Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Abipon ... abstract art

Abipon: South American Indian people who formerly lived on the lower Bermejo River in the Argentine Gran Chaco. They spoke a language (also called Callaga) belonging to the Guaycuruan group of the Guaycuru-Charruan languages. The Abipon were divided into three dialect ...
Abish, Walter: American writer of experimental novels and short stories whose fiction takes as its subject language itself.
Abitibi River: river, northeastern Ontario, Canada. From its source in the shallow 359-square-mile (931-square-kilometre) Abitibi Lake, lying across the Ontario-Quebec border, the river descends 868 feet (265 m) as it flows generally northward for 340 miles (547 km) to join the Moose ...
Abkhaz: any member of a Caucasian people living chiefly in the Abkhazia republic in northwesternmost Georgia. The Bzyb Abkhaz, who have a distinct dialect, are found around the Bzyb River; the Abzhui Abkhaz, on whose dialect the literary language is based, ...
Abkhazia: republic in northwestern Georgia, between the Black Sea (south) and the crest line of the Greater Caucasus range (north).
Abkhazo-Adyghian languages: group of languages spoken primarily in the northwestern part of the Caucasus Mountains. The languages of this group-Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghian, Kabardian (Circassian), and the nearly extinct Ubykh-are noted for the great number of distinctive consonants and limited number of distinctive ...
Ableman v. Booth: (1859), case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld both the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act and the supremacy of the federal government over state governments.
ablution: in religion, a prescribed washing of part or all of the body or of possessions, such as clothing or ceremonial objects, with the intent of purification or dedication. Water, or water with salt or some other traditional ingredient, is most ...
Abney, Sir William de Wiveleslie: a specialist in the chemistry of photography, especially noted for his development of a photographic emulsion that he used to map the solar spectrum far into the infrared.
ABO blood group system: method of classifying human blood on the basis of the inherited properties of red blood cells (erythrocytes) as determined by their possession or lack of the so-called antigens A (including A₁ and A₂) and B. Persons may, thus, have type ...
Abo, Treaty of: (1743), peace settlement that concluded the Russo-Swedish War of 1741-43 by obliging Sweden to cede a strip of southern Finland to Russia and to become temporarily dependent on Russia. As a result of the Great Northern War (Treaty of Nystad, ...
abolitionism: (c. 1783-1888), in western Europe and the Americas, the movement chiefly responsible for creating the emotional climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery. With the decline of Roman slavery in the 5th century, the institution waned ...
Abomey: town, southern Benin (formerly Dahomey). Probably founded in the early 17th century, it soon became the capital of the kingdom of Abomey (later Dahomey), which dominated production and trade with the European enterprises on the Slave Coast until the late ...
Abominable Snowman: mythical monster supposed to inhabit the Himalayas at about the level of the snow line. Though reports of actual sightings of such a creature are rare, certain mysterious markings in the snow have traditionally been attributed to it. Those not ...
abortion: the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability (in human beings, usually about the 20th week of gestation). An abortion may occur spontaneously, in which case it is also called a miscarriage, ...
Abqaiq: town, eastern Saudi Arabia, about 25 miles (40 km) west of the Persian Gulf. It is situated in the southern end of the Abqaiq oil field, one of the largest and most productive in the kingdom. Abqaiq grew rapidly following ...
Abraha: Ethiopian Christian viceroy of Yemen in southern Arabia.
Abraham: first of the Hebrew patriarchs and a figure revered by the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. According to the biblical book of Genesis, Abraham left Ur, in Mesopotamia, because God called him to found a new nation ...
Abraham bar Hiyya: Spanish Jewish philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician whose writings were among the first scientific and philosophical works to be written in Hebrew. He is sometimes known as Savasorda, a corruption of an Arabic term indicating that he held some civic ...
Abraham Lincoln Battalion: a force of volunteers from the United States who served on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War from January 1937 until November 1938. All seven International Brigades (q.v.)-each composed of three or more battalions-were formed by the Comintern ...
Abraham, Karl: German psychoanalyst who studied the role of infant sexuality in character development and mental illness.
Abraham, Plains of: plains in Quebec region, southern Quebec province, Canada. The plains lie at the western edge of the old walled city, overlooking the St. Lawrence River. The plateau was the scene of a battle (Sept. 13, 1759) between the French under ...
Abrahams, Harold: British athlete who won a gold medal in the 100-metre dash at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.
Abrahams, Israel: one of the most distinguished Jewish scholars of his time, who wrote a number of enduring works on Judaism, particularly Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896).
Abrahams, Peter: most prolific of South Africa's black prose writers, whose early novel Mine Boy (1946) was the first to depict the dehumanizing effect of racism upon South African blacks.
Abramov, Fyodor: Russian writer, academic, and literary critic whose work, which frequently ran afoul of the official Soviet party line, focused on the difficulties and discrimination faced by Russian peasants.
Abrams, M.H.: American literary critic known for his analysis of the Romantic period in English literature.
abrasive: sharp, hard material used to wear away the surface of softer, less resistant materials. Included within the term are both natural and synthetic substances, ranging from the relatively soft particles used in household cleansers and jeweler's polish to the hardest ...
abraxas: sequence of Greek letters considered as a word and formerly inscribed on charms, amulets, and gems in the belief that it possessed magical qualities. In the 2nd century AD, some Gnostic and other dualistic sects, which viewed matter as evil ...
Abreu, Capistrano de: Brazilian historian best known for his large-scale interpretive work on Brazil's colonial history.
Abrikosov, Alexey A.: Russian physicist, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2003 for his pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductivity. He shared the award with Vitaly L. Ginzburg of Russia and Anthony J. Leggett of Great Britain.
Abruzzi: regione, central Italy, fronting the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provincie of L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara, and Teramo. Most of the region is mountainous or hilly, except for such intermontane basins as those of L'Aquila, Sulmona, and Fucino. The Apennines, the ...
Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco, Duke d': Spanish mountaineer and explorer whose ventures ranged from Africa to the Arctic.
Abruzzo, Ben L.: American balloonist who, with three crew mates, made the first transpacific balloon flight and the longest nonstop balloon flight, in the Double Eagle V.
Abs, Hermann J.: German banker and a leading figure in the West German "economic miracle" following World War II.
Absalom: third and favourite son of David, king of Israel and Judah.
Absalon: archbishop, statesman, and close adviser of the Danish kings Valdemar I and Canute VI.
Absaroka Range: mountain segment of the northern Rocky Mountains, in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana, U.S. Extending in a northwest-southeast direction, the range is 170 miles (270 km) long and 50 miles wide. A large plateau, the result of volcanic action, was ...
abscess: a localized collection of pus in a cavity formed from tissues that have been broken down by infectious bacteria. An abscess is caused when such bacteria as staphylococci or streptococci gain access to solid tissue (e.g., by means of a ...
Abse, Dannie: British poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist, known for the characteristically Welsh voice and sensibility of his poetry.
absentee ownership: originally, ownership of land by proprietors who did not reside on the land or cultivate it themselves but enjoyed income from it. The term absentee ownership has assumed a derogatory social connotation not inherent in its literal meaning, based on ...
absentee voting: electoral process that enables persons who cannot appear at their designated polling places to vote from another location. The usual method of absentee voting is by mail, although provision is sometimes made for voting at prescribed places in advance of ...
Abseron Peninsula: peninsula in Azerbaijan that extends 37 miles (60 km) eastward into the Caspian Sea and reaches a maximum width of 19 miles (30 km). An eastern extension of the Caucasus Mountains, the Abseron Peninsula consists of a gently undulating plain, ...
absinthe: flavoured, distilled liquor, yellowish green in colour, turning to cloudy, opalescent white when mixed with water. Highly aromatic, this liqueur is dry and somewhat bitter in taste. Absinthe is made from a spirit high in alcohol, such as brandy, and ...
Absolute Idealism: a philosophical theory chiefly associated with G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both German idealist philosophers of the 19th century, Josiah Royce, an American philosopher, and others, but, in its essentials, the product of Hegel. Absolute Idealism can generally be characterized ...
absolute zero: temperature at which a thermodynamic system has the lowest energy. It corresponds to -273.15° on the Celsius scale and to -459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale.
absolution: in the Christian religion, a pronouncement of remission (forgiveness) of sins to the penitent. In Roman Catholicism, penance is a sacrament and the power to absolve lies with the priest, who can grant release from the guilt of sin to ...
absolutism: the political doctrine and practice of unlimited, centralized authority and absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator. The essence of an absolutist system is that the ruling power is not subject to regularized challenge or check by ...
absorption: in wave motion, the transfer of the energy of a wave to matter as the wave passes through it. The energy of an acoustic, electromagnetic, or other wave is proportional to the square of its amplitude-i.e., the maximum displacement or ...
Abstbessingen faience: tin-glazed earthenware produced in a factory in the village of Abstbessingen, in Thuringia, which flourished probably from the first half of the 18th century to about 1816. A hayfork factory mark indicates the patronage of the prince of Schwarzburg. Ordinary ...
abstract art: painting, sculpture, or graphic art in which the portrayal of things from the visible world plays no part. All art consists largely of elements that can be called abstract-elements of form, colour, line, tone, and texture. Prior to the 20th ...