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GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) is the centre of the British government's electronic surveillance operations, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It monitors broadcasts of various kinds from all over the world. It was established during the Great War, and was successful in breaking the German Enigma code in 1940. Controversy arose in the 1980s when the Thatcher government banned employees at GCHQ from being members of a Trade Union, thereby implying that Union members were a threat to national security.
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Gabilla is a Cuban measurement of tobacco. One gabilla is comprised of 36 or 40 leaves, 4 gabillas comprise 1 hand and 80 hands comprise 1 bale.
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Gablocks were artificial, metal spurs fitted to fighting cocks (also known as game-cocks).
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Gaboon is the dark mahogany-like wood, but lighter in colour, from a western and central African burseraceous tree, Aucoumea klaineana, used in plywood, for furniture, and as a veneer.
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Gabriel's Insurrection was an insurrection incited among the negro slaves of the vicinity of Richmond, Virginia. in 1800, by a slave of Thomas Prosser, called 'General Gabriel', and 'Jack Bowler'. They intended to attack Richmond by night with a thousand negroes and murder the inhabitants. An escaped negro revealed the plot. Governor James Monroe ordered out the militia and attacked the insurgents. The ringleaders were captured and 'punished'.
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A gaddi was the cushioned throne used by Indian rulers.
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A gadroon or godroon is a moulding composed of a series of convex flutes and curves joined to form a decorative pattern, used especially as an edge to silver articles.
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The Gadsden Treaty was a treaty negotiated by the United States with Mexico in 1853 by James Gadsden. By this treaty the United States secured 45,000 square miles of land in what is now Arizona and New Mexico. The United States paid Mexico $10,000,000, but received a considerably larger amount from Mexico for Indian depredation claims.
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In angling, a gaff is a stiff pole with a stout prong or hook attached used for landing large fish.
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Gaffer tape is a strong adhesive tape used in electrical repairs.
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A gag-bit is a powerful type of bit used in breaking horses.
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The gag-rule was a rule adopted by the American Congress in January, 1836, on motion of John C Calhoun. Congress had long been besieged by petitions from abolitionists all over the country. Calhoun proposed that henceforth all anti-slavery petitions be laid on the table unnoticed. This infringement upon the right of petition only increased the petition spirit in the North, and the 'gag-rule' was, after a long struggle, abolished on December the 3rd, 1844. John Quincy Adams was its bitterest opponent and an ardent upholder of anti-slavery principles in Congress during ten years.
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A gage was formerly a quart pot. Later the term was used to describe a pipe or a pipe measure of tobacco.
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A galaxy is a congregation of stars held together by gravity.
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A gale is a strong wind, specifically one of force seven to ten on the Beaufort scale or from 45 to 90 kilometres per hour.
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A gallipot is a small earthenware pot used by pharmacists as a container for ointments, etc.
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The gallon is a unit of capacity measurement equivalent to 4 quarts or 4.546 litres, 8 pints.
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A galloon is a narrow band of cord, embroidery, silver or gold braid, etc., used on clothes and furniture.
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Gallows (once called a pair of gallows) are a structure consisting of a horizontal crosspiece and one or two supporting uprights, used for hanging criminals.
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The term Galway jury refers to an enlightened and independent jury. The phrase originates from a series of trials held in 1635 upon the right of the king of England to the counties of Ireland. While Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo and Mayo gave judgements in favour of the Crown, Galway opposed it. As a consequence, the sheriff of Galway was fined 1000 pounds and each of the jurors 4000 pounds.
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In chess, a gambit is an opening move in which a chessman, usually a pawn, is sacrificed to secure an advantageous position.
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A gambrel is a frame of wood or metal shaped like a horse's hind leg, used by butchers for suspending carcasses of meat.
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Ganga jal is sacred water from the River Ganges in India.
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Ganja was originally the Indian name for the dried shoots of the female hemp plant which have hashish resin on them. Today it is a Jamaican slang expression for cannabis and hashish.
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A gantlet is a railway track construction for passing two lines through a narrow space with only enough room for one. The construction is such that the two lines converge so that their inner-rails cross, running parallel and diverge again allowing a train to remain on its own tracks.
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Garland's Case was an important case in American legal history decided by the US Supreme Court in 1866. In 1860 A H Garland, of Arkansas, was admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States as attorney and counsellor, taking the oath then required. In 1862 Congress passed an act requiring all candidates for office to take oath that they had never in any way engaged in hostility against the Union. In 1865 all persons admitted to the bar of the US Courts were required to take this oath. Garland participated in the war against the Union, but was freely pardoned. He entered a plea before the Supreme Court in 1866 against his taking the prescribed oath of 1865, saying it was unconstitutional and void as affecting his status in court, and that his pardon released him from compliance with it, even if it were constitutional. His plea was granted by the court, on the ground that the act was ex post facto.
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The Garner Case was one of the saddest of many noted American fugitive slave cases, and illustrates the horror of slavery from the desperate measures a mother would go to try and free her children from that horror.
Simeon Garner, his son and their families escaped from Kentucky to Cincinnati. They were pursued and after a desperate struggle captured. Margaret Garner, in order to save her children from slavery, had attempted to kill them during the struggle, and one was found dead when the fugitives were captured. The courts decided upon returning the slaves. On their way back to Kentucky Margaret made an unsuccessful attempt to drown herself and child.
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The gaskin is the lower part of a horse's thigh, between the hock and the stifle.
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Gastromancy is divination by means of the sounds from or signs on the stomach.
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A gate-leg table or gate-legged table is a table with one or two drop leaves that are supported when in use by a hinged leg swung out from the frame.
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A gatefold or foldout is an oversize page in a book or magazine that is folded in.
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A gatefold sleeve is a record sleeve that opens out like a book.
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Gavelkind was a former tenure in Wales, Kent and Northumberland, whereby land descended from the father to all his sons in equal proportions. The youngest had the homestead and the eldest the horse and arms.
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A gazebo is a summerhouse, garden pavilion, or belvedere, sited to command a view.
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A geisha is a professional female companion for men in Japan. They are trained in music, dancing, and the art of conversation.
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In Judaism, the Gemara is the main body of the Talmud, consisting of a record of ancient rabbinical debates about the interpretation of the Mishna and constituting the primary source of Jewish religious law.
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Gemini is a sign of the zodiac.
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Gender is a set of two or more grammatical categories (masculine, feminine, neuter and common) into which the nouns and pronouns of certain languages are divided distinguished by the modification which they require in words syntactically associated with them, and roughly corresponding (though by no means always) to the sex of the objects which they denote. When referring to living organisms, the term 'sex' is correct for describing male or female, not 'gender'.
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Genealogy is the account or history of the descent of a person or of a family from an ancestor or ancestors in the natural order of succession. Such descent is often charted in the form of a tree, with the founding pair represented at the 'root' of the tree which then branches with their offspring.
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General semantics is a school of thought, founded by Alfred Korzybski, that stresses the arbitrary nature of language and other symbols and the problems that result from misunderstanding their nature.
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The General Synod is the governing body, under Parliament, of the Church of England. It is made up of the bishops and elected clerical and lay representatives.
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Generative grammar is a description of a language in terms of explicit rules that ideally generate all and only the grammatical sentences of the language.
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Generative semantics is a school of semantic theory based on the doctrine that syntactic and semantic structure are of the same formal nature and that there is a single system of rules that relates surface structure to meaning.
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The term genitor describes a person's biological father as distinguished from the pater or legal father.
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In Judaism, a genizah is a repository (usually in a synagogue) for books and other sacred objects which can no longer be used but which may not be destroyed.
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Genocide is the term for the murder of an ethnic or national group of people.
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Genre painting is a type of painting concerned with the realistic depiction of scenes from everyday life. Originally the term was applied to all paintings that were factual representations of nature (animals, fruit, and landscapes), as well as scenes of ordinary life, rather than to works of imagination, such as religious and historical paintings. Genre paintings deal with ordinary life, including family life, sports, street scenes, picnics, festivals, and tavern scenes. They are usually characterised by human interest and by the care and finish with which they are executed.
Genre painting originated in ancient times. Many of the scenes painted on the walls of Egyptian tombs represent the daily life of the people of ancient Egypt. Excavations in the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum have revealed many genre paintings, both conventional and erotic. In the late Middle Ages genre painting reappeared, represented chiefly in the religious calendars that formed part of the illuminations, or illustrations, of manuscript books; the calendars show people going about the occupations appropriate to each season of the year.
In Italy during the early Renaissance, many of the religious and historical pictures of such painters as the 15th-century Florentines Ghirlandaio and Benozzo Gozzoli and the later Venetians Giorgione and the Bassano family are considered genre paintings because of their contemporaneous backgrounds and costumes as well as their use of people of the times as models. In 17th- century Italy, Mannerist painters such as Caravaggio executed genre paintings of extreme realism and dramatic power. In the 15th century the Flemish painter Petrus Christus in some of his religious paintings represented scenes from ordinary life, and in the following two centuries genre painting rose to its highest level in history with the work of the Flemish artists Pieter Brueghel the Elder, David Teniers, and Adriaen Brouwer. The greatest national school of genre painting was that of the Netherlands in the 17th century. Probably never before or after was the ordinary life of a nation depicted so fully as was the Dutch life of this period. Not only the great masters but also the less outstanding Dutch painters excelled in it.
The most important of the Dutch genre painters were the so-called little masters, including Gerard Ter Borch, Jan Steen, Gabriel Metsu, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard Dou, and Adrian Van Ostade. The three leading 17th-century Dutch masters, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Jan Vermeer, also created genre paintings of unrivalled beauty. French genre painting showed a vital development in the work of Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret, Jean Baptiste Chardin, and Jean Honore Fragonard. One of the most noted English genre painters was the great satirist William Hogarth. In the 19th century, genre painting was widely practised in both Europe and the USA Among the outstanding European painters in this style were the French painters Jean Leon Gerome and Jean Meissonier, the English painter William Powell Frith, and the American painter William Sidney Mount, known as the 'Jan Steen of Long Island.' Among the many 19th- and 20th- century American painters whose work included genre painting were Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Wesley Bellows, George B Luks, Charles E Burchfield, Reginald Marsh, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton.
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Gentrification describes the process by which the character of a traditionally working-class area is changed as a result of middle-class people taking up residence in the area.
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Geography is the study of the natural features of the earth's surface, including topography, climate, soil, vegetation, etc., and man's response to them.
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Geomancy is prophecy made from the pattern made when a handful of earth is cast down or dots are drawn at random and connected with lines.
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The geometric mean is the average value of a set of n integers, terms, or quantities, expressed as the nth root of their product.
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A geometric progression is a sequence of numbers, each of which differs from the succeeding one by a constant ratio, as 1, 2, 4, 8, ...
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The geometrical mean of two numbers is the square root of their product.
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Geophagism is the practice of eating some kind of earthy matter, such as rock or chalk. It is most common among non-industrialised races, and was once thought to allay hunger. However, new evidence suggests that some peoples obtain valuable minerals in their diet from geophagism, as those minerals are not available in their normal food.
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The Georgia Gazette was the first newspaper printed in the American state of Georgia. It was established at Savannah by James Johnston, on April the 17th, 1763, and continued publication until 1802, when its publication was suspended.
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A geotextile is any strong synthetic fabric used in civil engineering to retain an embankment.
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The gerah was an ancient Hebrew unit of weight.
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Gerrymandering is an American arrangement of the boundaries of election districts so contrived as to secure an unfair advantage to the dominant party. In colonial American times elections were by counties or by towns, and the gerrymander was not developed. The first gerrymander was said to be an arrangement of Patrick Henry's, whereby Madison should not be elected to the First Congress of the United States. But in reality the districting of Virginia at that time was not clearly unfair. The name arose from a redistricting scheme carried out by the Republicans of Massachusetts in 1811, in accordance with which the Essex District bore a fanciful resemblance to a salamander. Hence the name 'gerrymander' was given to it from Governor Elbridge Gerry, under whom the act was passed. The practice subsequently become well-nigh universal in American politics.
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The Gestapo (German: Geheime Staatspolizei, secret state police) were the Nazi secret police formed in 1933 under Hermann Goering. They were administered from 1936 by the SS and were infamous for their brutal methods.
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In geography, a geyser (from the Icelandic geysir) is a volcanic boiling spring. They are found in Iceland, Yellowstone Park (USA) and New Zealand.
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A gharry (gharri) was a 19th century horse-drawn hire vehicle. Gharries are still to be found in India, where the term is applied to a, usually horse-drawn, carriage that may be hired.
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In Persian lyrical poetry, a ghasel or ghazal is a form of short ode of from five to sixteen couplets, the second lines of which are set to one rhyme, the poet's pen name being frequently introduced into the last couplet. The style was established by the poet Hafiz in the 14th century. Ghasels also occur in Turkish, Arabic and Urdu poetry.
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In India, a ghat is a landing place by a river.
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A ghazeeyeh is an Egyptian a dancing girl.
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A ghazi is a heroic Muslim fighter, usually one who fights against non-Muslims. The title 'ghazi' is often given in honour.
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A ghetto was a part of a city in which Jews were compelled to live, shut off from the rest of the city and forced to pay a tax for the dubious privilege of living there.
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A ghost word is a word which is taken to be a word, but is not. Ghost words typically occur due to printing or typesetting errors, a classic example being the 'word' 'Dord' which appeared by accident in the 1934 Webster's Second International Dictionary as a synonym of density. In fact, the inclusion of 'Dord' was an error caused by misinterpreting the phrase 'D or d' which are abbreviations for density.
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Gib was a 17th and 18th century derogatory term for a woman, especially an old woman.
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Gibberish is a term for nonsense. The word originates with the famous 11th century Arabian alchemist, Geber, who wrote several treatises on the art of making gold. However, as he would have been put to death by the Christian church for such writings, he deliberately obfuscated the texts with mystical jargon, anagrams and other apparent nonsense, hence the term gibberish.
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Gibbons vs Ogden was an important case in the US Supreme Court. Aaron Ogden, having obtained by assignment the exclusive right of navigation of all waters within the jurisdiction of the State of New York, granted by that State to Livingston and Fulton for thirty years, beginning in 1808, filed a bill in the Court of Chancery of New York for an injunction against one Gibbons, of New Jersey, who possessed two steamboats running between New York and Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The injunction was granted. Gibbons appealed to the Supreme Court in 1824. The court gave judgment for the appellant, it being deemed that the granting of exclusive navigation of waters within the State of New York by that State's Legislature, extending to coastwise traffic with another State, was repugnant to the clause of the Constitution of the United States authorizing Congress to regulate commerce.
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A gig is a light, two-wheeled carriage pulled by a single horse.
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The Gilchrist Trust was a fund of money left by Dr John Gilchrist in 1841 to promote education. The interest was applied to the support of scholarships for young men and women after a competitive examination. Scientific lectures were also delivered under the auspices of the trust.
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Gilder's compo is a substance comprised of glue, rosin and linseed oil stiffened with sifted whiting and formerly used in the Victorian era to produce relief ornaments such as picture frames and the like.
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A gilder's mop is a round, bushy squirrel hair brush used to press gold leaf into place by gilders.
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A gilder's tip is a small brush composed of a single line of badger hairs fastened between a cardboard handle, and used to pick up gold leaf from the cushion and transfer it to the surface being gilded.
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Gilding is the application of gold leaf to a surface by means of an adhesive or 'mordant'.
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The gill was an English unit of liquid measurement equivalent to 0.25 pints.
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Gill sans is a sans serif alphabet designed by Eric Gill, and probably influenced by the alphabet produced by Edward Johnston for the London Underground in 1918. Gill sans letters are more uniform than German sans serif.
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Ginal is a Jamaican term for a person who misleads other people so as to gain tangible benefit. For example, a woman who deceives a man into supporting her or providing her with goods by telling him that she likes him when she really has no interest other than in material gain.
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A gingham was a sort of light hearted or playful umbrella made from usually striped or chequered material like a parasol. They were made at Guingamp in Brittany, whence their name. Ginghams were popular and common in Britain until about the Second World War.
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The Girl Guides Association is an association founded by Robert and (his sister) Agnes Baden Powell in 1910 to encourage the physical, mental, and spiritual development of girls. The three classes of members are Brownie Guides (for girls aged between 7 and 10), Guides (aged 10 to 15), and Ranger Guides (aged 14 to 20). Its counterpart for boys is the Scout Association.
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A glacialist is a person who studies ice and its effects on the earth's surface.
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In geography, a glacier is a massive crystalline block of ice or snow. They are found in regions of perpetual snow.
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Glaciers are masses of ice that move very slowly down a valley towards the sea, propelled by gravity, carrying rock material with them.
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The Gladstone was a light four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle.
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Glasnost is a policy of increased freedom in social and cultural matters introduced in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachov in 1986. A Russian word meaning openness, glasnost was adopted by the Soviet government in conjunction with perestroika (meaning progress), which heralded a new flexibility in the organisation of the economy of the USSR, and facilitated the improvement of relations with the West (by allowing Western entrepreneurs to exploit the markets). However, it led to the creation of a small clique of super-rich and criminals, and for the majority of Russians worse poverty than before.
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Gleichschaltung is the enforcement of standardisation and the elimination of all opposition within the political, economic, and cultural institutions of a state.
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In astronomy, a globular cluster is a densely populated spheroid star cluster with the highest concentration of stars near its centre, found in the galactic halo.
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The Glorious Revolution (Bloodless Revolution) was a series of events from 1688 to 1689 in England that resulted in the ousting of James II and the establishment of William III and Mary II as joint monarchs.
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Gloss is the brightness or lustre of a surface, that is the extent to which it reflects light. In painting, lustre ranges from flat (the absence of gloss) through eggshell sheens and semi-gloss to full gloss.
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A glossary is a list of explanations, often of unusual, obsolete or technical terms.
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A glottal stop is a plosive speech sound produced as the sudden onset of a vowel in several languages, such as German, by first tightly closing the glottis and then allowing the air pressure to build up in the trachea before opening the glottis, causing the air to escape with force.
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Glove-money (also called glove-silver) was a gratuity given to servants ostensibly to buy them gloves.
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Glue is an adhesive substance made by boiling animal hides, hooves or bones. Glue consists of gelatine and chondrin, the proportions defining the adhesive qualities of the glue. Glue made from skins is superior to that made from bones, and the best glue is called 'Scotch glue'.
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Glue size is a weak form of glue.
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A gnomon is the pin or triangular plate on a sundial which causes a shadow to be cast by the sun onto the graduated dial.
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Gnosticism is a religious movement characterised by a belief in gnosis, through which the spiritual element in man could be released from its bondage in matter. It is regarded as a heresy by the Christian Church.
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A goad is a sharp pointed stick used for driving cattle.
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Gold leaf is metallic gold beaten out to form very thin sheets or leaves. It is generally supplied in books of 25 leaves each about 9 cm square.
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The golden fleece was an order of knighthood instituted in 1429 by Philip III (Philip the Good), Duke of Burgundy.
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Good Friday is a Christian festival held on the last Friday before Easter, and remembering the crucifixion. The word 'good' in the name means holy. In British legend, people born on Good Friday (and also Christmas Day) have the power of seeing and of commanding spirits.
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Formerly in Scotland a Goodman's croft was strip of land in a corner of a field left untilled. The belief was that unless some such place were left open, evil spirits would damage the crop.
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The Gordon's No Popery Riots were occasioned by the zeal of lord George Gordon from June the 2nd to the 9th 1780. On Friday, the 2nd of June, 1780 lord George Gordon headed a mob of 40000 persons who assembled in St George's Fields, under the name of the Protestant Association, to carry a petition to parliament for the repeal of the act which granted certain indulgences to Roman Catholics. The mob proceeded to pillage, burn and bull down the chapels and houses of the Roman Catholics first, but afterwards of other persons, for nearly six days. The riot was quelled on the 8th of June by armed citizens, the horse and foot guards and various militia. 210 rioters were killed and 248 wounded of whom 75 later died in hospital. Others were tried, convicted and executed.
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A gotch is a large stone jug with a handle, formerly popular in Norfolk.
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Gothic lettering is a style of lettering derived from mediaeval manuscript lettering.
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Gouache is a method of printing on paper with opaque colours mixed with water, honey and gum.
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A governess cart was a low-hung, small, two-wheeled, one-horse carriage carrying four passengers on two inward-facing seats with a door at the rear. The governess cart was usually drawn by a pony or quiet cob and while uncomfortable, was a safe mode of transport and derived its name from its use in conveying children.
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In railway engineering, a gradient-post is a post placed by the side of the track, at a change of gradient, carrying a board slanted to the slope and indicating in figures the gradient, traditionally in England in feet per 100.
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The Graduation Act, was an American act passed by Congress in 1854 to cheapen, for the benefit of actual settlers and for adjoining farms, the price of lands which had been long on the market.
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A graille is a single-cut file having one curved and one straight face, formerly used by comb makers.
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The grain is a unit of measurement of the avoirdupois scale equivalent to 0. 0648 grams. It was invented by Henry III who ordered that a grain of wheat gathered from the middle of the ear to be the standard of weight. 12 grains to be a pennyweight, 12 pennyweights to be an ounce and 12 ounces to be a pound Troy.
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Gram is the metric unit of mass; one-thousandth of a kilogram.
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The Grand Army of the Republic was an American organisation for former members of the Armed forces, organized during the winter of 1865-66 at Springfield, Illinois, chiefly through the activity of Dr. B. F. Stephenson, late surgeon of the Fourteenth Illinois Infantry. The first post was established at Decatur, Illinois, in 1866. The ritual is secret. All soldiers and sailors of the US army, navy and marine corps between April 12, 1861, and April 9, 1865, were eligible for membership, provided they had an honourable discharge. National conventions were held each year. The first commander-in-chief was Stephen A. Hurlbut, of Illinois. Grand army posts were established in nearly every city in the North and West. The last National Encampment was held at Indianapolis, Indiana in 1949. Six surviving Comrades attended that Encampment. The last member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Albert Wollson, died in 1956.
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The Grand Remonstrance was a document drawn up by the House of Commons, and presented to Charles I on December the first 1641. It was an appeal to the nation rather than an address to the king, and stated the case of the Commons against the king and what reforms were necessary.
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Originally a nautical term, a granny's-knot (now popularly called a granny-knot) is a knot similar to the reef-knot but in which the second tie is across, whereas in the reef-knot the end and outer parts are in line.
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A grant of probate is an order from the High Court in Britain authorising the executors of a will to deal with and distribute the property of the deceased person. If the person died intestate or did not appoint executors, the administrator of the estate has to obtain letters of administration.
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The Great Awakening was a religious revival in America between 1734 and 1744, through Massachusetts and Connecticut, induced by the eloquence of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Jonathan Edwards had a parish at Northampton, George Whitefield was an Englishman. Their preaching aroused the greatest religious enthusiasm, and made hundreds of converts. The awakening was looked upon with disfavour in England.
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The Great Bear is a popular name for a constellation in the northern hemisphere. The Great Bear (Ursa Major) is situated near the pole. It is remarkable for its well-known seven stars, by two of which, called the Pointers, the pole-star is always readily found. These seven stars are popularly called the Wagon, Charles's Wain, or the Plough.
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The Great Exhibition was held in London's Hyde Park between May the 1st and October the 15th 1851.
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Great Peter was the name of a bell weighing 10.75 tons hung in York Minster in 1845.
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The Grecian bend was an affectation in walking assumed by fashionable English ladies in 1875, from where it spread to America and other countries.
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Green is a colour that ranges from yellow-green (lime green) to blue-green (turquoise).
- Apple - A more subdued pale green colour than lime, reminiscent of the colour of a green apple.
- Aquamarine - A vivid, pale, bluish-green colour.
- Avocado - A dull, medium-dark green colour often associated with bathroom fittings.
- Bottle Green - A dark green colour.
- Emerald - A vivid, brilliant medium to dark green colour. Emerald is also used to imply elegance and quality, indicative of the precious stone.
- Holly - A dark green.
- Jade green - A yellowish-green or bluish-green colour.
- Lime - A vivid, often lurid pale green colour.
- Lincoln Green - A vivid yellowish-green colour.
- Olive - A dull, medium-dark green colour.
- Pea Green - A yellowish green colour.
- Spearmint - A pale bluish-green.
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The Green Bay Intelligencer was the first newspaper published in Wisconsin, USA. It was founded on December the 11th, 1833, by Suydam and Ellis at Green Bay. In August, 1836, it was united with the Spectator and renamed the Wisconsin Democrat. In 1840 it was removed to Southport (Kenosha).
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The Green-Bag Inquiry, so called from a green bag full of documents of alleged seditions laid before parliament by Lord Sidmouth, was an inquiry held in 1817 by secret committees to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act and prohibit seditious meetings which were frequent at the time.
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The Greenback Labor Party was an American political party that developed from the Greenback party. It was formed in Ohio in 1875. In 1878 a union of the Labor Reform and the remnants of the old Greenback party was effected and was made national by the Convention of February 22 of that year, at Toledo, 0hio. The platform adopted was similar to that of the Greenback party. It advocated the withdrawal of currency from all national and State banks and corporations, a paper currency issued by the Government, and that coin should only be paid for interest on the national debt when so specified. They also demanded an eight-hour law, the prohibition of Chinese immigration, of land grants to railways and of special grants to corporations and bondholders. In 1878 they elected fourteen Congressmen. Their national convention was held at Chicago, on June the 9th, 1880.
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The Greenback Party was an American political party organized in a Greenback Convention at Indianapolis, on November the 25th, 1874, which assembled to adopt resolutions opposing the Specie resumption bill proposed at that time in Congress and passed on January the14th, 1875. The Greenback party platform advocated the withdrawal of all national and State bank currency, and the substitution therefore of paper currency issued by the Government, and that coin should only be used in payment of interest on the national debt. The Greenback Presidential candidate in 1876, Peter Cooper, of New York, received 81,740 votes, chiefly from the Western States.
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Greenpeace is an international, non-violent direct action environmental protection organisation which campaigns against and brings to public attention issues affecting the world's environment such as whaling, rain forest destruction, nuclear power and other matters which damage the environment. It is renowned for the bravery of its volunteers who engage in death-defying stunts will no apparent concern for their own safety. So successful have been their campaigns that the French government ordered and sank Greenpeace's chief ship - The Rainbow Warrior - killing some crew members who were asleep on board at the time.
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 More information about Greenpeace
The gregale is a cold wind which blows from the north-east over Malta in spring and early summer.
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A Gregory was a school feast, so named on account of being held upon St-Gregory's day (March the 12th) in which the pupils brought the master all manner of eatables, and the school master in return ignored various misdemeanours. Gregories were common at one time across all of Europe.
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The Grenville Act, so called after the British Minister, George Grenville, was an act extending the navigation acts, placing imposts on foreign molasses, an increased duty on sugar, regulating English manufactures, and prohibiting trade between America and St Pierre and Miquelon, two small French islands off Newfoundland.
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Grey describes the infinite shades of colour between brilliant white and black.
- Pearly - A very pale bluish-grey colour, paler than slate grey.
- Silver - A greyish-white.
- Slate - A pale bluish-grey colour. Slate grey implies hardness, conjuring images of the hard, cold natural stone.
- Steel - A pale bluish-grey colour. Steel grey implies hardness in much the same way as slate grey, but with the image of the metal rather than the mineral.
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The Grey Coat Hospital is a Church of England comprehensive school for girls founded in 1698 at Westminster and reconstituted in 1873. The original school was founded in 1697, opening in 1698, by a group of citizens in response to crime in the area to educate forty street urchins and poor children. The first pupils were boys and in 1874 the old boarding school became a day school for girls. In the 20th century the school became a grammar school before in 1977 becoming a comprehensive, joining with another school (St Michael's) and in 1998 moved to new premises in Regency street.
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A grey hen is a stone bottle used for holding liquor.
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A greybeard is an earthenware pot used for holding spirits. The name greybeard is also given to a large stone jar.
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Greytown was a town on the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua, which in 1854 was bombarded and destroyed by the US ship 'Cyane'.
A negro had been shot by a steamship captain in May, and the mayor of Greytown ordered the captain's arrest. The passengers of the steamship resisted, among them Borland, the US Minister. The next day Borland was assaulted on the street. In July the 'Cyane' was despatched to the town. Commander Hollins sent to the mayor demanding immediate payment of the extortionate demands of a transit company, with which the town authorities had quarrelled. This was refused. Hollins opened fire and destroyed the town.
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A grocer is someone dealing in dried and preserved foods and other household goods. Originally the term grocer applied to someone dealing in wholesale (en gros), later it was applied to a dealer of sugar, coffee, tea and spices and the like, which in Mediaeval times was known as a spicer.
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Grogging is a type of ingenious smuggling, or the evasion of excise duties, by which wooden casks containing spirits over time absorb a appreciable quantity of the spirit into the wood which can later be extracted by rinsing and other processes. The Finance Act of 1898 made grogging, the possession of a cask so treated, or of spirit obtained by the process criminal offences.
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A guang was a Chinese vessel used for mixing ceremonial millet wine.
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Guano is the excrement of sea-birds. Since the 19th century it has been highly prized as a manure, and led to the claims and disputes of the many tiny islands and atolls in the Pacific Ocean (such as the Gilbert Islands, Line Islands etc) as the western countries sought to lay sole claim to the collection of the vast tons of guano deposited on these islands by their bird populations.
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The Guardian is a British broadsheet newspaper tending towards a political bias slightly left of centre and popular among school teachers and those involved in social work.
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A guei was a Chinese ritual food vessel.
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The Guelphic-Order is an order of knighthood instituted for Hanover on August the 12th 1815 by the then English Prince Regent, afterwards George IV.
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The guillotine is an engine for beheading people at one stroke. It was invented during the Middle Ages, and adopted with improvements by the National Assembly of France during the first revolution on the proposal of a Dr Joseph Guillotine who proposed its use to prevent unnecessary pain, and after whom it is named.
In this apparatus decapitation is effected by means of a steel blade loaded with a mass of lead, and sliding between two upright posts, grooved on their inner sides, the person's neck being confined in a circular opening between two planks, the upper one of which also slides up or down. The condemned is strapped to a board and rapidly moved up so as to place the neck of the condemned within the semi- circle of the lower plank, the other being raised for the purpose. On the right of the table is a large basket or trough of wicker-work for the reception of the body. Under the place where the head rests is a rectangular trough for its reception. The knife is fixed to the cap or lintel on the top of the posts by a claw in the form of a figure eight, the lower part of which opens as the upper- part closes. This claw is acted upon by a lever to which a cord is attached. When the head of the condemned is in position the cord is pulled, and by the action of the lever the knife falls, descending by the grooves of the upright posts and falling upon the neck of the condemned just behind the planks which keep the head in position. The scaffold which is surrounded by an open railing is raised two meters from the ground.
The name guillotine is also given to a type of knife used for cutting paper.
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Guipure is a form of lace with no mesh background, with the patterns tied with brides or large stitches. The term originally applied to silk-whipped cord or wire used in lace-making.
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The Gulag is the central administrative department of the Soviet security service. It was established in 1930 and is responsible for maintaining prisons and forced labour camps.
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Gules of August is an old term for the 1st of August.
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The Gunpowder Plot was a plan for springing a mine under the houses of parliament and destroying the king, lords and commons there assembled. It was conceived by Robert Catesby in 1604 and he assembled several Roman Catholics of rank for the plot. Guy Faux (Fawkes) was discovered laying gunpowder (or some sources say, keeping watch over the powder) in the vaults on November 4th 1605 ready for firing the next day and the plot was foiled.
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Guys Hospital is a famous hospital in London which was founded by Thomas Guy, a wealthy bookseller in 1721.
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Gyromancy was a form of divination originating in the 16th century involving foretelling the future from the point at which a person walking around in a circle fell down from dizziness.
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