Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

alcohol consumption ... Aleksandriya

alcohol consumption: the drinking of beverages containing ethyl alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are consumed largely for their physiological and psychological effects, but they are often consumed within specific social contexts and may even be a part of religious ...
alcoholic beverage: any fermented liquor, such as wine, beer, or distilled liquor (qq.v.), that contains ethyl alcohol, or ethanol (CH₃CH₂OH), as an intoxicating agent.
Alcoholics Anonymous: voluntary fellowship of alcoholic persons who seek to get sober and remain sober through self-help and the help of other recovered alcoholics. Although general conventions meet periodically and Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., is headquartered in New York City, all ...
alcoholism: excessive and repetitive drinking of alcoholic beverages to the extent that the drinker repeatedly is harmed or harms others. The harm may be physical or mental; it may also be social, legal, or economic. Because such use is usually considered ...
Alcor: star with apparent magnitude of 4.03. The ability to see the dim star Alcor with the unaided eye may have been regarded by the Arabs (and others) as a test of good vision. Alcor makes a visual double with the ...
Alcorn State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning near Lorman, Mississippi, U.S. It is a land-grant university consisting of schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Psychology, Nursing, and Agriculture and Applied Sciences. The university's School of Nursing is located in ...
Alcott, Bronson: American philosopher, teacher, reformer, and member of the New England Transcendentalist group.
Alcott, Louisa May: American author known for her children's books, especially the classic Little Women.
alcove: recess opening off a room or other space enclosed by walls or hedges. In medieval architecture it was commonly used as a sleeping space off the main body of a drafty hall. The separation of the alcove from the main ...
Alcoy: town, Alicante provincia, in the comunidad autonoma (autonomous community) of Valencia, southeastern Spain. It lies in rugged foothills at the confluence of the two headstreams of the Serpis River, north of Alicante city. The site was settled before Roman times, ...
Alcuin: Anglo-Latin poet, educator, and cleric who, as head of the Palatine school established by Charlemagne at Aachen, introduced the traditions of Anglo-Saxon humanism into western Europe. He was the foremost scholar of the revival of learning known as the Carolingian ...
Aldabra Islands: atoll, one of the world's largest, in the Indian Ocean about 600 miles (1,000 km) southwest of the Seychelles group, and part of the Republic of the Seychelles. The Aldabras, together with Farquhar and Desroches islands and the Chagos Archipelago, ...
Aldan River: river in eastern Siberia, Russia. It rises in the Stanovoy Range and flows northwestward in a huge curve to join the Lena River at Batamay. The Aldan River is 1,412 miles (2,273 km) long, the second largest tributary (after the ...
Aldanov, Mark: Russian emigre writer best known for work bitterly critical of the Soviet system.
Aldebaran: reddish giant star in the constellation Taurus. Aldebaran is one of the 15 brightest stars, with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.86. Its diameter is approximately 50 times that of the Sun. It is accompanied by a very faint (13th ...
Aldecoa, Ignacio: Spanish novelist whose work is noted for its local colour and careful composition.
aldehyde: any of a class of organic compounds characterized by the presence of a carbonyl group, in which at least one of the two remaining bonds to the carbon atom is to a hydrogen atom. They have the general formula
Alden, Cynthia May Westover: American social worker and journalist whose energies in the latter half of her life focused on securing the welfare of blind infants and children.
Alden, Isabella Macdonald: American children's author whose books achieved great popularity for the wholesome interest and variety of their situations and characters and the clearly moral but not sombre lessons of their plots.
Alden, John; and Alden, Priscilla: Pilgrims who in 1620 immigrated to America on the Mayflower and took part in the founding of the Plymouth Colony, the first permanent English colony in New England.
alder: any of about 30 species of ornamental shrubs and trees constituting the genus Alnus, in the birch family (Betulaceae), distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and western South America on cool, wet sites at elevations up to 2,500 m (8,200 feet).
alder buckthorn: woody shrub or small tree, of the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae), native to western Asia, Europe, and northern Africa. It has been introduced into North America and other regions, where it is often cultivated as an ornamental. The plant grows rapidly, ...
Alder, Kurt: German chemist who was the corecipient, with Otto Diels, of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1950 for their development of the Diels-Alder reaction, or diene synthesis, a widely used method of synthesizing cyclic organic compounds.
alderfly: any insect of the megalopteran family Sialidae, characterized by long, filamentous antennae and two pairs of large wings (anterior wing length 20 to 50 mm [ 34 inch to 2 inches]), membranous and well-developed, with part of the hind wing ...
alderman: member of the legislative body of a municipal corporation in England and the United States. In Anglo-Saxon England, ealdormen, or aldermen, were high-ranking officials of the crown who exercised judicial, administrative, or military functions. Earls, the governors of shires (counties), ...
Alderney: one of the Channel Islands, in the English Channel, with an area of 3 square miles (8 square km), separated from the Normandy coast (Cap de la Hague) by the dangerously swift 10-mile (16-km) Race of Alderney. Swinge Race, on ...
Aldfrith: king of Northumbria (685-704) and patron of literature. An illegitimate son of Oswiu, he succeeded to the throne when his brother Ecgfrith was killed at the Battle of Nechtansmere. Educated for the priesthood, he stimulated the growth of scholarship in ...
Aldhelm: (c. 639-709), West Saxon abbot of Malmesbury, the most learned teacher of 7th-century Wessex, a pioneer in the art of Latin verse among the Anglo-Saxons, and the author of numerous extant writings in Latin verse and prose.
Aldington, Richard: poet, novelist, critic, and biographer who wrote searingly and sometimes irascibly of what he considered to be hypocrisy in modern industrialized civilization.
Aldiss, Brian W.: prolific English author of science-fiction short stories and novels that display great range in style and approach.
aldosterone: a steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal gland. It serves as the principal regulator of the salt and water balance of the body (a mineralocorticoid) and has a small effect on the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.
Aldrich, Bess Genevra Streeter: American author whose prolific output of novels and short stories evoked the American Plains and the people who settled them.
Aldrich, Nelson W.: U.S. senator and financier whose work on the Aldrich-Vreeland Currency Act of 1908 and chairmanship of the National Monetary Commission (1908-12) helped prepare the way for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
Aldrich, Robert: American motion-picture director who earned his reputation with early realistic and socially conscious films.
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey: poet, short-story writer, and editor whose use of the surprise ending influenced the development of the short story. He drew upon his childhood experiences in New Hampshire in his popular classic The Story of a Bad Boy (1870).
Aldridge, Ira Frederick: black tragedian, considered one of the greatest interpreters of his day.
aldrin: one of the several isomers (compounds with the same composition but different structures) of hexachlorohexahydrodimethanonaphthalene, a chlorinated hydrocarbon used as an insecticide. Aldrin was first prepared in the late 1940s and is manufactured by the reaction of hexachlorocyclopentadiene with bicycloheptadiene ...
Aldrin, Edwin Eugene, Jr.: astronaut who set a record for extravehicular activity and was the second man to set foot on the Moon.
Aldrovandi, Ulisse: Renaissance naturalist and physician noted for his systematic and accurate observations of animals, plants, and minerals.
ale: fermented malt beverage, full-bodied and somewhat bitter, with strong flavour and aroma of hops. Popular in England, where the term is now synonymous with beer, ale was until the late 17th century an unhopped brew of yeast, water, and malt, ...
Aleandro, Girolamo: cardinal and Humanist who was an important opponent of the Lutheran Reformation.
Aleardi, Aleardo, Conte: poet, patriot, and political figure, an archetype of the 19th-century Italian poet-patriots. His love poems and passionate diatribes against the Austrian government brought him renown.
aleatory music: 20th-century music in which chance or indeterminate elements are left for the performer to realize. The term is a loose one, describing compositions with strictly demarcated areas for improvisation according to specific directions and also unstructured pieces consisting of vague ...
Alecsandri, Vasile: lyric poet and dramatist, the first collector of Romanian popular songs and a leader of the movement for the union of the Romanian principalities.
Alegrete: city, western Rio Grande do Sul estado ("state"), Brazil. It lies along the Ibirapuita River at 292 feet (89 metres) above sea level. It was founded in 1817 and given city status in 1857. The
Alegria, Ciro: Peruvian novelist who wrote about the lives of the Peruvian Indians.
Alegria, Claribel: poet, essayist, and journalist who was a major voice in the literature of contemporary Central America. Noted for her testimonio (testament) concerning the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, she was best known in the United States for the bilingual edition of ...
Aleijadinho: prolific and influential Brazilian sculptor and architect whose Rococo statuary and religious articles complement the dramatic sobriety of his churches. He was of Portuguese and black ancestry.
Aleixandre, Vicente: Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of 1927, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977. He was strongly influenced by the Surrealist technique of poetic composition.
Alekhine, Alexander: world champion chess player from 1927 to 1935 and from 1937 until his death, noted for using a great variety of attacks. See the table of world chess champions.
Aleksandriya: city, Kirovograd oblast, Ukraine, on the Ingulets River. Founded as Usovka in 1754, it was incorporated and renamed in the same year. The city is now the centre of a lignite (brown coal) field that has been utilized since the ...