Graffiti is writing or drawing done on a wall etc by by a member of the public. The original graffiti was designs and inscriptions engraved with a style upon the walls of ancient towns and buildings, particularly of Rome and Pompeii. Those in Pompeii are in Latin, Greek, and Oscan, showing that the ancient language of Campania was still extant among a portion of the populace. The inscriptions are mostly amatory or humorous, sometimes malicious or obscene. In Rome graffiti occur frequently in the catacombs. Many of these are by Christians, some by Pagans in ridicule of Christianity. During the 20th century graffiti in the western world became much less humourous and political, and degraded generally into simple signatures identifying the graffitist - a style known among its advocates as 'tagging'. Research Graffiti
The Cagots were a peculiar race of people inhabiting southern France, in the Western Pyrenees. In the middle ages they were believed to be cannibals and heretics, and treated with the greatest ignominy. By the start of the 20th century they were legally on a level with other Frenchmen, but socially they were still regarded as degraded. The Cagots were so named being supposed to be descended from lepers. Research Cagots
Franz Trenck (Baron von Der Trenck) was an Austrian soldier. He was born in 1711 at Boggio and died in 1749. The son of an Austrian army officer, he entered the Imperial service, but was obliged to leave after four years' service. Entering the Russian service he again fell into disgrace, was court - martialled, degraded, and imprisoned at Kiev. In the War of the Austrian Succession he raised a Slavonian regiment at his own expense and was accused of plundering and other crimes, and was condemned to death. Through Maria Theresa's intervention the case was revised and Trenck was imprisoned. He died in the fortress of Brunn in 1749. Research Franz Trenck
A hangdog or hang-dog is a low, despicable, degraded person or a sneaking shamefaced person, fit only to hang a dog or to be hanged like a dog - hence the term. The term hang-dog was a fairly popular term of insult from the 17th to the 19th century. Research Hangdog
The Hottentots were a peculiar African race, supposed to be the aboriginal occupants of the south end of that continent, at and near the Cape of Good Hope. Their limits may be said to have been the river Orange on the north and north-east, and the Kei on the east. The complexion is a pale olive, the cheek-bones project, the chin is narrow and pointed, and the face consequently is triangular. The lips are thick, the nose flat, the nostrils wide, the hair woolly, and the beard scanty. When the Dutch first settled at the Cape in the middle of the l7th century the Hottentots were a numerous nation, of pastoral and partially nomadic habits, and occupied a territory of 100,000 square miles. By 1900 the race was nearly extinct within the wide territory which formerly belonged to it, having been entirely hunted out and dispersed by the Boers.
Amongst the offshoots of the Hottentot race are the Griquas, descended from Hottentot mothers and Dutch fathers, giving name to the districts Griqualand East and West. The Koras or Korannas, about the middle of the river Orange, are favourable specimens of the Hottentot race. They are taller, stronger, and more cleanly than the tribes further west. Other tribes are the Gonas or Gonaquas, much mixed with the Amakosa Kaffres; the Namaquas, dwelling towards the mouth of the river Orange; the Hill Damaras, farther north. The Bosjesmen or Bushmen are a degraded tribe of Hottentots. Research Hottentots
Thomas Cranmer was archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII. He was born in 1489 at Aslacton, Nottinghamshire and died in 1556 when he was burnt at the stake for refusing to revert his religion under Mary. He was famous for the part he played in the English reformation during the reign of Henry VIII. He entered as a student of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1503, took the degree of MA, obtained a fellowship, and in 1523 was chosen reader of theological lectures in his college, and examiner of candidates for degrees in divinity.
An opinion which he gave on the question of Henry VIII's proposed divorce from Catharine brought him under the favourable notice of the king. Thomas Cranmer was sent for to court, made a king's chaplain, and commanded to write a treatise on the subject of the divorce. In 1530 he was sent abroad with others to collect the opinions of the divines and canonists of France, Italy, and Germany, on the validity of the king's marriage. At Rome he presented his treatise to the pope, but his mission was fruitless.
In January, 1533, he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Soon after he set the Papal authority at defiance by pronouncing sentence of divorce between Henry VIII and Catharine, and confirming the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn. The pope threatened excommunication, and an act of parliament was immediately passed for abolishing the pope's supremacy, and declaring the king chief head of the Church of England. The archbishop zealously promoted the cause of the Reformation; and through his means the Bible was translated and read in churches, and monastic institutions were vigorously suppressed.
In 1536 he pandered to Henry VIII's passions by promoting tlie divorce of Anne Boleyn. This and other services secured him in the king's favour, who appointed him by will one of the council of regency to Edward VI. By his instrumentality the liturgy was drawn up and established by act of parliament, and articles of religion were compiled, the validity of which was enforced by royal authority, and for which infallibility was claimed.
The exclusion of the Princess Mary from the crown, by the will of her brother, was a measure in which Thomas Cranmer joined the partisans of Lady Jane Grey, apparently in opposition to his own judgment. With others who had been most active in Lady Jane Grey's favour he was sent to the Tower on the accession of Mary. He was tried on charges of blasphemy, perjury, incontinence, and heresy, and was sentenced to be degraded and deprived of office. After this flattering promises were made, which induced him to sign a recantation of his alleged errors, and become, in fact, a Catholic convert. But when he was brought into St Mary'sChurch, Oxford, to read his recantation in public, instead of confessing the justness of his sentence, and submitting to it in silence or imploring mercy, he calmly acknowledged that the fear of death had made him belie his conscience; and declared that nothing could afford him consolation but the prospect of extenuating his guilt by encountering, as a Protestant penitent, with firmness and resignation, the fiery torments which awaited him. He was immediately hurried to the stake, where he behaved with the resolution of a martyr. Research Thomas Cranmer
Encephalin is a naturally occurring chemical produced by nerve cells in the brain that has the same effect as morphine or other derivatives of opium, acting as a natural painkiller. Unlike morphine,
encephalins are quickly degraded by the body, so there is no build-up of tolerance to them, and hence no addiction.
Encephalins are a variety of peptides, as are endorphins, which have similar effects. Research Encephalin
Perl is an interpreted language optimised for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many system management tasks. The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). It combines some of the best features of C, sed, awk, and sh. Expression syntax corresponds quite closely to C expression syntax. Unlike most Unix utilities, Perl does not arbitrarily limit the size of your data - if you've got the memory, Perl can read in an entire file as a single string. Recursion is of unlimited depth. And the hash tables used by associative arrays grow as necessary to prevent degraded performance. Perl uses sophisticated pattern matching techniques to scan large amounts of data very quickly. Although optimised for scanning text, Perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm files look like associative arrays. Research Perl More information about Perl
DMA is an abbreviation for Direct Memory Access
DMA is an abbreviation for Defence Mapping Agency
DMA is an abbreviation for Degraded Mode Assessment
DMA is an abbreviation for Deployed Mechanical Assembly
DMA is an abbreviation for Doctor of Musical Arts Research DMA
In heraldry, degraded describes a cross furnished with steps, particularly a cross whose extremities finishes in steps growing larger as they leave the centre. Research Degraded
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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