Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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affenpinscher ... Afrikaner Bond

affenpinscher: breed of toy dog known since the 17th century. It is thought to have originated in Germany, where it was bred to be a ratter-to kill rats, mice, and other small vermin. Like other terriers, it is lively and playful. ...
affidavit: a written statement of fact made voluntarily, confirmed by the oath or affirmation of the party making it, and signed before a notary or other officer empowered to administer such oaths. Affidavits generally name the place of execution and certify ...
affirmation: in law, a promise by a witness concerning testimony allowed in place of an oath to those who cannot, because of conscience, swear an oath. For example, members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), Jehovah's Witnesses, and other persons who ...
affirmative action: in the United States, an active effort to improve employment or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and for women. Affirmative action began as a government remedy to the effects of long-standing discrimination against such groups and has consisted ...
affix: a grammatical element that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived and inflected forms. There are three types of affixes: prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or stem (sub-mit, ...
Affleck, Thomas: American cabinetmaker considered to be outstanding among the Philadelphia craftsmen working in the Chippendale style during the 18th century.
Affre, Denis-Auguste: prelate, archbishop of Paris, and opponent of King Louis-Philippe, remembered for his brave attempt to end the June 1848 riots, in which he was accidentally slain.
affreightment: contract for carriage of goods by water, "freight" being the price paid for the service of carriage. Such contracts are of immense importance to the world economy, forming the legal structure of the arterial traffic of the oceans.
affricate: a consonant sound that begins as a stop (sound with complete obstruction of the breath stream) and concludes with a fricative (sound with incomplete closure and a sound of friction). Examples of affricates are the ch sound in English chair, ...
Afghan carpet: thick, heavy floor covering handwoven by Turkmen craftsmen in Afghanistan and adjacent parts of Uzbekistan. While most of the weavers could be broadly labeled Ersari Turkmen, rugs are also woven by Chub Bash, Kizil Ayaks, and other small groups. The ...
Afghan hound: breed of dog developed as a hunter in the hill country of Afghanistan. It was once thought to have originated several thousand years ago in Egypt, but there is no evidence for this theory. It was brought to Europe in ...
Afghan interlude: (1722-30), period in Iranian history that began with the Afghan conquest of Iran and ended with the defeat and death of the Afghan ruler Ashraf.
Afghan War: in the history of Afghanistan, the internal conflict (1978-92) between anticommunist Muslim guerrillas and the Afghan communist government (aided in 1979-89 by Soviet troops). More broadly, the term also encompasses military activity within Afghanistan since 1992 involving domestic and foreign ...
Afghanistan: landlocked, multiethnic country located in the heart of south-central Asia. Lying along important trade routes connecting southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East, Afghanistan has long been a prize sought by empire builders, and for millennia great ...
Aflaq, Michel: social and political leader who played a major role in the Arab nationalist movement during and after World War II.
Afonso I: the first king of Portugal (1139-85), who conquered Santarem and Lisbon from the Muslims (1147) and secured Portuguese independence from Leon (1139).
Afonso I: ruler of the Kongo Kingdom (in present Congo [Kinshasa] and Angola), the first of a line of Portuguese vassal kings that lasted until the early 20th century.
Afonso II: the third king of Portugal (1211-23), under whom the reconquest of the south from the Muslims was continued.
Afonso III: fifth king of Portugal (1248-79), who supplanted his brother, King Sancho II, and completed the reconquest of the Algarve from the Muslims.
Afonso IV: seventh king of Portugal (1325-57).
Afonso V: 10th king of Portugal (1438-81), known as the African from his campaigns in Morocco.
Afonso VI: king of Portugal, whose reign was marked by internal disputes between his partisans and those of his brother Pedro.
Afram River: river, in southern Ghana, western Africa. It rises 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Mampong and flows southeast into Lake Volta (formerly the Afram was a tributary of the Volta River). The Afram is about 55 miles (90 km) long. ...
Afranius, Lucius: Roman general, a devoted adherent of Pompey the Great.
Africa: the second largest continent, after Asia, covering about one-fifth of the total land surface of the Earth. The continent is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the ...
Africa: in ancient Roman history, the first North African territory of Rome, at times roughly corresponding to modern Tunisia. It was acquired in 146 BC after the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War.
African American English: a language variety that has also been identified at different times in dialectology and literary studies as Black English, black dialect, and Negro (nonstandard) English. Since the late 1980s, the term has been used ambiguously, sometimes with reference to only ...
African American literature: body of literature written by Americans of African descent. Beginning in the pre-Revolutionary War period, African American writers have engaged in a creative, if often contentious, dialogue with American letters. The result is a literature rich in expressive subtlety and ...
African Cup of Nations: the most prestigious football (soccer) competition in Africa. It is contested by national teams and is organized by the Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF). The competition's format has changed over time, with the number of teams increasing from 3 in ...
African Development Bank: African organization established in 1964, operational beginning in 1966, and dedicated to financing the economic and social development of its African member countries. Its membership includes 53 African states and 24 non-African countries. ADB headquarters are in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
African Games: international athletics (track-and-field) competition sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and contested by athletes representing the nations of Africa. The African Games were first held in 1965, in Brazzaville, Congo, and consisted of contests in athletic sports ...
African Greek Orthodox Church: a religious movement in East Africa that represents a prolonged search for a Christianity more African and, its adherents say, more authentic than the denominational mission forms transplanted from overseas. It began when an Anglican in Uganda, Reuben Spartas, heard ...
African horse sickness: viral disease of Equidae (horses, mules, donkeys, and zebras) caused by an orbivirus called AHSV (family Reoviridae) that is transmitted by arthropods, notably biting midges (Culicoides imicola). The disease, which is not usually fatal to indigenous zebra ...
African hunting dog: (Lycaon pictus), wild African carnivore that differs from the rest of the members of the dog family (Canidae) in having only four toes on each foot. Its coat is short, sparse, and irregularly blotched with yellow, black, and white. The ...
African literature: the traditional oral and written literatures together with the mainly 20th-century literature written mostly in European languages but also to an increasing extent in the many languages of the sub-Saharan region. Traditional written literature is limited to a smaller geographic ...
African Methodist Episcopal Church: black Methodist church in the United States, formally organized in 1816. It developed from a congregation formed by a group of blacks who withdrew in 1787 from St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia because of restrictions in seating; blacks ...
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: black Methodist church in the United States, organized in 1821; it adopted its present name in 1848. It developed from a congregation formed by a group of blacks who in 1796 left the John Street Methodist Church in New York ...
African National Congress: South African political party and black nationalist organization. Founded in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress, it had as its main goal the maintenance of voting rights for Coloureds (persons of mixed race) and black Africans in Cape ...
African popular music: body of music that emerged in Africa in the 1960s, mixing indigenous influences with those of Western popular music. By the 1980s the audience for African popular music had expanded to include Western listeners.
African pouched rat: any of five species of African rodents characterized by cheek pouches that are used for carrying food back to their burrows, where it is eaten or stored. All are terrestrial and have gray to brown coats with white or gray ...
African religions: religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. It should be noted that any attempt to generalize about the nature of "African religions" risks wrongly implying that there is homogeneity among all African cultures. In fact, Africa is a ...
African spiny mouse: any of more than a dozen species of small to medium-sized rodents characterized by the harsh, inflexible spiny hairs of their upperparts. African spiny mice have large eyes and ears and scaly, nearly bald tails that are shorter than or ...
African swine fever: highly contagious and usually fatal viral disease of swine that is characterized by high fever, lesions, leukopenia (abnormally low count of white blood cells), elevated pulse and respiration rate, and death within four to seven days after the onset of ...
African Trade Union Unity, Organization of: labour organization founded in 1973 at Addis Ababa, Eth., on the initiative of the Organization of African Unity and replacing the former All-African Trade Union Federation (AATUF; founded in 1961) and the African Trade Union Confederation (ATUC; founded in 1962). ...
African Union: intergovernmental organization, established in 2002, to promote unity and solidarity of African states, to spur economic development, and to promote international cooperation. The African Union (AU) replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AU's headquarters are in Addis Ababa, ...
African violet: flowering plant of the genus Saintpaulia (family Gesneriaceae), especially S. ionantha. The genus consists of 12 species native to higher elevations in tropical eastern Africa. The plants are small, hairy, usually stemless herbs with crowded, long-stalked leaves.
Africanus, Sextus Julius: first Christian historian known to produce a universal chronology.
Afridi: Pashtun tribe inhabiting the hill country from the eastern spurs of the Safid Range to northern Pakistan. The Afridis, whose territory straddles the Khyber Pass, are of uncertain origin.
Afrikaans language: West Germanic language of South Africa, developed from 17th-century Netherlandic (Dutch) by the descendants of European (Dutch, German, and French) colonists, indigenous Khoisan peoples, and African and Asian slaves in the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope. Afrikaans ...
Afrikaner: a South African of European descent whose native language is Afrikaans. They are descendants of the Boers. See Boer.
Afrikaner Bond: (Afrikaans: "Afrikaner League"), the first political party of Cape Colony, southern Africa, founded by S.J. du Toit in 1880. In 1883 it amalgamated with J.H. Hofmeyr's Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging ("Farmer's Protection Association"). Du Toit attempted to create a pan-Afrikaner nationalist ...