Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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disposable income ... Diwali

disposable income: that portion of an individual's income over which the recipient has complete discretion. An accurate general definition of income is not easy to provide. Income includes wages and salaries, interest and dividend payments from financial assets, and rents and net ...
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl Of Beaconsfield, Viscount Hughenden Of Hughenden: British statesman and novelist who was twice prime minister (1868, 1874-80) and who provided the Conservative Party with a twofold policy of Tory democracy and imperialism.
dissociation: in chemistry, the breaking up of a compound into simpler constituents that are usually capable of recombining under other conditions. In electrolytic, or ionic, dissociation, the addition of a solvent or of energy in the form of heat causes molecules ...
distance-measuring equipment: in aerial navigation, equipment for measuring distance by converting the time a special electronic pulse takes to travel from an aircraft to a ground station and for an answering pulse to return. The airborne equipment displays the information to the ...
distillation: process involving the conversion of a liquid into vapour that is subsequently condensed back to liquid form. It is exemplified at its simplest when steam from a kettle becomes deposited as drops of distilled water on a cold surface. Distillation ...
distilled spirit: alcoholic beverage (such as brandy, whisky, rum, or arrack) that is obtained by distillation from wine or other fermented fruit or plant juice or from a starchy material (such as various grains) that has first been brewed. The alcoholic content ...
Distinguished Service Order: British military decoration awarded to officers who have performed meritorious or distinguished service in war. The decoration, instituted by Queen Victoria in 1886, entitles recipients to add D.S.O. after their names. Foreign officers associated with British forces can become holders ...
distortion: in acoustics and electronics, any change in a signal that alters the basic waveform or the relationship between various frequency components; it is usually a degradation of the signal. Straight amplification or attenuation without alteration of the waveform is not ...
distress: in law, process that enables a person to seize and detain from a wrongdoer some chattel, or item of personal property, as a pledge for the redressing of an injury, the performance of a duty, or the satisfaction of a ...
distress signal: a method by which a ship at sea can summon assistance. Distress signals are fixed by custom and by internationally agreed-on rules of the road at sea. The most important are: (1) visual signals, such as a flame, a red ...
distribution: in syllogistics, the application of a term of a proposition to the entire class that the term denotes. A term is said to be distributed in a given proposition if that proposition implies all other propositions that differ from it ...
distribution function: mathematical expression that describes the probability that a system will take on a specific value or set of values. The classic examples are associated with games of chance. The binomial distribution gives the probabilities that heads will come up a ...
distribution theory: in economics, the systematic attempt to account for the sharing of the national income among the owners of the factors of production-land, labour, and capital. Traditionally, economists have studied how the costs of these factors and the size of their ...
distributive law: in mathematics, the law relating the operations of multiplication and addition, stated symbolically, a(b + c) = ab + ac; that is, the monomial factor a is distributed, or separately applied, to each term of the binomial factor b + c, resulting in the product ab + ac. From this ...
District of Columbia: federal district, eastern United States, on the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (q.v.).
District of Columbia, University of the: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Washington, D.C., U.S. It is the only public institution of higher education in the district, and it was the first exclusively urban land-grant university. There are three campuses-the Georgia/Harvard Street campus, the Mount ...
disturbing the peace: any of three distinct types of legal offense. In its broadest sense, the term is synonymous with crime itself and means an indictable offense. In another and more common sense, however, the phrase includes only those crimes that are punishable ...
Ditch, Battle of the: (The Ditch), an early Muslim victory that ultimately forced the Meccans to recognize the political and religious strength of the Muslim community in Medina.
Dithmarschen: area on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula between the Eider and Elbe rivers, now included in the Land (state) of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, but down to 1866 a semi-independent territory under the king of Denmark. First mentioned in the ...
dithyramb: a choric poem, chant, or hymn of ancient Greece sung by revelers at the festival in honour of the god Dionysus. The form originated about the 7th century BC in the songs of banqueters under the leadership of a man ...
dittany: any of several plants: European dittany (see gas plant), Maryland dittany (Cunila origanoides), and Crete dittany (Origanum dictamnus). The last two mentioned are of the mint family (Lamiaceae), order Lamiales. C. origanoides, common in dry woodlands and prairies, was once ...
Ditters von Dittersdorf, Carl: violinist and composer of instrumental music and of light operas that established the form of the Singspiel (a comic 18th-century opera in the German language).
Diu: town, Daman and Diu union territory, western India. It is situated on an island in the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) of the Arabian Sea, off the southern tip of the Kathiawar Peninsula in southeastern Gujarat state. Diu Island is about ...
diuretic: any drug that increases the flow of urine. Diuretics promote the removal from the body of excess water, salts, poisons, and accumulated metabolic products, such as urea. They serve to rid the body of excess fluid (edema) that accumulates in ...
diurnal motion: apparent daily motion of the heavens from east to west in which celestial objects seem to rise and set, a phenomenon that results from the Earth's rotation from west to east. The axis of this apparent motion coincides with the ...
Divakarapandita: Hindu of the Brahman (priestly) caste who rose through religious and administrative ranks to serve four Cambodian kings-Harshavarman II, Jayavarman VI, Dharanindravarman I, and the great Suryavarman II-and who was the most trusted adviser to three of them.
divan: in Islamic societies, a "register," or logbook, and later a "finance department," "government bureau," or "administration." The first divan appeared under the caliph 'Umar I (634-644) as a pensions list, recording free Arab warriors entitled to a share of the ...
diverticulum: any small pouch or sac that forms in the wall of a major organ of the human body. Diverticula form most commonly in the esophagus, small intestine, and large intestine and are most often a problem in the latter organ. ...
divertimento: 18th-century musical genre of a light and entertaining nature usually consisting of several movements for strings, winds, or both. The movements included sonata forms, variation forms, dances, and rondos. One of Joseph Haydn's numerous divertimenti is a sextet written for ...
dividend: an individual share of earnings distributed among stockholders of a corporation or company in proportion to their holdings and as determined by the class of their holdings. Dividends are usually payable in cash, although sometimes distributions are made in the ...
divider: instrument for measuring, transferring, or marking off distances, consisting of two straight adjustable legs hinged together and ending in sharp points. It is used principally in drafting for the accurate transfer of dimensions from a measuring scale and in machine ...
divination: the practice of determining the hidden significance or cause of events, sometimes foretelling the future, by various natural, psychological, and other techniques. Found in all civilizations, both ancient and modern, it is encountered most frequently in contemporary mass society in ...
Divine Comedy, The: long narrative poem written c. 1310-14 by Dante (q.v.). It is usually held to be one of the world's great works of literature. Divided into three major sections-Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso-the narrative traces the journey of Dante from darkness and ...
divine office: in various Christian churches, the public service of praise and worship consisting of psalms, hymns, prayers, readings from the Fathers of the early church, and other writings. Recurring at various times during the day and night, it is intended to ...
divine right of kings: doctrine in defense of monarchical absolutism, which asserted that kings derived their authority from God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament. Originating in Europe, the divine-right theory can ...
Divine Word Missionary: a Roman Catholic religious organization, composed of priests and brothers, founded in 1875 at Steyl, Neth., by Arnold Janssen to work in the foreign missions. Its members are engaged in all phases of missionary activity, from teaching in universities, colleges, ...
Divine, Father: prominent African-American religious leader of the 1930s. The Depression-era movement he founded, the Peace Mission, was originally dismissed as a cult, but it still exists and is now generally hailed as an important precursor of the Civil Rights Movement.
diving: sport of plunging into water, usually head foremost, performed with the addition of gymnastic and acrobatic stunts. In its more elaborate, acrobatic form, diving originated in Europe early in the 19th century as a diversion of gymnasts and as a ...
diving bell: small diving apparatus that is used to transport divers between the seafloor or lower depths and the surface. Early bells consisted of a container open only at the bottom, usually provided with a source of compressed air. Though the diving ...
diving duck: any duck that obtains its food by diving to the bottom in deep water rather than by dabbling in shallows (see dabbling duck). On the basis of kinship and to the degree that it likes a marine environment, a diving ...
diving petrel: any of five species of small seabirds of the sub-Antarctic regions that constitute the family Pelecanoididae (order Procellariiformes). Although their nearest relatives are the storm petrels, shearwaters, and albatrosses, diving petrels differ from these long-winged forms and instead resemble the ...
diving suit: watertight costume for underwater use, connected to the surface or to a diving bell by a tube that provides the wearer with air. The suit, invented early in the 19th century, consists of a watertight covering, weighted boots, and a ...
Divini, Eustachio: Italian scientist, one of the first to develop the technology necessary for producing scientific optical instruments.
divining rod: instrument used in dowsing (q.v.).
Divinopolis: city, south-central Minas Gerais estado (state), Brazil. It is situated in highlands at 2,205 feet (672 metres) above sea level, near the Para River. It was made the seat of a municipality in 1911 and gained city ...
division: in modern military organizations, the smallest formation that comprises a balanced team of all the arms and services needed for the independent conduct of operations. It usually numbers between 12,000 and 20,000 men and is commanded by a major general. ...
divisionism: in painting, the practice of separating colour into individual dots or strokes of pigment. It formed the technical basis for Neo-Impressionism. Following the rules of contemporary colour theory, Neo-Impressionist artists such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac applied contrasting dots ...
Divo: town, south-central Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It is the chief collecting centre among the Dida people for the bananas, pineapples, coffee, cocoa, timber, and rubber grown in the surrounding area for export. The town is the site of a government ...
divorce: the act by which a valid marriage is dissolved, usually freeing the parties to remarry. In regions in which ancient religious authority still predominates, divorce may be difficult and rare, especially when, as among Roman Catholics and Hindus, the religious ...
Divrigi: town, central Turkey. It is situated near the Caltisuyu River, which is a tributary of the Euphrates. The town lies near the end of a fertile valley surrounded by orchards and gardens and below a small hill dominated by a ...
Diwali: one of the major religious festivals in Hinduism, lasting for five days from the 13th day of the dark half of the lunar month Ashvina to the second day of the light half of Karttika. (The corresponding dates in the ...