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Barb ... Barcelona chair
Barb
native horse breed of the Barbary states of North Africa. It is related to, and probably an offshoot of, the Arabian horse but is larger, with a lower placed tail, and has hair at the fetlock (above and behind the ...
Barbacena
city, southeastern Minas Gerais estado (state), Brazil. It is situated in the Serra da Mantiquera, at 3,727 feet (1,136 metres) above sea level. The settlement was made the seat of a municipality in 1791 and elevated to ...
Barbados
island nation in the Caribbean, situated about 100 miles (160 kilometres) east of the Windward Islands. Roughly triangular in shape, it measures 21 miles from northwest to southeast and about 14 miles from east to west, with a total area ...
Barbados cherry
common name for various tropical and subtropical trees and shrubs of the genera Bunchiosa and Malpighia (family Malpighiaceae), especially M. glabra, M. punicifolia, and M. urens.
Barbados Ridge
submarine ridge of the Caribbean Sea rising from the southern end of the axis of the Puerto Rico Trench. The Barbados Ridge is paralleled on either side by a shallow trough. Negative gravity anomalies (observed gravity values less than theoretically ...
Barbara, Saint
virgin martyr of the early church and patroness of artillerymen. According to legend, which dates only to the 7th century, she was the daughter of a pagan, Dioscorus, who kept her guarded to protect her beauty from harm. When she ...
Barbari, Jacopo de'
Venetian painter and engraver who probably painted the first signed and dated (1504) pure still life (a dead partridge, gauntlets, and arrow pinned against a wall). Until c. 1500 he remained in Venice. A large engraved panorama of the city ...
Barbarossa
Barbary pirate and later admiral of the Ottoman fleet, by whose initiative Algeria and Tunisia became part of the Ottoman Empire. For three centuries after his death, Mediterranean coastal towns and villages were ravaged by his pirate successors.
Barbary
former designation for the coastal region of North Africa bounded by Egypt (east), by the Atlantic (west), by the Sahara (south), and by the Mediterranean Sea (north), and now comprising Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The name originates from that ...
Barbary macaque
tailless ground-dwelling monkey that lives in groups in the upland forests of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Gibraltar. The Barbary macaque is about 60 cm (24 inches) long and has light yellowish brown fur and a bald pale pink face. Adult ...
Barbary pirate
any of the Muslim pirates operating from the coast of North Africa, at their most powerful during the 17th century but still active until the 19th century. Captains, who formed a class in Algiers and Tunis, commanded cruisers outfitted by ...
barbastelle
either of two bats of the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae, found in Europe and North Africa (B. barbastellus) and in the Middle East and Asia (B. leucomelas). Barbastelles have short, wide ears that are joined on the forehead. Their fur ...
Barbauld, Anna Laetitia
British writer, poet, and editor whose best writings are on political and social themes. Her poetry belongs essentially in the tradition of 18th-century meditative verse.
Barbe-Marbois, Francois, marquis de
French statesman who in 1803 negotiated the Louisiana Purchase by the United States.
barbecue
an outdoor meal, usually a form of social entertainment, at which meats, fish, or fowl, along with vegetables, are roasted over a wood or charcoal fire. The term also denotes the grill or stone-lined pit for cooking such a meal, ...
barbed wire
fence wire usually consisting of two longitudinal wires twisted together to form cable and having wire barbs wound around either or both of the cable wires at regular intervals. The varieties of barbed wire are numerous, with cables being single ...
Barbeitos, Arlindo
Angolan poet, many of whose works, written in Portuguese, portray in a subtle manner the struggle of his people for independence as well as the essential harmony between man and nature.
barber
a person whose primary activities in the 20th century are trimming and styling the hair of men, shaving them, and shaping their beards, sideburns, and moustaches. Barbers, or hairdressers, often provide shampooing, manicuring, hair dying, permanent waves, and shoe polishing ...
Barber, Red
American baseball broadcaster, who was the homespun radio and television announcer for the Cincinnati Reds (1934-39), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939-53), and New York Yankees (1954-66) professional baseball teams.
Barber, Samuel
composer who is considered one of the most expressive representatives of the lyric and romantic trends in musical composition in the United States.
Barberi, Domenico, Blessed
mystic and Passionist who worked as a missionary in England.
Barberini Family
an aristocratic Roman family, originally of Barberino in the Else valley; they later settled first in Florence and then in Rome, where they became wealthy and powerful.
barberry
any of almost 500 species of thorny evergreen or deciduous shrubs constituting the genus Berberis of the family Berberidaceae, mostly native to the North Temperate Zone, particularly Asia. Species of Oregon grape, previously included in Berberis but now assigned to ...
barbershop quartet singing
form of popular choral music consisting of unaccompanied male singing, with three voices harmonizing to the melody of a fourth voice. The voice parts are tenor, lead, baritone, and bass, with the lead normally singing the melody and the tenor ...
Barberton
city, Summit county, northeastern Ohio, U.S., just south of Akron, on the Tuscarawas River, there dammed to form the Portage Lakes. It was founded in 1891 by Ohio C. Barber as the new site of his match factory (later the ...
barbet
any of about 75 species of tropical birds constituting the family Capitonidae (order Piciformes). Barbets are named for the bristles at the bases of their stout, sharp bills. They are big-headed, short-tailed birds, 9-30 cm (3.5-12 inches) long, greenish or ...
Barbey d'Aurevilly, Jules-Amedee
French novelist and influential critic; he was an arbiter, in his day, of social fashion and literary taste. A member of the minor nobility of Normandy, he remained throughout his life proudly Norman in spirit and style, a royalist opposed ...
Barbeya
genus of dicotyledonous flowering tree, the sole species of which is B. oleoides. It grows in Ethiopia and Somalia and on the Arabian Peninsula. Barbeya has the general aspect of the olive tree but many botanical characteristics of the elm. ...
Barbican
area in the City of London containing residential towers and Barbican Centre, a complex of theatres, halls, and cultural facilities. The London Symphony Orchestra is resident in the arts complex, which is also the London home of the Royal Shakespeare ...
Barbie
an 11-inch- (29-cm-) tall plastic doll with the figure of an adult woman that was introduced in 1959 by Mattel, Inc., a southern California toy company. Ruth Handler, who cofounded Mattel with her husband, Elliot, spearheaded the introduction of the ...
Barbie, Klaus
Nazi leader, head of the Gestapo in Lyon from 1942 to 1944, who was held responsible for the death of some 4,000 persons and the deportation of some 7,500 others.
Barbier, Antoine-Alexandre
French librarian and bibliographer who compiled a standard reference directory of anonymous writings and who helped in preserving scholarly books and manuscripts during and after the French Revolution.
Barbirolli, Sir John
English conductor and cellist.
barbiturate
any of a class of organic compounds used in medicine as sedatives (to produce a calming effect), as hypnotics (to produce sleep), or as an adjunct in anesthesia. The barbiturates are derivatives of barbituric acid (malonyl urea), which is formed ...
barbituric acid
an organic compound of the pyrimidine family, a class of compounds with a characteristic six-membered ring structure composed of four carbon atoms and two nitrogen atoms, that is regarded as the parent compound of the barbiturate drugs. It is used ...
Barbizon school
mid-19th-century French school of painting, part of a larger European movement toward naturalism in art, that made a significant contribution to the establishment of Realism in French landscape painting. Inspired by the Romantic movement's search for solace in nature, the ...
Barbon, Nicholas
English economist, widely considered the founder of fire insurance.
Barbon, Praise-God
English sectarian preacher from whom the Cromwellian Barebones Parliament derived its nickname.
barbooth
dice game of Middle Eastern origin, used for gambling; in the United States it is played chiefly by persons of Greek or Jewish ancestry. The shooter casts two dice (traditionally miniature dice). If he throws 3-3, 5-5, 6-6, or 6-5, ...
Barbosa, Jorge
African poet who expressed in Portuguese the cultural isolation and the tragic nature of life on the drought-stricken Cape Verdean islands. In delicately phrased verse that became a model for later poets, he often praised the stoic endurance of a ...
Barbotine ware
pottery decorated with a clay slip applied by means of a technique first employed on Rhenish pottery prior to the 3rd century AD. The slip was applied by piping, in the same way icing is applied to cakes. It was ...
Barbour, John
author of a Scottish national epic known as The Bruce, the first major work of Scottish literature.
Barbour, Philip P
associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1836-41) and political figure known for his advocacy of states' rights and strict construction of the U.S. Constitution.
Barbourville
city, seat of Knox county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S. It lies on the Cumberland River, in the Cumberland Mountains, and is a gateway to Daniel Boone National Forest. It was founded in 1800 and named for James Barbour, who donated land ...
Barbusse, Henri
novelist, author of Le Feu (1916; Under Fire, 1917), a firsthand witness of the life of French soldiers in World War I. Barbusse belongs to an important lineage of French war writers who span the period 1910 to 1939, mingling ...
barcarole
(from Italian barcarola, "boatman," or "gondolier"), originally a Venetian gondolier's song typified by gently rocking rhythms in 68 or 128 time. In the 18th and 19th centuries the barcarole inspired a considerable number of vocal and instrumental compositions, ranging from ...
Barcelo, Gertrudis
Mexican-born businesswoman who built her fortune through casinos and trade ventures in the early American Southwest.
Barcelona
city, seaport, and capital of Barcelona province and of the Catalonia autonomous community of Spain. Located in the northeastern part of the country, 90 miles (150 km) south of the French border, it is Spain's major Mediterranean port and commercial ...
Barcelona
province, in the autonomous community (region) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain, formed in 1833 from a number of districts stretching between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean coast. Its area is 2,986 sq mi (7,733 sq km). The province follows the axis ...
Barcelona
city, capital of Anzoategui estado ("state"), northeastern Venezuela. On the west bank of the Neveri River, 3 miles (5 km) inland from the Caribbean Sea and about 200 miles (320 km) east of Caracas, it lies in the Barcelona Gap, ...
Barcelona chair
one of the finest and most elegant chairs of the 20th century. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe for the German Pavilion, which he also designed, at the International Exposition in Barcelona in 1929.
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