Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Castilian dialect ... CAT

Castilian dialect: a dialect of the Spanish language (q.v.), the basis of modern standard Spanish. Originally the local dialect of Cantabria in north central Spain, Castilian spread to Castile. After the merger of the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, and Aragon in the ...
Castilla, Ramon: soldier and statesman who, as president or as the power behind the scene, dominated Peruvian politics for nearly 20 years. A conservative himself, he wisely offered concessions to all sectors of Peruvian society and provided the nation with a long ...
Castillejo, Cristobal de: poet who was the foremost critic of the Italianate innovations of the Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega and the Catalan poet Juan Boscan.
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument: site of the oldest masonry fort in the United States, built by the Spaniards on Matanzas Bay between 1672 and 1695 to protect the city of St. Augustine, in northeastern Florida. Established as Fort Marion National Monument in 1924, it ...
Castillo Solorzano, Alonso de: Spanish novelist and playwright whose ingenuity expressed itself best in his short stories.
Castillo, Ana: Latina poet and author whose work explores themes of race, sexuality, and gender, especially as they relate to issues of power.
Castillo, Michel del: Spanish-born novelist writing in French, who became famous at 24 for a short novel, Tanguy (1957; A Child of Our Time, 1958). Though written as fiction, it is the actual story of his experiences ...
Castillon, Battle of: (July 17, 1453), the concluding battle of the Hundred Years' War between France and England.
Castine: historic resort town, Hancock county, southern Maine, U.S., on a promontory in Penobscot Bay, across the water from Belfast (west). For 200 years the place held a key position in the struggle between England and France-and to a lesser extent ...
casting: in the metal and plastics industry, the process whereby molten material is poured or forced into a mold and allowed to harden. See founding.
castle: in ship construction, structure or area raised above the main deck for combat or work purposes. The name was derived from early similarities to fortress turrets. The forecastle and aftercastle (or sterncastle) are at the bow and stern of the ...
castle: medieval European stronghold, generally the residence of the king or lord of the territory in which it stands. The word is sometimes applied to prehistoric earthworks, such as Maiden Castle, England; and the word is also applied, in various linguistic ...
castle guard: in the European feudal tenure, an arrangement by which some tenants of the king or of a lesser lord were bound to provide garrisons for royal or other castles. The obligation would in practice be discharged by subtenants, individual knights ...
Castle Hill Rising: (March 4-5, 1804), the first rebellion in Australian history. Involving Irish convicts (for the most part, political offenders), the uprising began with the rebels' seizure of the New South Wales convict station at Parramatta on March 4 and culminated in ...
Castle Morpeth: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northumberland, northeastern England, in the southeastern part of the county. It lies just northwest of the heavily industrialized metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear and borders the North Sea on the northeast. Castle ...
Castle Point: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Essex, eastern England, on the north side of the River Thames near its mouth. Castle Point is a low-lying borough of tidal inlets and reclaimed land protected by embankments and dikes. The parishes ...
Castle Rising: village ("parish"), King's Lynn and West Norfolk borough, administrative and historic county of Norfolk, England. A great Norman castle with a massive square keep stands within a 12-acre (5-hectare) enclosure formed by artificial ramparts of earth and a ditch, which ...
Castle, Vernon and Irene: U.S. husband-and-wife dancing team, famous as the originators of the one-step and the turkey trot.
Castlebar: market and county town, County Mayo, Ireland, at the head of Lough (lake) Castlebar. The town was founded early in the 17th century and was incorporated in 1613. It is now an active angling centre and has a small airport ...
Castlemaine: city in central Victoria, southeastern Australia, located 8 miles (13 km) east of the Loddon River and 78 miles (126 km) northwest of Melbourne. In 1836 the area was crossed by Major Thomas Mitchell, and in 1851 gold was found ...
Castlemainian Stage: time division of the Ordovician Period in Australia and New Zealand (the Ordovician Period began about 500,000,000 years ago and lasted about 70,000,000 years). The Castlemainian Stage precedes the Yapeenian Stage and follows the Chewtonian Stage. Several graptolite fossil zones, ...
Castlereagh: district, Northern Ireland, located directly southeast of Belfast, from where it is administered. Formerly astride Down and Antrim counties, Castlereagh was established as a district in 1973. Its rolling lowlands border the districts of Lisburn to the southwest, North Down ...
Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount: British foreign secretary (1812-22), who helped guide the Grand Alliance against Napoleon and was a major participant in the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe in 1815.
Castleton State College: public, coeducational institution of higher learning located in Castleton, Vt., U.S. The curriculum is based on the traditional liberal arts, and the university also offers study in business, education, and health sciences. Master's degree programs in education and forensic psychology ...
Castletown: town and ancient capital of the Isle of Man, one of the British Isles, on Castletown Bay, which is formed by the River Silver Burn. Castle Rushen, perhaps founded in 947-960 by Godred the Dane, is essentially Norman, largely rebuilt ...
Castor: multiple star having at least six component stars, in the zodiacal constellation Gemini. The stars Castor and Pollux are named for the twins of Greek mythology. Castor's combined apparent visual magnitude is 1.58. It appears as a bright visual binary, ...
castor oil: nonvolatile fatty oil obtained from the seeds of the castor bean, Ricinus communis, of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). It is used in the production of synthetic resins, plastics, fibres, paints, varnishes, and various chemicals including drying oils and plasticizers. Castor ...
castor-oil plant: (Ricinus communis), large plant, of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), grown commercially for the pharmaceutical and industrial uses of its oil and for use in landscaping because of its handsome, giant, 12-lobed, palmate (fanlike) leaves. The bristly, spined, bronze-to-red clusters of ...
Castoroides: extinct genus of giant beavers found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits in North America (the Pleistocene Epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago). Castoroides attained a length of about 2.5 m (7.5 feet). The skull was large ...
Castracani, Castruccio: condottiere, or captain of mercenaries, who ruled Lucca from 1316 to 1328.
castrato: male soprano or contralto voice of great range, flexibility, and power, produced as a result of castration before puberty. The castrato voice was introduced in the 16th century, when women were banned from church choirs and the stage. It reached ...
Castren, Matthias Alexander: Finnish nationalist and pioneer in the study of remote Arctic and Siberian Uralic and Altaic languages. He also championed the ideology of Pan-Turanianism-the belief in the racial unity and future greatness of the Ural-Altaic peoples.
Castres: town, Tarn departement, Midi-Pyrenees region, southern France, on the Agout River, east of Toulouse. The site of a Gallo-Roman camp, the town developed around a Benedictine monastery that was founded about 647. Guy de Montfort, brother of Simon de Montfort, ...
Castries: chief town of Saint Lucia island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, lying 40 miles (65 km) south of Fort-de-France, Martinique. Its fine landlocked deepwater harbour on the northwestern coast is Saint Lucia's chief port, shipping mainly bananas but also exporting ...
Castries, Christian de: French army officer who commanded during World War II and later in the Indochina War.
Castro: town, Chiloe provincia, southern Chile. It lies 45 miles (72 km) south of the town of Ancud, on the east coast of Chiloe Island. Castro was founded in 1567 and regrew after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1837. It ...
Castro Alves, Antonio de: Romantic poet whose sympathy for the Brazilian abolitionist cause won him the name "poet of the slaves."
Castro y Bellvis, Guillen de: the most important and representative of a group of Spanish dramatists that flourished in Valencia. He is remembered chiefly for his work Las mocedades del Cid (1599?), upon which the French playwright Pierre Corneille based his famous drama Le Cid ...
Castro, Americo: Spanish philologist and cultural historian who explored the distinctive cultural roots of Spain and Spanish America.
Castro, Cipriano: Venezuelan soldier and dictator, called the Lion of the Andes, who was the first man from the mountains to rule a nation that until the 20th century had been dominated by plainsmen and city dwellers from Caracas. He ruled for ...
Castro, Eugenio de: leading Portuguese Symbolist and Decadent poet.
Castro, Fidel: political leader of Cuba (from 1959) who transformed his country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Castro became a symbol of communist revolution in Latin America. He held the title of premier until 1976, when he became ...
Castro, Ines de: mistress, before his accession, of Peter (Pedro) I of Portugal. She was famous because of her tragic death, which was related by such writers and poets as Luis de Camoes, Luis Velez de Guevara, and Henri de Montherlant.
Castro, Joao de: naval officer who helped preserve the Portuguese commercial settlement in India and contributed to the science of navigation with three roteiros (pilot books). He was also the first to note the deviation of the ship's compass needle created by the ...
Castro, Rosalia de: the most outstanding modern writer in the Galician language, whose work is of both regional and universal significance.
Castrop-Rauxel: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. It lies near the Rhine-Herne Canal, in the eastern part of the Ruhr industrial district. First mentioned in 834, Castrop was chartered in 1484. It belonged to the duchy of ...
casual: an essay written in a familiar, often humorous style. The word is usually associated with the style of essay that was cultivated at The New Yorker magazine.
casualty insurance: provision against loss to persons and property, covering legal hazards as well as those of accident and sickness. Major classes of casualty insurance include liability, theft, aviation, worker's compensation, credit, and title.
casuariiform: (order Casuariiformes), any of a group of large, flightless birds that includes two families: Dromaiidae for the emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae; see ), found only in Australia; and Casuariidae for three species of cassowaries (Casuarius), restricted to northern Australia, New Guinea, ...
Casuarinales: the beefwood order of dicotyledonous flowering plants comprising the family Casuarinaceae, with two genera (Casuarina, 30 species; Gymnostoma, 20 species) of trees and shrubs, many of which have a distinctly pinelike aspect when seen from afar. They are naturally distributed ...
CAT: a radiologic diagnostic technique used in medicine. See tomography.