Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Deutschlandlied ... Dewey, George

Deutschlandlied: ("Germany, Germany above all"), national anthem of Germany from 1922 to 1945, of West Germany from 1950 to 1990, and of unified Germany from 1990. The verses were written in 1848 by the nationalist poet and university professor August Heinrich ...
deva: in Vedic India, one of many divine powers, roughly divided on the basis of their identification with the forces of nature into sky, air, and earth divinities (e.g., Varuna, Indra, Soma). In the later monotheistic systems the devas became subordinate ...
Deva: city, capital of Hunedoara judet (county), west-central Romania, on the banks of the Mures River, at an elevation of 590 feet (180 m). The town is dominated by Citadel Hill (1,217 feet), shaped like a truncated cone, which affords a ...
Devadasi: (Sanskrit: Handmaiden of the God), caste of women connected originally with great temples in southern India, where they dedicated themselves to the service of each temple's patron god.
Devadatta: Buddhist monk who sought to reform the sangha (the Buddhist monastic community) by imposing upon it a stricter code of life. He was a cousin of the Buddha.
devaluation: reduction in the exchange value of a country's monetary unit in terms of gold, silver, or foreign monetary units. Devaluation is employed to eliminate persistent balance-of-payments deficits. For example, a devaluation of currency will decrease prices of the home country's ...
Devanagari: Indian script used to write the Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, and Marathi languages, developed from the North Indian monumental script known as Gupta and ultimately from the Brahmi alphabet, from which all modern Indian writing systems are derived. In use from ...
devaraja: in ancient Cambodia, the cult of the "god-king" established early in the 9th century AD by Jayavarman II, founder of the Khmer empire of Angkor. For centuries, the cult provided the religious basis of the royal authority of the Khmer ...
Devawongse Varoprakar, Prince: foreign minister of Siam from 1885 to 1923, whose policies enabled the kingdom to survive as an independent state.
development: in biology, the progressive changes in size, shape, and function during the life of an organism by which its genetic potentials (genotype) are translated into functioning adult systems (phenotype).
development bank: national or regional financial institution designed to provide medium- and long-term capital for productive investment, often accompanied by technical assistance, in poor countries.
developmental psychology: the branch of psychology concerned with the changes in cognitive, motivational, psychophysiological, and social functioning that occur throughout the human life span. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, developmental psychologists were concerned primarily with child psychology. In the 1950s, ...
Deventer: gemeente (commune), Overijssel provincie, east-central Netherlands, on the IJssel River at the west end of the Overijssel Canal. Deventer developed in the 8th century around a chapel established by St. Lebuinus. During the Middle Ages it prospered as a member ...
Deventer, Conrad Theodor van: Dutch jurist and statesman whose pamphlet Een eereschuld ("A Debt of Honour") and ideas had a profound influence on the development of the colonial Ethical Policy in the Dutch East Indies.
devequt: (Hebrew: "attachment"), in Jewish religious thought, an adherence to or communion with God that stops short of mystical union. The notion of devequt apparently derived from the biblical reference to "loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, ...
Devers, Gail: American track athlete who overcame physical adversity to win Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996.
Devers, Jacob L.: U.S. general during World War II, whose 6th Army Group successfully penetrated German-held positions in central Europe and helped wrest the mainland from Nazi control.
Devey, George: British architect who influenced nonacademic architects in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
devil: (from Greek diabolos, "slanderer," or "accuser"), the spirit or power of evil. Though sometimes used for minor demonic spirits, the word devil generally refers to the prince of evil spirits and as such takes various forms in the religions of ...
devil ray: any of several genera of marine rays comprising the family Mobulidae (class Selachii). Flattened, and wider than they are long, devil rays have fleshy, enlarged pectoral fins that look like wings; extensions of these fins, looking like devils' horns, project ...
devil's advocate: in the Roman Catholic church, the promoter of the faith, who critically examines the life of and miracles attributed to an individual proposed for beatification or canonization. He is popularly called the devil's advocate because his presentation of facts includes ...
Deville, Edouard Gaston: French-born Canadian surveyor of Canadian lands (1875-1924) who perfected the first practical method of photogrammetry, or the making of maps based on photography.
Devils Island: rocky islet off the Atlantic coast of French Guiana. The smallest of the three Iles du Salut, about 10 miles (16 km) from the mainland and the Kourou River mouth, it is a narrow strip of land about 3,900 feet ...
Devils Lake: city, seat (1883) of Ramsey county, northeast-central North Dakota, U.S. It lies about 90 miles (145 km) west of Grand Forks.
Devils Postpile National Monument: scenic area in Madera county, east-central California, U.S. It is situated in Inyo National Forest on the Middle Fork San Joaquin River, about 12 miles (20 km) southeast of Yosemite National Park. The monument, which lies on the western slopes ...
Devils Tower National Monument: the first U.S. national monument, established in 1906 in northeastern Wyoming, near the Belle Fourche River. It encompasses 2.1 square miles (5.4 square km) and features a natural rock tower, the remnant of a volcanic intrusion now exposed by erosion.
devitrification: process by which glassy substances change their structure into that of crystalline solids. Most glasses are silicates in which the atomic structure does not have the repetitive arrangement required for the formation of crystals. Glass is formed by the cooling ...
Devizes: town ("parish"), Kennet district, administrative and historical county of Wiltshire, England. It lies along the disused Kennet and Avon Canal, at the edge of Roundway Down. It was the site of a Roman fortification, Castrum Divisarum; and Roger, bishop of ...
Devo: American new-wave band from Akron, Ohio, that took its name from devolution, the theory of mankind's regression that informed the band's music and stage act. The band members were Mark Mothersbaugh, Jerry Casale, Bob Mothersbaugh, Bob Casale, and Alan Myers. ...
Devolution, War of: (1667-68), conflict between France and Spain over possession of the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium).
Devon: administrative, geographic, and historic county of England, forming part of the Southwest Peninsula of Great Britain and bounded on the west by Cornwall and on the east by Dorset and Somerset. The administrative, geographic, and historic counties cover slightly different ...
Devonian Period: interval of the Paleozoic Era that follows the Silurian and precedes the Carboniferous. It is thought to have covered the span of time between about 408 and 360 million years ago (see ). The Devonian is often divided into the ...
Devonport: town, northern Tasmania, Australia. It lies near the mouth of the River Mersey, which empties into Bass Strait. One of the state's largest communities, it was formed through the amalgamation in 1893 of the villages of Torquay (east bank) and ...
Devonshire, Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th duke of, marquess of Hartington, earl of Devonshire, Baron Cavendish of Hardwick: British statesman whose opposition to the Irish Home Rule policy of his own Liberal Party caused him to assume (1886) the leadership of the Liberal Unionist Party and to become increasingly identified with the Conservatives. On three occasions (1880, 1886, ...
Devonshire, William Cavendish, 1st Duke of, Marquess Of Hartington, Earl Of Devonshire, Baron Cavendish Of Hardwick: a leader of the parliamentary movement that sought to exclude the Roman Catholic James, duke of York (afterward James II), from succession to the British throne and that later invited the invasion of William of Orange.
Devonshire, William Cavendish, 1st Earl of, Baron Cavendish Of Hardwick: first of the long line of Devonshire peers.
Devonshire, William Cavendish, 4th Duke of, Marquess Of Hartington, Earl Of Devonshire, Baron Cavendish Of Hardwick: prime minister of Great Britain from November 1756 to May 1757, at the start of the Seven Years' War.
devotio moderna: religious movement within Roman Catholicism from the end of the 14th to the 16th century stressing meditation and the inner life, attaching little importance to ritual and external works, and downgrading the highly speculative spirituality of the 13th and 14th ...
Devrient, Eduard: actor, director, manager, translator of Shakespeare into German, and author of the first detailed account of the development of the German theatre, Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (1848; "History of German Dramatic Art").
Devrient, Emil: German actor of the 19th century who gained prominence in youthful heroic parts.
Devrient, Karl August: German actor who achieved popularity in heroic and character roles such as the title roles of Friedrich von Schiller's Wallenstein, Goethe's Faust, and Shakespeare's King Lear.
Devrient, Ludwig: greatest and most original actor of the Romantic period in Germany, whose temperament, characterizations, and life invite comparison with his English contemporary Edmund Kean. Devrient's characterizations conformed to no existing school of acting and owed nothing to any previous performer.
Devrient, Max: German actor who excelled in tragic roles, particularly in the plays of Goethe, Schiller, and Shakespeare, but who was also much admired in comedy, especially as Petruchio in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
Devrient, Otto: German actor, director, producer, and playwright.
dew: deposit of waterdrops formed at night by the condensation of water vapour from the air onto the surfaces of objects freely exposed to the sky (see ). It forms on clear nights when the air is calm or, preferably, when ...
Dewantoro, Ki Hadjar: original name Raden Mas (Lord) Suwardi Surjaningrat founder of the Taman Siswa (literally "Garden of Students") school system, an influential and widespread network of schools that encouraged modernization but also promoted indigenous Indonesian culture.
Dewar, Sir James: British chemist and physicist whose study of low-temperature phenomena entailed the use of a double-walled vacuum flask of his own design which has been named for him.
Dewas: city, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It is located on the Malwa Plateau at the foot of the conical Chamunda Hill, which rises to a Devivasini shrine. Jaina and Hindu temple ruins lie just south of the city, in ...
dewberry: any blackberry of the genus Rubus (family Rosaceae) so lacking woody fibre in the stems that it trails along the ground. In the eastern and southern United States, several trailing native species of Rubus, especially R. flagellaris, R. baileyanus, R. ...
Dewey Decimal Classification: system for organizing the contents of a library based on the division of all knowledge into 10 groups, with each group assigned 100 numbers. The 10 main groups are: 000-099, general works; 100-199, philosophy and psychology; 200-299, religion; 300-399, social ...
Dewey, George: U.S. naval commander who defeated the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War (1898).