said within doors. In English law an eaves-dropper was considered as a common nuisance and was punishable by fine.
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Ecce Homo is a name often given to crucifixes and pictures which represent Christ bound and crowned with thorns.
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Ecclesiasticus is a book placed by Protestants and Jews among the apocryphal scriptures. The author calls himself Jesus the son of Sirach. Originally written in Hebrew, it was translated into Greek by the author's grandson in the 2nd century BC.
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An eclipse is the interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon or other heavenly body by the intervention of another and non-luminous heavenly body. Stars and planets may suffer eclipse, but the principal eclipses are those of the sun and the moon.
An Eclipse of the Moon is an obscuration of the light of the moon occasioned by an interposition of the earth between the sun and the moon; consequently, all eclipses of the moon happen at full moon; for it is only when the moon is on that side of the earth which is turned away from the sun, and directly opposite, that it can come within the earth's shadow. Further, the moon must at that time be in the same plane as the earth's shadow; that is, the plane of the ecliptic in which the latter always moves. But as the moon's orbit makes an angle of more than 5 degrees with the plane of the ecliptic, it frequently happens that though the moon is in opposition it does not come within the shadow of the earth.
An Eclipse of the Sun is an occultation of the whole or part of the face of the sun occasioned by an interposition of the moon between the earth and the sun; thus all eclipses of the sun happen at the time of new moon. As the earth is not always at the same distance from the moon, and as the moon is a comparatively small body, if an eclipse should happen when the earth is so far from the moon that the moon's shadow falls short of the earth, a spectator situated on the earth in a direct line between the centres of the sun and moon, would see a ring of light round the dark body of the moon; such an eclipse is called annular; when this happens there can be no total eclipse anywhere, because the moon's umbra does not reach the earth. An eclipse can never be annular longer than 12 minutes 24 seconds, nor total longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds; nor can the entire duration of an eclipse of the sun ever exceed 2 hours.
An eclipse of the sun begins on the western side of his disc and ends on the eastern; and an eclipse of the moon begins on the eastern side of her disc and ends on the western. The average number of eclipses in a year is four, two of the sun and two of the moon; and as the sun and moon are as long below the horizon of any particular place as they are above it, the average number of visible eclipses in a year is two, one of the sun and one of the moon.
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Eclogue is a term usually applied to what Theocritus called idyls - short, highly-finished poems, principally of a descriptive or pastoral kind.
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Ecru is a name given to a creamy-yellow colour.
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Edda (meaning 'great-grandmother'), is the name given to two ancient Icelandic works, the one consisting of mythological poems, the other being mainly in prose. The first of these collections, called the Olderor Poetic Edda, was compiled in the 13th century. For a long time an earlier date was given, the compiler being erroneously believed to have been Saemund Sigfusson, a learned Icelandic clergyman, who lived from about 1056 to 1133. It consists of thirty-three pieces, written in alliterative verse, and comprising epic tales of the Scandinavian gods and goddesses, and narratives dealing with the Scandinavian heroes. These poems are now assigned to a period extending from the 9th to the llth century.
The prose Edda, or Younger Edda, presents a kind of prose synopsis of the Northern mythology; a treatise on the Scaldic poetry and versification, with rules and examples; and lastly a poem (with a commentary) in honour of Haco of Norway (who died 1263). In its earliest form this collection is ascribed to Snorri Sturluson, who was born in Iceland in 1178, and was assassinated there in 1241 on his return from Norway, where he had been scald or court-poet.
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The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse in the English Channel, erected to mark a group of rocks lying in the fair-way from the Start to the Lizard. The rocks are covered only at the flood. The first lighthouse was of wood, and built by Henry Winstanley in 1696. It was carried away in the storm of 1703. Another lighthouse, also of wood, was built in 1706 by Mr. Rudyerd, but was burned down in 1755. It was succeeded by one built by John Smeaton in 1757 to 1759, which was a circular tower some 85 feet tall. The foundations becoming weakend this structure was replaced in 1879 - 1822 by one designed by Sir J N Douglass and placed on the neighbouring reef.
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An edge-railway is a kind of way in which the wheels of the carriages run on the edge of iron rails. The wheels are confined to their path by flanges which project about an inch beyond their periphery.
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Edinburgh University was founded in 1582 by a charter granted by James VI.
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The Edmunds Act was an American bill submitted by Senator Edmunds of Vermont, and passed by Congress in March 1882 to regulate and restrict the polygamous institutions of the Mormons in Utah. Under its provisions Mormons were in a great measure excluded from local offices, which they had hitherto wholly controlled. Many people were indicted and punished for polygamy also.
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The Edward Medal is a British award for heroism in civic life, especially in mines and quarries. The Edward Medal was instituted in 1907 by Edward VII and forms two classes: the Edward Medal and the Edward Medal in silver. It has a dark blue ribbon with yellow edges.
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In the United Kingdom the term Edwardian refers to something occuring or originating from the reign of a king called Edward. Although the term originated in the 19th century, later it was particularly applied to the reign of King Edward VII who reigned between 1901 and 1910. Thus, an Edwardian object is an object dating from between 1901 and 1910.
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The Efficiency League was founded in 1903 with the object of raising the standard of duty among public servants.
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An effigy is an image or portrait, the term is most frequently applied to the figures on sepulchral monuments. To burn or hang in effigy, is to burn or hang an image or picture of a person, a mode in which the populace sometimes expresses its feelings respecting an obnoxious personage.
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Effort is strenuous exertion.
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As a philosophical doctrine, egoism is the view that the elements of all knowledge and the reality of the things known are dependent on the personal existence of the knower.
In ethics, egoism is the opposite of altruism, the theory that self-interest ia the basis of morality.
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Egyptian blue is a brilliant pigment consisting of hydrated protoxide of copper mixed with a minute quantity of iron.
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The Eighty Club was a club formed in 1879 by a number of prominent English Liberals with a view to the promotion of the success of Liberalism at the general election of 1880, whence its name. It had no club building.
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Eikon Basilike was the name of a book published shortly after the execution of Charles I in January 1649, and supposed by some to have been written by the king himself. At the Restoration Gauden, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, laid claim to the authorship, and a memorandum in the copy of the Earl of Anglesea, lord privy-seal under Charles II, affirms his claim with the authority of Charles II. and the Duke of York. 48,000 copies were sold within a year of its publication, and the republicans put forward Milton to answer it,his Eikonoklastes (that is 'image-breaker') appearing the same year, by order of parliament. The Eikon Basilike professes to be a sort of private journal of the king, written in an affectedly dignified strain, and. containing numerous assertions of love for his misguided and ungrateful people.
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Eirenikon is a name given to works having as their object the reconciliation of opposite schools in politics or theology.
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Eisteddfod is a Bardic Congress held periodically in Wales for the encouragement and development of Welsh music and literature. Its origins date back to pre-Christian times, though the first recorded Eisteddfod was held in the 6th century.
Originally Eisteddfod was an ancient assembly of Welsh bards for the purpose of musical and poetical contests, the judges being originally appointed by commissions from the native princes, and after the conquest from the English kings. The last was issued in 1568, but the ancient custom was revived in 1798 by the Gwynnedigion Society, and on a more elaborate scale by the Cambrian Society, which grew out of the Gwynnedigion.
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Ejectment was a common law action, abolished in 1852, to recover possession of land and damages for the wrongful withholding of it.
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Eleanor Crosses were memorial crosses erected on the spots where the bier of Eleanor, the wife of Edward I, rested on its way from Grantham to Westminster. Thirteen were erected, but only three, those of Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham, remained by 1900.
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The Eleatic School was a Grecian philosophical sect, so called because it originated in Elea (Latin, Velia), a town of Magna Graecia in Southern Italy, of which also three of its most celebrated teachers, Parmenides, Zeno, and Leucippus, were natives. The founder was Xenophanes of Colophon, who came to Elea late in life, bringing with him the physical theories of the Ionian school, to which he added a metaphysic. The two schools soon drifted widely apart especially in respect of method. Starting from the observation of external nature, the lonians endeavoured to discover some elementary principle, as water, air, fire, or a combination of elements, by the action of which the phenomena they observed might be accounted for. The Eleans made the abstract idea of Being or God, deduced from the contemplation of the universe as a whole, their starting-point; and their reasonings sometimes led them to deny the reality of external phenomena altogether.
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In theology, election is the doctrine that God has from the beginning elected a portion of mankind to eternal life, passing by the remainder. It is founded on the literal sense of certain passages of Scripture, and has been amplified by the labours of systematic theologians into a complete and logical system. It dates in ecclesiastical history from the time of Augustine; but Calvin has stated it so strongly and clearly in his Institutes, that it is generally associated with his name.
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The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) were a British rock group formed in the 1970's. Members of the band included Jeff Lynne as guitarist, Roy Wood as guitarist and vocalist and Bev Bevan as drummer.
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Elegit is a legal writ ordering the seizure of a debtor's land so as to satisfy a judgement debt.
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Elegy is a form of poetry of a mournful and reflective character, particularly a mourning funeral song for a departed friend.
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Elephant paper is a large-sized drawing paper measuring 20 inches by 23 inches (51 cm x 59 cm).
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The Eleusinian Mysteries were sacred rites anciently observed in Greece at the annual festival of Demeter or Ceres, so named from their original seat Eleusis. As a preparation for the greater mysteries celebrated at Athens and Eleusis, lesser Eleusinia were celebrated at Agras on the Ilissus. The greater Eleusinia were celebrated in the month Boedromion (September-October), beginning on the 15th of the month and lasting nine days. The celebrations, which were varied each day, consisted in processions between Athens and Eleusis, torch-bearing and mystic ceremonies attended with oaths of secrecy. They appear to have symbolized the old conceptions of death and reproduction, and to have been allied to the orgiastic worship of Dionysus (Bacchus). They are supposed to have continued down to the time of Theodosius I.
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In technical drawing, architecture etc an elevation is a side or end view of the vertical surfaces of an object, wall or building, which may be sketched in perspective or drawn to scale without reference to perspective.
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Elf-bolt (also elf-arrow, elfer-stone and fairy-dart) was a name given to the flint arrow heads found in Britain. It was thought that these were fired by elves at domesticated animals.
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The Elgin marbles are a splendid collection of ancient Greek sculptures assembled by the 7th earl of Elgin and brought to England in 1812. The sculptures are chiefly from the Parthenon of Athens. Shortly after being brought to England they were cheaply purchased by parliament for the British Museum at the cost of 35,000 pounds. They consist of figures in low and high relief and in the round, representing gods, goddesses, and heroes; the combats of the Centaurs and Lapithaa; the Panathenaic procession, etc. They exhibit Greek sculpture at its highest stage, and were partly the work of Phidias.
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In the United Kingdom the term Elizabethan generally refers to something occuring or originating from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I who reigned between 1558 and 1603. Thus, an Elizabethan object is an object dating from between 1558 and 1603. The term is less frequently applied to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
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The ell was a European unit of measurement. In England the ell was used as a measurement for cloth fixed at 45 inches by Henry I in 1101 and used until 1600. The French ell (or aune) was 46.79 inches in length. The Swiss aune is 47.25 inches, the Scottish ell 37 inches and the Flemish ell 27 inches.
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An ellipsis is a printing symbol consisting of three full stops in a row, indicating that a word or passage has been omitted from the printed matter.
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Elocution is the art by which, in delivering a discourse before an audience, the speaker is enabled, with greatest ease and certainty, to render it effective and impressive. Formerly the value of an elocutionary training was considered very great, as well in sparing the voice as in overcoming what were considered natural defects or provincialisms in delivery, and in cultivating and developing the natural taste.
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The em (em-quad) is a unit of horizontal length used in printing, based upon the width of the capital letter 'M' - hence the name. The 12-point em is a standard unit in typography, equal to 1/6 of an inch. An em rule is a horizontal line one em long (a hyphen or dash). In computing, an em is a length as wide as the font size is wide. The em is so named on account of it being equivalent to the width of the body of the letter 'M'.
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Emanation is a theological doctrine which regards individuals as outpourings of the divine essence comparable with the efflux of light from the sun. It denies the personality of both God and man.
Traces of the doctrine are found in the system of Zoroaster. It had a powerful influence on the ancient Egyptian philosophy, as also on that of the Greeks, as may be seen in Pythagoras. It was subsequently developed by Plotinus, the Gnostics, Manicheans, Pantheists, and other sects.
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The Emancipation Act abolished slavery throughout the British colonies on August 28th 1833. 20 million pounds was paid as compensation to slave-owners.
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The Emancipation Proclamation was a proclamation reluctantly issued by President Abraham Lincoln in the US on January 1st 1863. During the first eighteen months of the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln had listened unmoved to the clamouring of abolitionists for an emancipation proclamation. He declared he would preserve the Union without freeing the slaves, if such a thing were possible. However, on September the 22nd 1862, he issued a preliminary proclamation that, unless the inhabitants of the revolted States returned to their allegiance by January 1, the slaves should be declared free. This had no effect. January 1, 1863, the proclamation was issued declaring the freedom of slaves in all the States which had seceded except forty-eight counties of West Virginia, seven counties in Virginia, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and thirteen parishes of Louisiana, including New Orleans. These districts were practically under the control of the Union army. Abraham Lincoln expected the proclamation to take effect gradually. Its legal effect has been disputed, its practical effect was enormous.
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Embalming is the process of filling and surrounding with aromatic and antiseptic substances any bodies, particularly corpses, in order to preserve them from corruption. The ancient Egyptians employed the art on a great scale, and other peoples, for example the Assyrians and Persians, followed them, but by no means equalled them in it. The ancient Peruvians appear to have injected and washed the corpses with the fluid that flows from imperfectly burned wood, which would of course contain pyroligneous acid, creosote, and other antiseptics. Pliny alludes to the use of a similar fluid by the Egyptians for embalming. In later times bodies have been preserved, a long time by embalming, especially when they have remained at a low and uniform temperature, and have been protected from the air. The body of Edward I was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1307, and in 1770 was found entire. Canute died in 1036; his body was found very fresh in 1776 in Winchester Cathedral. The bodies of William the Conqueror and of Matilda his wife were found entire at Caen in the 16th century. Of the various later artificial means of preserving bodies, impregnation with corrosive sublimate appears to be one of the most effective, next to immersion in spirits. An injection of sulphate of zinc into the bloodvessels is said to be very effective.
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An embassy is an ambassador's residence.
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Ember Days are the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following September 14th, December 13th, the first Sunday of Lent and Whitsunday, set apart in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England for prayer, especially for those about to be ordained.
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In law, embezzlement is the theft by a clerk or servant of money or goods received by him on behalf of his employer. It differs from larceny in that the original receiving of the property was lawful.
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Emblements is the right of an agricultural tenant, whose lease lapses before harvest, to enter the land and gather crops.
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Embossing is the art of producing raised figures upon plane surfaces, such as on leather for bookbinding, etc; on paper for envelopes, etc; on wood or bronze, in architecture or sculpture.
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In law, embracery is the misdemeanour of attempting to influence a juryman by money, promises, letters, entertainments, persuasions, or the like, otherwise than by evidence and argument given in open court. A juryman allowing himself to be corrupted is equally guilty of embracery.
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Embroidery is the art of ornamenting woven fabric into designs in needle-work. Embroidery differs from tapestry in that the design is stitched on the top of a woven material, whereas in tapestry the design is woven into it.
In embroidering stuffs a kind of stretching-frame is used because the more the piece is stretched the easier it is worked. The art was common in the East in very ancient times. The Jews appear to have acquired it from the Egyptians; Homer makes frequent allusion to it; and Phrygia was celebrated for its embroidery, which was in great demand at Eome. The Anglo-Saxons had a continental reputation, and from the llth to the 16th century the art of pictorial needlework was of the highest importance both as a recreation and as an industry. Embroidery is commonly divided into two classes: white embroidery applied to dress and furniture, in which the French and the Swiss excel; and embroidery in silk, gold, and silver, chiefly in demand for ecclesiastical vestments, etc. The Chinese, Hindus, Persians, and Turks traditionally excel in such work.
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Emerald green known also as Schweinfurth Green, and by a great number of other names, is a vivid light-green pigment, prepared from arseniate of copper, and used both in oil and water-colour painting. It is extremely poisonous.
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The Emigrant Aid Company, Massachusetts, was the first organization formed for the purpose of settling Kansas with free-State emigrants. It was planned by Eli Thayer, and chartered by the Legislature of Massachusetts in April, 1854. But before the actual work of settlement began, the 'New England Immigrant Aid Society'' took its place, with a less ambitious design.
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Emigration is the departure from one's native country so as to take up permanent residence in another.
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Eminent Domain is the right of the State to use private property for public purposes, particularly in war-time.
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Emmerdale Farm is a British soap opera television show following the daily lives of a fictional rural farming family, the 'Sugdens'. Emmerdale Farm was created by Kevin Laffan and was first broadcast in 1972.
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Empannel means to put a pack-saddle on a donkey, mule or other beat of burden.
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In rhetoric, emphasis is a special stress or force given to some syllable, word, or words in speaking, in order to impress the hearers in some desired manner, thus differing from
accent, the position of which is fixed.
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An Empire is a large state or federation of states extending over a wide geographical area ruled by a single person - an emperor or empress. Empires are usually developed by the absorption of other peoples and countries. Empires are nearly always built up by the virile conquering and colonising expansion of a single State, but subsequently the individual provinces gradually attain independence.
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Empire Day (originally Victoria Day) was an annual festival inaugurated in 1902 to celebrate on May 24th the achievement of the British Empire and Queen Victoria's Birthday.
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Empiricism is the theory that personal experience is the source of all knowledge and that the mind was originally an absolute blank. The theory originated with Heraclitus and was characteristic of Greek speculative thought.
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Enamel is a vitreous glaze of various colours fused to the surface of gold, silver, copper, and other substances. The art of enamelling, which is of great antiquity, was practised by the Assyrians and by the Egyptians, from whom it may have passed into Greece, and thence into Rome and its provinces, including Great Britain, where various Roman antiquities with enamelled ornamentation have been discovered. The enamelled gold cup given by King John to the corporation of Lynn, in Norfolk, proves that the art was known among the Normans. The Byzantines of the 10th century produced excellent cloisonne enamels on a gold base, the cloisonne process consisting in tracing the design in fillets of gold upon the gold plate and filling up the small moulds thus formed with enamels the design appearing in coloured enamels separated by thin gold partitions or cloisons. In some cases, however, the enamels were filled into hollows beaten out in the gold plate, which formed part of the field.
In the 12th century the town of Limoges acquired the high reputation for inlaid enamels which it held until the 14th century, aud re-acquired in the 16th for its painted enamels. The costliness of the sculptured ground had led the Italians early in the 14th century to substitute the practice of incising the design on the face of the plate, and then covering it with a transparent enamel. The further step, which made the Limousin workshops famous, consisted in the method of superficial enamelling, in which opaque colours or colours laid on a white opaque ground were used. The Limoges school degenerated greatly in the 17th century, but its method with certain modifications in detail is still employed.
The basis of all kinds of enamel is a perfectly transparent and fusible glass, which is rendered either semitransparent or opaque by the admixture of metallic oxides. White enamels are composed by melting the oxide of tin with glass, and adding a small quantity of manganese or phosphate of calcium to increase the brilliancy of the colour. The addition of the oxide of lead, or antimony, or oxide of silver, produces a yellow enamel. Reds are formed by copper, and by an intermixture of the oxides of gold and iron. Greens, violets, and blues are formed from the oxides of copper, cobalt, and iron.
In the middle of the 18th century enamelling was largely applied to the decoration of snuff-boxes, tea-canisters, candlesticks, and other small articles. Of later years it was extensively applied to the coating of iron vessels for domestic purposes, the protection of the insides of baths, cisterns, and boilers, and the like. Enamelling in colours upon iron was common, iron plates being thus treated by means of various mixtures, and words and designs of various kinds being permanently fixed upon them by stencilling, for advertising, signboards, etc.
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Encaustic is a term used to describe a picture painted by means of heated wax. Encaustic painting is an ancient technique that was practised by the Greeks and Romans using melted beeswax. At the close of the 18th century experiments were made by Emma J Greenland to ascertain the ancient methods; but the process, in which gum mastic and wax were the principle vehicles used, produced neither so brilliant a tint nor so durable a texture as oil painting.
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Encenia were festivals anciently commemorative of the founding of a city or the dedication of a church; and in later times periodical ceremonies, as at Oxford, in commemoration of founders and benefactors.
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Enchasing is the art of producing raised or indented ornamental figures and designs upon metallic surfaces.
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Enchorial was writing, the form of writing used by the old Egyptians for the common purposes of life, as distinct from the hieroglyphic and hieratic (used by the priests). It was also called Demotic.
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From about 1760 onwards, the normal method of enclosing commons or open fields in Britain was by private Act of Parliament. The Act authorised the appointment of commissioners to survey the lands to be enclosed. A large- scale plan of the lands was prepared, to assist the commissioners to draw up an award allocating the land to individuals. These awards, with their plans, record the boundaries of the fields and the courses and widths of the roads and trackways as laid out afresh by the enclosure commissioners. Occasionally this is accompanied by a map showing the pre-enclosure picture of open-field farming, with much land remaining as commons.
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An encyclical is a circular letter on ecclesiastic affairs written in Latin and addressed by the Pope to all the clergy and faithful of the Roman Catholic Church. The first was issued by Benedict XIV in 1740, but encyclicals only became common in the 19th century.
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The word Encyclopaedia (Encyclopedia) was first defined in Sir Thomas Elyot's Latin Dictionary (1538) as 'that lernynge whiche comprehendeth all lyberall science and studies.' It was first used as the title of a book by Johann Heinrich Alsted in 1608, by which time it had acquired its modern meaning of a book covering every branch of human knowledge. The term is also, however, applied to a work confined to some particular branch of knowledge. The distinction between an encyclopaedia and a dictionary is that the former explains subjects and the latter explains words, a dictionary being the product of the work of a philologist. And the distinction between a glossary and an encyclopaedia is one of depth, the glossary being much more concise and often restricted to a particular subject, for example horticulture.
The work of an encyclopaedist is some what analogous to that of a chef. Ingredients, in the form of information, is sourced from suppliers - existing data sources - processed and blended together, much as a chef may peel cook and blend vegetables, herbs, spices, meats and fish to form a new dish so the information is paraphrased, blended, corroborated and written down forming a new article. Much as a top class chef takes great care to select quality raw ingredients for his dishes, so too does the top class encyclopaedist take great care to ensure the quality and reliability of the information he sources.
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The Encyclopaedia Britannica was first published as a series which could be bound into three volumes between 1668 and 1771 - a subscription costing twelve pounds. A second enlarged edition was published in 1778, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been republished ever since to become one of the most famous encyclopaedias of all time.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica was the idea of Andrew Bell, an engraver and Colin MacFarquhar a printer who wanted to produce a work that was simple and entertaining, unlike the existing tedious encyclopaedias available. They employed a third man to edit the work, William Smellie, a renowned scholar and editor of literary works. Smellie copied existing, published works - from such authors as Bacon, Locke, Hume and Voltaire - as well as adding his own definitions and essays to the encyclopaedia - most controversially criticising Dr Johnson in his production of his dictionary; Bell provided engravings and MacFarquhar published and sold the work.
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End grain is the pattern seen when a piece of wood has been cut across the grain.
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End paper is the term given to the blank fly-leaves of a book.
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Endogamy is the custom of marrying only within their one's own tribe. It is opposite to exogamy.
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English is a term used to denote someone or something from England.
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Engraving is the art of representing objects and depicting characters on metal, wood, precious stones, etc, by means of incisions made with instruments variously adapted to the substances operated upon and the description of work intended.
Impressions from metal plates are named engravings, prints, or plates those printed from wood being called indifferently wood engravings and wood-cuts. While, however, these impressions are not altogether dissimilar in appearance, the processes are distinct. In plates the lines intended to print are incised, and in order to take an impression the plate is daubed over with a thick ink which fills all the lines. The surface is then wiped perfectly clean, leaving only the incised lines filled with ink. A piece of damp paper is now laid on the face of the plate, and both are passed through the press, which causes the ink to pass from the plate to the paper. This operation needs to be repeated for every impression, for the wood block, on the contrary, the spaces between the lines of the drawing are cut out, leaving the lines standing up like type, the printing being from the inked surface of the raised lines, and effected much more rapidly than plate printing.
Engraving on wood, intended for printing or taking impressing from, long preceded engraving on metals. The art is of eastern origin, and at least as early as the 10th century engraving and printing from wood blocks was common in China. We first hear of wood engraving being cultivated in Europe by the Italians and Germans in the 13th century. For a hundred and fifty years, however, there is small indication of the practice of the art, which was at first confined to the production of block-books, playing cards, and religious prints. In the 15th century the art of printing from engraved plates was discovered in Florence by Maso Finiguerra.
Engraving had long been used as a means of decorating armour, metal vessels, etc, the engravers generally securing duplicates of their works before laying in the niello (a species of metallic enamel) by filling the lines with dark colour, and taking casts of them in sulphur. The discovery of the practicability of taking impressions upon paper led to engraving upon copper plates for the purpose of printing from.
The date of the earliest known niello proof upon paper is 1452. The work of the Florentine engravers, however, was almost at once surpassed in Venice and elsewhere in North Italy by Andrea Mantegna, Girolamo Mocetto, Giovanni Batista del Porto, and others. In Marc Antonio Raimondi, who wrought under the guidance of Raphael, and reproduced many of his works, the art reached its highest point of the earlier period, and Rome became the centre of a new school, which included Marco da Ravenna, Giulio Bonasone, and Agostino de Musis.
In the meantime, in Germany the progress of the art had been not less rapid. Of the oldest school the most important engraver is Martin Schongauer. He was, however, surpassed a generation later by Albert Durer who excelled both in copper and wood engraving, especially in the latter. Among his most famous contemporaries and successors were Burgkmair and Lucas Cranach. The Dutch and Flemish schools, of which Durer's contemporary Lucas van Leyden was the head, did much to enlarge the scope of the art, either by paying increased attention to the rendering of light and shade, and the expression of local colour, as in the case of Cornelius Cort and Bloemart; or by developing freedom and expression of line, as in the case of Goltzius and his pupils.
Rubens influenced engraving through the two Bolswerts, Vorstermann, Pontius, and de Jode, who engraved many of his works on a large size. Towards the end of the 17th century etching, which had before been rarely used, became more common, and was practised with great success by Rembrandt and other painters of that period. In France Noel Garnier founded a school of engraving about the middle of the 16th century; but it produced no work of any high distinction until the reign of Louis XIV, when Nanteuil's pupil Gerard Edelinck and Gerard Audran flourished. The former was skilled in using his graver to produce colour effects, the latter is famed for his engravings from Nicolas Poussin and Le Brun. But these were all surpassed about the middle of the 18th century by Wille, a German resident in Paris.
Before the middle of the 17th century England produced little noteworthy work, availing herself principally of the work of foreign engravers, of whom many took up temporary and even permanent residence. The first English engraver of marked importance was William Hogarth, whose works are distinguished for character and expression. Vivares, a Frenchman by birth, laid the foundation of the English school of landscape-engraving, which was still further developed by William Woollet, who was also an excellent engraver of the human figure.
In historical engraving a not less remarkable advance was made by Sir Robert Strange, and Richard Earlom produced some admirable works in mezzotint. In succession to these came William Sharp, James Bazire, Bartolozzi, James Heath, Bromley, Raimbach, and others.
The substitution of steel for copper plates around 1820 to 1830 gave the power of producing a much larger number of fine impressions, and opened new possibilities for highly-finished work.
During the closing years of the 18th century line engraving attained a depth of colour and fulness of tone in which earlier works generally are deficient, and during the following century it reached a perfectness of finish which it had not previously attained. A picture, whether figure or Landscuape, may be translated by line engraving with all its depth of colour, delicacy of tone, and effect of light and shade; the various textures, whether of naked flesh, silk, satin, woollen, or velvet, all successfully rendered by ingenious modes of laying the lines and combinations of lines of varying strength, width, and depth. Among engraverswho have produced historical works of large size and in the line manner the names of Raphael Mrghen, Longhi, Anderloni, Garavaglia, and Toschi, in Italy; of Forster, Henriquel-Dupont, Bridoux, and Blanchard, in France; of John Burnet, J H Robinson, Doo, J H Watt, and Lumb Stocks, in England, stand pre-eminent.
Among historical and portrait engravers in the stipple or dotted manner the names of H T Ryall, Henry Robinson, William Holl and Francis Holl, may well be mentioned.
In the period 1820 to 1860 landscape engraving attained a perfection in Great Britain which it had not attained in any other country, or at any other time. Among landscape engravers the names of George Gooke, William Miller, E Goodall, J Cousen, K Brandard, and William Forrest hold the foremost places. In mezzotinto engraving Samuel Cousins is unrivalled.
In the period 1830 to 1845 various publications called Annuals, composed of light literature in prose and verse, and illustrated by highly-finished engravings in steel, were very popular. The engravings were necessarily of small size, and are generally of great excellence. A number of them both figure and landscape are executed with such finish and completeness as to be esteemed perfect works. The unrivalled illustrations of Rogers' Poems and Rogers' Italy after Turner and Stothard belong to this period. Many of the originals of the engravings in the Annuals were finished pictures of large size.
A great part of the difficulty in engraving on a small scale from a large picture, consists in determining what details can be left out, and still preserve the full effect and character of the original. The most noted engravers for work of small size are Charles Heath, Charles Bolls, W Finden, E Finden, E. Portbury, J Goodyear, F Engleheart, Henry Le Keux, E Goodall, and W Miller.
After 1870 many plates were produced by a combination of etching and dry point, a comparatively cheap and rapid process. Such works were fashionable and very popular with collectors. But while some of them have been excellent of their kind, the process is of limited resource, and the best works in this manner will not stand comparison with the masterpieces of line engraving. Through lack of encouragement, change of fashion, and the adoption of other methods of reproduction such as photography, line engraving rapidly becoming a lost art in Great Britain. The men who made line engraving famous died, and there was no sufficient inducement for younger men to pursue that art. In France and in Germany some able line engravers were still in practice at the start of the 20th century.
Line Engraving, as implied by the term, is executed entirely in lines. The tools are few and simple. They consist of the graver or burin, the point, the scraper, and the burnisher; an oil-stone or hone, dividers, a parallel square, a magnifying lens; a bridge on which to rest the hand; a blind or shade of tissue paper, to make the light fall equally on the plate, callipers for levelling important erasures, a small steel anvil, a small pointed hammer, and punches. In etching, the following articles are required: a resinous mixture called etching-ground, capable, when spread very thinly over the plate, of resisting the action of the acids used; a dauber for laying the ground equally; a hand-vice; some hair-pencils of different sizes, and bordering wax, made of burgundy-pitch, bees'-wax, and a little oil.
In engraving, the plate, which is highly polished and must be free from all scratches, is first prepared by spreading over it a thin layer of ground. The surface is then smoked, and the outline of the picture transferred to it by pressure from the paper on which it has been drawn in fine outlines by a black-lead pencil. The picture is then drawn on the ground with the etching-needle, which removes the ground in every form produced by it, and leaves the bright metal exposed. A bank of wax is then put round the plate and diluted acid poured on it, which eats out the metal from the lines from which the ground has been removed, but leaves the rest of the plate untouched. The plate is then gone over with the graver, the etched lines clearly defuned, broken lines connected, new lines added, etc. Sometimes the plate is rebitten more than once, those parts which are sufficiently bitten in the first treatment being stopped with varnish, and only the selected parts exposed to after-biting. Finally the burnisher is brought into play alternately with the graver and point to give perfectness and finish.
Such is the process for landscape engraving. In historical and portrait engraving of the highest class, the lines are first drawn on the metal with a fine point and then cut in by the graver, first making a fine line and afterwards entering and re-entering till the desired width and depth of lines is attained. Much of the excellence of such engravings depends on the mode in which the lines are laid, their relative thickness, and the manner in which they cross each other. In historical engraving etching is but little used, and then only for accessories and the less important parts.
In Soft-ground Etching the ground, made by mixing lard with common etching-ground, is laid on the plate and smoked as before, but its extreme softness renders it very liable to injury. The outline of the subject is drawn on a piece of rough paper larger than the plate. The paper is then damped, and laid gently over the ground face upwards, and the margins folded over and pasted down on the back of the plate. When the paper is dry and tightly stretched the bridge is laid across, and with a hardish pencil and firm pressure the drawing is completed in the usual manner. The pressure makes the ground adhere to the back of the paper at all parts touched by the pencil, and on. the paper being lifted carefully off, these parts of the ground are lifted with it, and the corresponding parts of the plate thus left bare are exposed to the subsequent action of the acid. The granulated surface of the paper, causing similar granulations in the touches on the ground, gives the character of a chalk-drawing. The biting-in is effected in the same manner as already described, and the subject is finished by re-biting and dotting with the graver.
Stipple, or Chalk Engraving, in its pure state, is exclusively composed of dots, varying in size and form as the nature of the subject demands, but few stipple plates are now produced without a large admixture of line in all parts, flesh excepted. A great advance, however, was made in stipple engraving by the introduction of large and varied forms of dotting in the draperies, the results almost rivalling line engraving in richness and power.
The Mixed Style is based on mezzotinto, which, still forming the great mass of shading, is in this method combined with etching in the darker, and stipple in the more delicate parts. By this combination a plate will produce a larger number of good impressions than were it done entirely in mezzotinto.
The wood best adapted for engraving is box. It is cut across the grain in thicknesses equal to the height of type, these slices being subjected to a lengthened process of seasoning, and then smoothed for use. Every wood engraving is the representative of a finished drawing previously made on the block; the unshaded parts being cut away, and the lines giving form, shading, texture, etc, left standing in relief by excavations of varied size and character, made between them by gravers of different forms. Drawings on wood are made either with black-lead pencil alone or with pencil and indian ink, the latter being employed for the broader and darker masses. It is now much the practice to photograph drawings made in black and white upon the wood instead of making the drawing on the wood block. When the drawing is put on the wood by washes or by photography instead of being entirely done by pencil lines, the engraver has to devise the width and style of lines to be employed instead of cutting in facsimile, as is the case when the drawing is made entirely in lines. The tools required for wood engraving are similar but more numerous than those of the engraver on copper or steel.
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Enigmarelle was possibly the first robot. It was an automaton constructed of 365 different parts, and actuated by electricity. The figure rode a bicycle, wrote its name on a blackboard and performed other tasks similar to a human being. Enigmarelle was exhibited at the London Hippodrome in June 1905.
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Enjambement is the arranging of sentences and clauses in verse so that their ends do not coincide with the ends of the lines. It was introduced in order to give fluency and ease to verses.
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An ensign is a flag or banner used in the Army and Navy. The British naval ensign is red, white or blue, with a small Union Jack in the upper corner. The red ensign is flown by the Merchant fleet, the blue by the Royal Navy Reserve and the white, which includes a red St George's cross by the Royal Navy.
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In agriculture, ensilage is a mode of storing green fodder, vegetables, etc, in receptacles called 'silos'. These are usually pits of quadrangular form, lined with wood, brick, concrete, or stone. The fodder, etc, is cut and mixed, placed in the silo, pressed down, and kept compressed by heavy weights placed on a movable wooden covering. It undergoes a slight fermentation, and attains a slightly acid taste and smell, which is particularly grateful to cattle. The modern system of ensilage dates from about 1875, but the practice was known to the ancient Romans, and the system has been common in Mexico for centuries. Such advantages are claimed for it, as that in a wet season grass can be made into ensilage instead of hay, and that there is little loss of nutritive elements, while it has great feeding powers. Successful experiments have shown that green fodder may be converted into ensilage without a pit by simply piling up and consolidating by pressure.
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In the peripatetic philosophy, entelechy is an object in its complete actualization, as opposed to merely potential existence.
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The Entente Cordiale was the semi-formal alliance between England and France before the Great War. The alliance was first sought by France in 1903 seeking that in the event of a conflict with Germany, England would be at least neutral. In 1904 an agreement was signed whereby France had a free hand in Morocco and England a free hand in Egypt.
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Entomophilia is the sexual arousal by insects.
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An entracte is the interval between the acts of a drama; or a short musical entertainment performed during such interval.
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Envelopes are the paper covers that inclose letters or notes. They became common shortly after the introduction of the penny postage system in 1840 and were at first made chiefly by hand, but since the end of the 19th century were not only shaped, but folded, gummed, etc, by machinery. Envelopes for letters were first mentioned by Jonathan Swift in 1726.
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In chronology, epact is the excess of the solar month above the lunar synodical month, and of the solar year above the lunar year of twelve synodical months. The epacts then are annual and menstrual or monthly. Suppose the new moon to be on the 1st of January: the month of January containing 31 days, and the lunar month only 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds; the difference, 1 day, 11 hours, 15 minutes, 57 seconds, is the menstrual epact. The annual epact is nearly 11 days; the solar year being 365 days, and the lunar year 354. The epacts were once of some importance in ecclesiastical chronology, being used for finding when Easter would fall.
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Epeolatry is the worship of words.
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The ephah, or bath was a Hebrew measure of capacity, containing, according to one estimate or calculation, 8.6696 gallons; according to another only 4.4286 gallons.
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Ephebophilia is being sexually attracted by adolescents.
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Ephod was a term applied to some part of the dress of Jewish high-priests, and used in the Old Testament where it appears to have several meanings.
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An epic is a poetical narrative of heroic achievements. It is largely dramatic in character, but embraces a greater area and admits many incidents, each of which might serve as a dramatic plot.
Some authorities widen the definition of an epic so as to include not only long narrative poems of romantic or supernatural adventure, but also those of a historical, legendary, mock-heroic, or humorous character. An epic is distinguished from a drama in so far as the author frequently speaks in his own person as narrator; and from lyrical poetry by making the predominant feature the narration of action rather than the expression of emotion.
Among the more famous epics of the world's literature may be noted: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; Virgil's AEneid; the German Nibelungenlied; the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf; the French Song of Roland; Dante's Divina Commedia; Tasso's Gierusalemme Liberata; Ariosto's Orlando Furioso; Milton's Paradise Lost; Spenser's Fairy Queen; Camoens' Lusiads (Portuguese); and Firdusi's Shah Nameh (Persian). Hesiod's Theogony; the poetic Edda; the Finnish Kalewala; the Indian Mahabharata may be described as collections of epic legends. The historical epic has an excellent representative in Barbour's Bruce; and specimens of the mock-heroic and humorous epic are found in The Battle of the Frogs and Mice; Reynard the Fox; Butler's Hudibras; and Pope's Rape of the Lock.
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In the ancient astronomy, the epicycle was a small circle supposed to move round the circumference of a larger, a hypothetical mode of representing the apparent motion of the planets, which were supposed to have such a motion round the circumference of a large circle, called the deferent, having the earth in its centre.
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An epigram, in a restricted sense, is a short poem or piece in verse, which has only one subject, and finishes by a witty or ingenious turn of thought; in a general sense, an epigram is a pointed or witty and antithetical saying. The term was originally given by the Greeks to a poetical inscription placed upon a tomb or public monument, and was afterwards extended to every little piece of verse expressing with precision a delicate or ingenious thought, as the pieces in the Greek anthology. In Roman classical poetry the term was somewhat indiscriminately used, but the epigrams of Martial contain a great number with the modern epigrammatic character.
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An epigraph is an inscription carved on a stone, statue or coin.
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Epigraphy is the study of ancient inscriptions incised on some hard material, such as wood, stone or metal, as distinct from palaeography which is the study of ancient manuscripts written on papyrus, parchment or a similar material.
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Epilogue is a term usually applied in English literature to a speech or short poem addressed to the spectators by one of the actors at the close of a play. It may also be the additional chapter of a book, after the tale proper has finished.
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Episcopacy is the system of church government in which bishops are established as distinct from and superior to priests or presbyters, there being in the church three distinct orders - deacons, priests, and bishops.
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The Episcopal Church is what may be called the Church of England in America. Its history begins with the settlement at Jamestown in 1607, among whose settlers was a clergyman, Reverend R Hunt, who laboured zealously in the colony throughout his life. The clergy were supported by grants from the Legislature, and afterwards by tithes, and the interests of the church were carefully fostered by the Virginia Company and by the successive royal governors. William and Mary College was chartered in 1693 in order to educate the clergy for the colonial churches.
By 1701 Maryland for the most part had become Episcopal and attempts were soon made to establish the church in the more southern colonies, but with poor success. In New York City Trinity Church was founded 1696, and generally throughout the Middle States the church was spread through the agency of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, chartered in 1701. By the time of the American Revolution there had been established in New England thirty-six churches. The American War of Independence greatly lessened the influence of the church, which naturally was English in sympathy, but in 1785 the first general convention was held and remodelled the organization to suit the new political condition.
Two years later American bishops were consecrated in London (Seabury in Scotland in 1784), and thus the formal organization of the American church was completed. During the next twenty years the church lost almost all its power through dissension and the withdrawal of State aid, but from that time on a steady growth has been manifest.
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In literature, an episode is an incidental narrative, or digression in a poem, which the poet has connected with the main plot, but which is not essential to it.
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Epistemology is that department of metaphysics which investigates and explains the doctrine or theory of knowing, as distinguished from ontology, which investigates real existence or the theory of being.
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Epistolae ObscurorumVirorum ('Letters of Obscure Men') is the title of a collection of satirical letters which appeared in Germany in 1515-1517, and professed to be the composition of certain ecclesiastics and professors in Cologne and other places. It is considered as one of the most masterly sarcasms in the history of literature, and its importance is enhanced by the effect it had in promoting the cause of the Reformation. The authorship of this satire has been a fertile subject of controversy, and is yet apparently far from being settled.
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An epitaph is a short composition in verse or prose, nominally for the tomb of a deceased person or monument in honour or memory of the dead, and generally setting forth his or her virtues and the survivors' regrets. Epitaphs were in use both among the Greeks and Romans. The Greeks distinguished by epitaphs only their illustrious men. Among the Romans they became a family institution, and private names were regularly recorded upon tombstones. The same practice has generally prevailed in Christian countries. On Christian tombstones epitaphs usually give brief facts of the deceased's life, sometimes also the pious hopes of survivors in reference to the resurrection or other doctrines of the Christian faith, etc. Many so-called epitaphs are mere witty jeux d'esprit, which might be described as epigrams, and which were never intended seriously for monumental inscriptions. The literature of the subject is very large.
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An epithalamium is a nuptial song or poem in praise of a bride and bridegroom. Among the Greeks and Romans it was sung by young men and maids at the door of the bridal chamber of a new-married couple.
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Epithany is a church festival held on January 6th. It was originally held to commemorate the baptism of Jesus, but now some churches celebrate it as the visit of the three wise men to Jesus.
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An epoch, or era, is a fixed point of time, commonly selected on account of some remarkable event by which it has been distinguished, and which is made the beginning or determining point of a particular year from which all other years, whether preceding or ensuing, are computed. In the Christian countries, the creation and the birth of Christ are the most important of the historical epochs. The creation has formed the foundation of various chronologies, the chief of which are: 1. The epoch adopted by Bossuet, Ussher, and other Catholic and Protestant divines, which places the creation in 4004 BC. 2. The Era of Constantinople (adopted by Russia), which places it in 5508 BC. 3. The Era of Antioch, used until 284 AD, placed the creation 5502 BC. 4. The Era of Aexandria, which made the creation 5492 BC. This is also the Abyssinian Era. 5. The Jewish Era, which places the creation in 3760 BC.
The Greeks computed their time by periods of four years, called Olympiads, from the occurrence every fourth year of the Olympic games. The first Olympiad, being the year in which Coroebus was victor in the Olympic games, was in the year 776 BC.
The Romans dated from the supposed era of the foundation of their city (Ab Urbe Condita, A.U.C.), the 21st of April, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad, or 753 BC (according to some authorities 752 BC).
The Christian Era, or mode of computing from the birth of Christ as a starting-point, was first introduced in the 6th century, and was generally adopted by the year 1000. This event is believed to have taken place earlier, perhaps by four years, than the received date.
The Julian epoch, based on the coincidence of the solar, lunar, and indictional periods, is fixed at 4713 BC, and is the only epoch established on an astronomical basis.
The Mohammedan Era, or Hejira, commences on the 16th of July, 622, and the years are computed by lunar months.
The Chinese traditionally reckoned their time by cycles of 60 years. Instead of numbering them as we do, they traditionally gave a different name to every year in the cycle.
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The Equal Rights Party was an American women's suffrage organisation of 1884 headed by Belva Lockwood who was its self-nominated Presidential candidate, her platform advocating woman suffrage.
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In English law, equity is the system of supplemental law administered in certain courts, founded upon defined rules, recorded precedents, and established principles, the judges, however, liberally expounding and developing them to meet new exigences. While it aims to assist the defects of the common law, by extending relief to those rights of property which the strict law does not recognize, and by giving more ample and distributive redress than the ordinary tribunals afford, equity by no means either controls, mitigates, or supersedes the common law, but rather guides itself by its analogies, and does not assume any power to subvert its doctrines. The Court of Chancery was formerly in England the especial court of equity, but large powers were by the Judicature Act of 1873 given to all the divisions of the Supreme Court to administer equity, although many matters of equitable jurisdiction are still left to the chancery division in the first instance.
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The Era of Good Feeling was a name applied in the US to the period between 1817 and 1823, during James Monroe's administration, when national political contests were suspended, the Democrats having a triumphant majority and the Federalist party being almost extinct. The War of 1813 was ended and the new issues of tariff and internal improvement had not arisen. James Monroe's inaugural address soothed the few Federalists and the leaders of both parties joined in receiving the President and announcing the 'era of good feeling'.
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Ergonomics is a discipline treating the consideration of human factors in design of the working environment and its components; intended to promote productivity and safety in the tools people work with.
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In geography, erosion is the wearing away of the land by sun, wind, rain, frost, running water, moving ice and the sea.
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Erotomania is mental alienation or melancholy caused by love.
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An errata is the list of errors and corrections placed at the end or at the beginning of a book.
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Erse is a variant of the word Irish and is a designation given to the ancient Celtic languages of the Scottish Highlands and Ireland, but more usually confined to that of Ireland.
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An escalator is a moving stairway used to transport passengers between two different levels, such as floors of a building or the street and the platforms of an underground station. The first escalator was designed and patented by Seeburger and subsequently developed by the Otis Elevator Company in the USA and by Waygood-Otis Ltd in Britain. The escalator was first demonstrated to the public at the Paris Exhibition in 1900.
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Eschatology is a term used primarily in Christian and Jewish theology to refer to the 'last things', including the ultimate fate of the world and the individual soul. However, almost all religions of the world have eschatological features, which may be divided into those based on mythological explanations of the origins and end of the world and those based on historical explanations. The biblical accounts of the history of the Jewish people and the teaching and parables of Jesus are examples of historical eschatology, leading to millenarian expectations of the coming of the Messiah among Jews, and of the Second Coming among Christians. Contrasting with such views is the expectation of the apocalyptic or cataclysmic intervention of God in history. In both Hinduism and Buddhism, eschatological beliefs focus on the longing for release from the cycle of birth and rebirth.
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In feudal tenure, escheat is a reversion of land to the lord, for want of a tenant qualified to perform the services.
In law escheat refers to a species of reversion arising from default of heirs. Lands, if freehold, escheat to the king or other lord of the manor; if copyhold, to the lord of the manor. By modern legislation there can be no escheat on failure of the whole blood wherever there are persons of the half-blood capable of inheriting.
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An escrow is a deed that has been signed and sealed but is delivered on the condition that it will not become operative until some stated event happens. It will become effective as soon as that event occurs and it cannot be revoked in the meantime.
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The Books of Esdras are two apocryphal books, which, in the Vulgate and other editions, are incorporated with the canonical books of Scripture. In the Vulgate the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah are called the first and second, and the apocryphal books the third and fourth books of Esdras. The Geneva Bible of 1560 first adopted the present nomenclature, calling the two apocryphal books first and second Esdras. The subject of the first book of Esdras is the same as that of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in general it appears to be copied from the canonical Scriptures. The second book of Esdras is supposed to have been either of much later date, or to have been interpolated by Christian writers.
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An espalier is a wooden framework on which fruit-trees or creepers are trained to grow horizontally with the object of securing for the plant a freer circulation of air ad a full exposure to the sun.
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The Essaie du Michigan was the first newspaper issued in Michigan. It was published by Father Gabriel Richard in English and French, the first edition appearing at Detroit on August the 31st 1809. The Essaie du Michigan soon ceased publication before even ten editions had been published.
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Essay is a literary term which was originally applied to a draft or rough copy, and hence, by the modesty of the author, to an unpretentious but complete composition. It is now used to mean a prose composition of moderate length, limited to a single subject.
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Essays and Reviews was a volume written by six Church of England clergymen and one layman: Dr. Frederick Temple (in 1896-1902 Archbishop of Canterbury), Dr. Rowland Williams, Baden Powell, H B Wilson, Mark Pattison, Professor Jowett, and Mr. C W Goodwin, and published in March, 1860. Its alleged heterodoxy caused much excitement, and called forth numerous replies, condemnation by convocation in 1864, and the prosecution of two of the writers by the ecclesiastical courts.
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An Established Church is a church having a form of doctrine and government established by law in any country for the teaching of Christianity within its boundaries, and usually endowed by the state. The upholders of the establishment theory maintain that it is the duty of a state to provide for the religious instruction of the people. On the other hand, it is argued that the state has no right to endow or support any particular sect or denomination, unless they assume that that denomination alone is possessed of religious truth and worth.
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An estaminet is a cafe where smoking is permitted.
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Estates of Scotland was the name given to a body of similar constitution to the English Parliament, but with important differences, the king himself, as well as his officers, being responsible to the estates for wrongs done. They held the power of declaring war, or entering on a peace or treaty, and with them rested the right of declaring, with or without the consent of the king, resolutions of the assembly to be law. To prevent a bill being hurried through parliament it was submitted to and discussed by a committee called the Lords of the Articles. If sanctioned by this committee the bill was passed on to the whole house for approval. Another committee appointed by the estates was called the Auditors of Complaints, whose duty was to hear appeals against the decisions of the king's judges, and, if necessary, to reverse their sentences.
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In geography, an estuary is the broad mouth of a river which is affected by the tides, or more strictly, the region where sea and fresh water meet.
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An etagere is a piece of furniture comprising a number of open shelves on which to display ornaments.
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Etching is a process of putting a drawing or design onto a surface, usually metal, by corroding or scratching away the top surface so as to form the lines of the design.
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The Etesian Winds are winds blowing at stated times of the year. The term is applied especially to northerly and north-easterly winds which prevail at certain seasons in the Mediterranean regions.
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In philosophy, ethical intuitionists deny that moral judgements are merely expressions of emotion or approval. They argue that there is a special faculty of moral intuition which gives us access to moral truths, to facts about what we ought and ought not to do. This intuitive faculty may render certain rules of conduct self- evidently correct and then moral conduct will be a matter of following those rules. Ethical knowledge, so conceived, has been compared to mathematical knowledge, where the latter consists of knowing the consequences of certain self-evident axioms, axioms grasped by some form of mathematical intuition. On the other hand, the faculty of moral intuition may be more like our sensory organs. It may enable me to see the good in my brother helping an old person across the road, just as we can see that the road is wide.
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In philosophy, ethical relativism is the view that ethical judgements are true or false only relative to a particular context. So if I say that eating people is wrong, while you say it is right, we may both be speaking the truth. For cannibalism may be wrong in my context and right in yours. Relativists disagree about what the relevant context for us is. Some would say it is a particular cultural or historical setting, so cannibalism may be permissible among ' primitive' natives of a Pacific Island but not in a modern European city. Other relativists claim that the relevant context is that of a specific individual, so that cannibalism may be right for you and wrong for me simply because we are different people with different inclinations. But all relativists deny that there is any way of formulating moral claims that will make them true in all conceivable contexts. In this they depart for the common-sense view that we can reasonably make moral assessments of the behaviour of other people, even when they come from a
rather different social or historical context.
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Ethics (from the Greek ethikos, 'dealing with nature'), in philosophy, can roughly be characterised as dividing into three parts: normative ethics; practical ethics; and meta-ethics. Normative ethics is the study of general normative principles or virtues. There are various doctrines concerning general normative principles. Altruists hold that when deciding how to act one ought to take the interests of others into account, as well as one's own. Hedonists hold that one ought to pursue only pleasure or happiness for oneself and others. The Golden Rule states that one should act towards others-as one wants them to act towards oneself. Consequentialists believe that one ought to do whatever will have the best consequences. (Utilitarianism, the doctrine that one ought to do whatever will maximise well-being or happiness is one version of consequentialism). Deontologists hold that the rightness or wrongness of actions is a matter of how they accord with moral rules, not of their consequences.
One must obey the rule that one ought to tell the truth, even if the consequences of breaking the rule would be better. Others hold that rightness or wrongness cannot be captured by a set of moral rules at all, and that it is not simply the consequences of an action which determine its moral status. Rather, one ought to be a virtuous person, one who has certain emotional reactions to various situations, reactions which lead one to behave in ways which are virtuous, honest, generous or kind. Practical ethics is the study of specific, practical ethical problems such as abortion, euthanasia, war and out treatment of animals. Clearly, the study of practical ethical issues is not independent of the study of general normative principles. General normative principles have implications for specific practical ethical problems, so acceptance of a general normative principle may lead one to change one's opinions about a specific practical issue, and one's firm conviction concerning a specific practical issue may lead one to see the failing of a general normative principle.
Meta-ethics is not concerned with which moral principles which we should follow, or how they relate to specific practical problems, but investigates abstract conceptual and metaphysical issues which arise for any moral principle. One meta-ethical claim is that any moral judgement concerning a particular is universal to all similar particulars. Emotivism claims that moral judgements are simply expressions of emotions. Descriptivism claims that moral terms are purely descriptive. Prescriptivism claims that moral terms have two independent components of meaning: descriptive and evaluative. Ethical relativism is the doctrine that moral judgements are true or false only relative to a particular context. Some hold that murder is wrong because God has commanded us not to commit murder. Ethical Intuitionism is the doctrine that there is a special faculty of moral intuition which gives us access to moral facts, to facts about how we ought to behave. The naturalistic fallacy is the supposed fallacy of inferring an 'ought' from an 'is': the issue
being whether ethics is objective or subjective.
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Etiquette is a collective term for the established ceremonies and usages of society, from the forms which are to be observed in particular places such as courts, levees, and public occasions, to the general forms of polite society. Amongst courts the Byzantine and Spanish courts, and the French court under Louis XIV and Louis XV, have been noted for the strictness of their etiquette.
Victorian social etiquette consisted in so many minute observances that a tolerable familiarity with it could be acquired only by a considerable intercourse with 'polite society'. It was often said during the Victorian era that all that is necessary to constitute good social manners is common sense and good feeling; but not to mention those formal rules of society which, though intrinsically worthless, demanded a certain amount of respect, there were also many difficulties and emergencies in social intercourse which required peculiar tact and delicacy of judgment. Hence quickness of sympathy and a certain fineness of observation were more needed for proficiency in this sphere than pure power of intellect.
During the Victorian and Edwardian eras in Britain the rules and rituals of etiquette became so complex and sophisticated that a general revolt against them took place. Today the rules are less laws than guidelines, the most reliable being contained in 'Debrett's' which offers advice on the correct terms of address for royalty and other members of the aristocracy.
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Eton College, properly called the College of the Blessed Mary of Eton, is one of the great public schools of England. It was founded at Eton in Buckinghamshire by Henry VI in 1440. The building, which was commenced in 1441 and finished in 1523, received important additions subsrquently in the shape of mathematical and science schools, a museum, etc.
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Etruscan Vases are a class of beautiful ancient painted vases made in Etruria, but not strictly speaking a product of Etruscan art, since they were really the productions of a ripe age of Greek art, the workmanship, subjects, style, and inscriptions being all Greek. They are elegant in form and enriched with bands of beautiful foliage and other ornaments, figures and similar subjects of a highly artistic character. One class has black figures and ornaments on a red ground - the natural colour of the clay; another has the figures left of the natural colour and the ground painted black. The former class belong to a date about 600 BC, the latter date about a century later, and extend over a period of about 300 or 350 years, when the manufacture seems to have ceased. During this period there was much variety in the form and ornamentation, gold and other colours besides the primitive ones of black and red being frequently made use of. The subjects represented upon these vases frequently relate to heroic personages of the Greek mythology, but many scenes of an ordinary and even of a domestic character are depicted. The figures are usually in profile. Temples are occassionaly introduced. Many features of Hellenic rituals, games, festivals and domestic life can be gleaned from these vases.
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Etymology is a term applied to that part of grammar which treats of the various inflections and modifications of words and shows how they are formed from simple roots.
The term, etymology is also applied to that branch of philology which traces the history of words from their origin to their latest form and meaning. Etymology in this latter sense, or the investigation of the origin and growth of words, is amongst the oldest of studies. Plato and other Greek philosophers, the Alexandrian grammarians, the scholiasts, the Roman Varro, and others wrote much on this subject. But their work is made up of conjectures at best ingenious rather than sound, and very often wild and fantastic. It was not until modern times, and particularly since the study of Sanskrit, that etymology has been scientifically studied. Languages then began to be properly classed in groups and families, and words were studied by a comparison of their growth and relationship in different languages. It was recognized that the development of language is not an arbitrary or accidental matter, but proceeds according to general laws. The result was a great advance in etymological knowledge and the formation of a new science of philology.
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Eucharist is a name for the sacrament of the Lord's supper, in reference to the blessing and thanksgiving which accompany it.
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The eugubine or Iguvine tables are seven tablets of brass engraved with inscriptions of ancient Umbrian, discovered in 1444 in a ruined theatre near Gubbio in Central Italy. They seem to have been inscribed three or four centuries BC, and refer to sacrificial usages and ritual.
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Euhemerism or eumerism is a method or system (so named from its founder Euhemerus, a Greek philosopher) of interpreting myths and mythological deities, by which they are regarded as deifications of dead heroes and poetical exaggerations of real histories.
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Euphuism is an affected style of language which was prevalent during the time of Elizabeth I and arose from 'Euphues; the Anatomy of Wit' by John Lyly published in 1581.
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Eureka (from the Greek heureka, I have found it), is the exclamation supposedly made by Archimedes when, after long study, he discovered a method of detecting the amount of alloy in King Hiero's crown. Hence the word is used as an expression of triumph at a discovery or supposed discovery.
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Eurhythmics is a system of mental and physical culture invented by Jacques Dalcroze, based on the interpretation of music by means of rhythmical movements of the body and limbs. A carefully graded series of exercises aims at producing an intellectual appreciation of rhythm, combined with perfect physical control, enabling the head and limbs to be moved independently of one another, and so to express several separate rhythms simultaneously.
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The Euroclydon is a tempestuous wind of the Levant, which was the occasion of the shipwreck of the vessel in which St Paul sailed, as narrated in Acts XXVII. 14-44. The north-east wind is the wind evidently meant in the narrative.
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The Evangelical Harmony, or Harmony of the Gospels, were the title of works written with a view to prove the substantial agreement of the four evangelists. The heretic Tatian composed in the second century the Diatessaron, the first work of this kind, a continuous narrative of the events written in the gospels. From this harmony all passages were omitted which favoured the doctrine of the real humanity of Christ, and hence told against the peculiar doctrines of Tatian. Theophilus of Antioch is said to have composed a book of a similar kind, and Ammonius Saccas executed another Diatessaron, with the corresponding passages arranged in parallel columns. The Ten Indexes of Eusebius probably appeared in the first half of the fourth century, and was more complete than its predecessors.
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Eve of Saint John's was a popular celebration of remote antiquity, held on the vigil or eve of the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist, 24th of June (Midsummer Day). On the eve of the feast it was the custom in former times to kindle fires (called St John's fires) upon hills in celebration of the summer solstice, and various superstitions were long practised on this occasion.
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Evil May Day was the 1st of May, 1517 when apprentices rioted in London, directing their aggression against foreigners, particularly the French. At one point the Constable of the Tower of London discharged his cannon on the mob. The rioters were headed by Lincoln, who, with fifteen others was hanged. 400 more rioters were bound with ropes and halters around their necks and carried to Westminster, where they cried 'mercy mercy' and were all pardoned by the king, Henry VIII.
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A ewer is a tall, slim, vessel with a spout and a handle and a base.
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The Exaltation of the Cross is a Roman Catholic festival celebrated on the 14th of September in honour of the recovery of a portion of the true cross from the Persians by Heraclitus in 628 AD and its erection on Mount Calvary.
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The Examiner was a liberal weekly journal established in January 1808, it's last issue was in February 1881.
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Exarchate is a name of a province or territory under an exarch, or viceroy. In the 6th century Justinian formed the middle part of Italy into a province of the Eastern Empire, and gave the government of it to an exarch.
Exarch was also the title of an ecclesiastical grade in the Greek Church inferior to the patriarchs, but superior to the metropolitans. Among the modern Greeks an exarch is a deputy of the patriarch, who travels about in the provinces, and visits the bishops and churches.
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Excellency is a title of honour. It was first assumed by Charlemagne in the 9th century. Today it is applied to all ambassadors.
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The Exclusion Bill was passed by the house of commons, but rejected by the house of lords in 1681. The bill sought to exclude the duke of York, afterwards James II, from the throne. the revival of the question led to the dissolution of parliament in 1681.
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An exequatur is a document issued by the Head of a State, granting recognition to a foreign consul appointed thereto.
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The Exeter Book or Codex Exoniensis is a folio given by Bishop Leofric to the library of his cathedral between 1046 and 1073, and dating probably from the first half of the same century. It contains some thirty-three poems including: Cynewulf's poems Crist and Juliana, Guthlac, Azarias, Widsith.
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Exeter College is a college of Oxford University, originally called Stapledon Hall, and founded in 1314 by Walter de Stapledon, bishop of Exeter, who made a foundation for a rector and twelve fellows. In 1404 Edmund Stafford, bishop of Exeter, added two fellowships and obtained leave to give the college its present name.
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Express was the American name for a system of railway transportation which was begun on March the 4th, 1839, by William F Harnden, who established express (railway) communication between New York and Boston. Alvan Adams and P B Burke started the Adams Express Company in 1840. The Wells Fargo Company was started in 1845, the United States Express Company in 1853.
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The Expunging Resolution was a political event which happened in the USA during the 1830's. In 1834 a resolution of censure had been adopted by Congress against President Jackson for removing certain money deposits from the Bank of the United States. This resolution was expunged by the 'Expunging Resolution' of January the 16th, 1837, Senator Benton being the prime mover toward its adoption. Clay, Webster and Calhoun opposed it with vehemence. A black line was drawn in the Journal around the resolution of censure and the words 'Expunged by order of the Senate this sixteenth day of January 1837' inserted.
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An extended elevation is an elevation of the several wall surfaces of a room arranged so as to read as a long continuous strip. Extended elevations are useful in preparing working drawings for decorators.
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In logic, extension is the extent of the application of a general term, that is, the objects collectively which are included under it; thus, the word figure is more extensive than triangle, circle, parallelogram, etc; European more extensive than French, Frenchman, German, etc. Matter and mind are the most extensive terms of which any definite conception can be formed. Extension is contrasted with comprehension or intension.
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An extension ladder is a ladder consisting of two or more sections, each of the standing ladder type, made so that the height can be adjusted by telescoping the sections, each section being capable of being used on its own if desired.
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Extradition is the delivery of a person accused or convicted of a crime to the State on whose territory the crime was committed, by the State on whose territory the criminal happens to be.
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In a telescope, microscope, or other optical instrument, an eye-piece is the lens, or combination of lenses to which the eye is applied.
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