Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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cai luong ... Calabrian Stage

cai luong: Vietnamese theatre style, the term meaning reformed or renewed theatre. It evolved during the French colonial period of Vietnam's history (1862-1954) and clearly showed the influence of European drama. It transformed (though it did not supplant) the old established classical ...
Caibarien: port city, northeastern Villa Clara province, central Cuba. The province's chief port, Caibarien is a major centre for the collection and distribution of goods from the agricultural hinterland, which produces mainly sugarcane, tobacco, and fruit. Sponge fishing is carried on ...
Caillaux, Joseph: French statesman who was an early supporter of a national income tax and whose opposition to World War I led to his imprisonment for treason in 1920.
Caillebotte, Gustave: French painter, art collector, and impresario who combined aspects of the academic and Impressionist styles in a unique synthesis.
Cailletet, Louis-Paul: French physicist and ironmaster, noted for his work on the liquefaction of gases.
Caillie, Rene-Auguste: the first European to survive a journey to the West African city of Tombouctou (Timbuktu).
caiman: any of several species of Central and South American reptiles that are related to alligators and are usually placed with them in the family Alligatoridae. Caimans, like all other members of the crocodile order (Crocodilia), are amphibious, lizardlike carnivores. They ...
caiman lizard: any member of a genus (Dracaena) of lizards in the family Teiidae. These lizards are found in the wet, forested areas of South America. D. guianensis reaches a length of 122 cm (48 inches).
Cain: in the Old Testament, first-born son of Adam and Eve, who murdered his brother Abel (Genesis 4:1-16). Cain, a farmer, became enraged when the Lord accepted the offering of his brother Abel, a shepherd, in preference to his own. He ...
Cain, James M.: novelist whose violent, sexually obsessed, and relentlessly paced melodramas epitomized the "hard-boiled" school of writing that flourished in the United States in the 1930s and '40s. Three classics of the American screen were made from his novels: Double Indemnity (1936, ...
Caine, Sir Hall: British writer known for his popular novels combining sentiment, moral fervour, skillfully suggested local atmosphere, and strong characterization.
Caine, Sir Michael: internationally successful British motion-picture actor renowned for his versatility in numerous leading and character roles.
Cainite: member of a Gnostic sect mentioned by Irenaeus and other early Christian writers as flourishing in the 2nd century AD, probably in the eastern area of the Roman Empire. The Christian theologian Origen declared that the Cainites had "entirely abandoned ...
Caird, Edward: philosopher and leader in Britain of the Neo-Hegelian school.
Caird, John: British theologian and preacher, and an exponent of theism in Hegelian terms.
Cairene rug: Egyptian floor covering believed to have been made in or near Cairo from at least as early as the 15th century to the 18th. The early production, under the Mamluk dynasty, is characterized by geometric, centralized schemes featuring large and ...
cairn: a pile of stones that is used as a boundary marker, a memorial, or a burial site. Cairns are usually conical in shape and were often erected on high ground. Burial cairns date primarily from the Neolithic Period and the ...
cairn terrier: working terrier breed developed in Scotland to rout animals that prey on game. The modern breed's characteristics are carefully patterned on those of the dog's ancestor, a 17th-century terrier of the Isle of Skye. The cairn terrier is a short-legged ...
Cairnes, John Elliott: Irish economist who restated the key doctrines of the English classical school in his last and largest work, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874).
Cairngorm Mountains: highest mountain massif in the British Isles, named after one of its peaks-Cairn Gorm, with an elevation of 4,084 feet (1,245 metres)-part of the Grampian Mountains in the Highlands of Scotland between the Spey and Dee river valleys. The mountains ...
Cairns: city and port, northeastern Queensland, Australia, on Trinity Inlet of Trinity Bay. Founded in the 1870s as a government customs collection point, it grew in the late 19th century as the result of gold discoveries along the Hodgkinson and Palmer ...
Cairo: city, capital of Egypt, and largest city in Africa. It has stood for more than 1,000 years on the same site on the banks of the Nile, primarily on the eastern shore, some 500 miles (800 km) downstream from the ...
Cairo: city, seat (1860) of Alexander county, extreme southern Illinois, U.S. The city stands on a low-lying delta at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Bridges over both rivers connect the city with Kentucky (east) and Missouri (west). Cairo ...
Cairo Conference: (November-December 1943), either of two meetings of Allied leaders held in Cairo during World War II. At the first Cairo Conference (November 22-26), British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed plans for the prosecution of ...
Cairoli, Benedetto: politician, leader of the left during the Risorgimento, and three times premier of united Italy.
caisson: in engineering, boxlike structure used in construction work underwater or as a foundation. It is usually rectangular or circular in plan and may be tens of metres in diameter.
Caitanya: Hindu mystic whose mode of worshipping the god Krishna (Krsna) with ecstatic song and dance had a profound effect on Vaisnavism in Bengal.
Caitanya sect: intensely emotional form of Hinduism that has flourished from the 16th century, mainly in Bengal and eastern Orissa, India. It takes its name from the medieval saint Caitanya (Chaitanya; 1485-1533), whose fervent devotion to Lord Krishna (Krsna) inspired the movement. ...
Caithness: historic county in extreme northern Scotland, facing the Atlantic Ocean and the Pentland Firth (which separates it from the Orkney Islands) on the north and the North Sea on the east. It contains Dunnet Head, the northernmost point in Great ...
caitya: (Sanskrit: "that which is worthy to be gazed upon," thus "worshipful"), in Buddhism, a sacred place or object. Originally, caityas were said to be the natural homes of earth spirits and were most often recognized in small stands of trees ...
Caius, John: prominent Humanist and physician whose classic account of the English sweating sickness is considered one of the earliest histories of an epidemic.
Cajamarca: department (formed 1855), northern Peru, bounded north by Ecuador and east by the Maranon River. It has an area of 13,675 sq mi (35,418 sq km). Economic activity is limited mainly to cattle raising and agriculture. Crops vary with climate ...
Cajamarca: city, northern Peru, lying at 9,022 feet (2,750 metres) above sea level on the Cajamarca River. An ancient Inca city, it was the site of the capture, ransom, and execution of the Inca chief Atahuallpa by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro ...
Cajazeiras: city, western Paraiba state, northeastern Brazil. Founded in about 1700, Cajazeiras is a transportation and commercial centre for the surrounding agricultural lands. The principal commodities include cotton, sugar, oiticica oil (used in paint and varnish), and fruit. It is the ...
Cajetan: one of the major Catholic theologians of the Thomist school.
Cajetan of Thiene, Saint: Venetian priest who co-founded the Theatine order and became an important figure of the Catholic Reformation.
Cajori, Florian: Swiss-born U.S. educator and mathematician whose works on the history of mathematics were among the most eminent of his time.
Cajun: descendant of French Canadians whom the British, in the 18th century, drove from the captured French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and adjacent areas) and who settled in the fertile bayou lands of southern Louisiana. The Cajuns today form ...
Cakchiquel: Mayan Indian people of the midwestern highlands of Guatemala, closely related linguistically and culturally to the neighbouring Quiche and Tzutujil (qq.v.). They are agricultural, and their culture and religion are fusions of Spanish and Mayan elements. The sharing of a ...
Cakchiquel language: member of the Quiche group of Mayan languages, spoken in central Guatemala. Closely related to and sometimes considered simply a dialect of Cakchiquel is Tzutujil (Zutuhil), spoken in the same region. Both Cakchiquel and Tzutujil have close grammatical and phonological ...
cake: in general, any of a variety of breads, shortened or unshortened, usually shaped by the tin in which it is baked; more specifically, a sweetened bread, often rich or delicate.
cake urchin: any of the echinoid marine invertebrates of the order Clypeastroida (phylum Echinodermata), in which the body is flattened. The surface is covered with short spines (often furlike) and inconspicuous pedicellariae (pincerlike organs). In many species the hollow, slightly elongated test ...
cakewalk: couple dance that became a popular stage act for virtuoso dancers as well as a craze in fashionable ballrooms around 1900. Couples formed a square with the men on the inside and, stepping high to a lively tune, strutted around ...
Cakmak, Fevzi: Turkish marshal and statesman who played a leading role in the establishment of the Turkish Republic.
Cakste, Janis: patriot and president (1922-27) of the Republic of Latvia, who, through political activity in Latvia and Russia and on diplomatic missions to the West, helped spearhead Latvia's struggle for independence.
Calabar: town and port, capital of Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. It lies along the Calabar River, 5 miles (8 km) upstream from that river's entrance into the Cross River estuary. Settled in the early 17th century by the Efik branch ...
calabash tree: (Crescentia cujete), tree of the family Bignoniaceae, 6 to 12 m (20 to 40 feet) tall, that grows in Central and South America, the West Indies, and extreme southern Florida. It is often grown as an ornamental. The calabash tree ...
calabazilla: (Cucurbita foetidissima), perennial prostrate vine of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to southwestern North America. A calabazilla has triangular, long-stalked, finely toothed leaves, yellow flowers about 6.3 to 10.2 cm (2.5 to 4 inches) wide, and inedible, orange-shaped, predominantly green ...
Calabozo: city, Guarico estado ("state"), central Venezuela. It lies along the Guarico River, 110 miles (180 km) south-southwest of Caracas, on a piedmont plain between the mountains and the Llanos (plains). Founded in 1695, Calabozo was formerly an administrative centre. It ...
Calabria: regione, southern Italy, composed of the province of Catanzaro, Cosenza, Crotone, Reggio di Calabria, and Vibo Valentia. Sometimes referred to as the "toe" of the Italian "boot," Calabria is a peninsula of irregular shape, jutting out in a northeast-southwest direction ...
Calabrian Stage: all those rocks deposited worldwide during the Calabrian Age (1,600,000-10,000 years ago). The stage's name is derived from the region of Calabria in southern Italy, which has traditionally served as the type district for rocks of this age. The Calabrian ...