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Encyclopedias since 1768

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Euglena ... Eureka Stockade

Euglena: genus of single-celled organisms with both plant and animal characteristics. It is considered a member of the protozoan order Euglenida or a member of the algal division Euglenophyta. The genus is characterized by an elongated cell (15 to 500 micrometres, ...
euglossine bee: any of a large group of brightly coloured, bees important to the ecology of New World tropical forests. Colour combinations include metallic blues, greens, and bronzes. They are noted for their long tongues and their role in the pollination of ...
Euhemerus: Greek mythographer who established the tradition of seeking an actual historical basis for mythical beings and events. It is thought he was born at Messina, though some claim he was born at Chios, Tegea, or Messene in the Peloponnesus. He ...
eukaryote: any cell or organism that possesses a clearly defined nucleus; this description excludes bacteria and blue-green algae. The eukaryotic cell has a nuclear membrane, well-defined chromosomes (bodies containing the hereditary material), mitochondria (cellular energy exchangers), a Golgi apparatus (secretory device), ...
eulachon: species of smelt (q.v.).
Eulalius: antipope from December 418 to April 419. He was an archdeacon set up against Pope St. Boniface I by a clerical faction. The rivalry that ensued led to the first interference of the temporal authorities in papal elections. Both the ...
Eulenburg, Botho, Graf zu: Prussian statesman associated with the Conservative Party in imperial Germany.
Eulenburg, Philipp, Furst zu: diplomat and intimate friend and adviser of the German emperor William II.
Eulenkrug: south German mid-16th-century owl jugs. Few examples of this early faience are known, and they range in date from 1540 to 1561. Originating in Nurnberg, the vessels are shaped as owls, with detachable head (to be used as a cup), ...
Eulenspiegel, Till: German peasant trickster whose merry pranks were the source of numerous folk and literary tales. The historical Till is said to have been born at Kneitlingen, Brunswick, and to have died in 1350 at Molln, Schleswig-Holstein, where his gravestone has ...
Euler characteristic: in mathematics, a number, C, which is a characterization of the various classes of geometric figures based only on the topological relationship between the numbers of vertices, V, edges, E, and faces, F, of a geometric figure. This number, given ...
Euler, Leonhard: Swiss mathematician and physicist, one of the founders of pure mathematics. He not only made decisive and formative contributions to the subjects of geometry, calculus, mechanics, and number theory but also developed methods for solving problems in observational astronomy and ...
Euler, Ulf von: Swedish physiologist who, with British biophysicist Sir Bernard Katz and American biochemist Julius Axelrod, received the 1970 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. All three were honoured for their independent study of the mechanics of nerve impulses.
Euler-Chelpin, Hans von: Swedish biochemist who shared the 1929 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Sir Arthur Harden for work on the role of enzymes in the fermentation of sugar.
eulite: silicate mineral belonging to the orthopyroxene (q.v.) series.
Eumenes: Greek general who upheld the cause of the Macedonian royal house in the civil war that followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323.
Eumenes I: ruler of Pergamum, in Mysia, from 263 to 241 who, in 262, liberated his city from the overlordship of the Seleucids, a dynasty founded in Syria by one of the successors of Alexander the Great. Eumenes succeeded his uncle Philetaerus ...
Eumenes II: king of Pergamum from 197 until his death. A brilliant statesman, he brought his small kingdom to the peak of its power and did more than any other Attalid monarch to make Pergamum a great centre of Greek culture in ...
Eumenius: Roman orator and teacher of rhetoric, born in Augustodunum, Gaul (now Autun, Fr.), who was the author of Oratio pro instaurandis scholis ("Oration on the Restoration of the Schools"), an interesting document on the education of his time as well ...
eumolpique: poetic measure devised by the French poet and composer Antoine Fabre d'Olivet (1767-1825). It consists of two unrhymed alexandrines (lines of iambic hexameter), the first verse of 12 syllables ending in masculine (stressed) rhyme, the second of 13 syllables ending ...
Eumolpus: mythical ancestor of the priestly clan of the Eumolpids at Eleusis, a city in ancient Greece, and the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the best known of the Greek mystery cults. His name (meaning "good" or "strong singer"; i.e., a ...
Eunapius: Greek rhetorician and historiographer whose Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists is important as a source of information on contemporary Neoplatonists (edited with Latin translation by J.F. Boissonade, 1849; with English translation by W.C. Wright, Philostratus and Eunapius, 1922).
Eunomius: extreme proponent of Arianism (q.v.). With the Arian philosopher and bishop Aetius, he established the Eunomian sect (see Anomoean), which, although it had an ecclesiastical organization (centred on Constantinople) and several bishops, did not long survive Eunomius.
Eunotosaurus: genus of extinct reptiles found as fossils in Permian deposits of South Africa (the Permian Period lasted from 286 to 245 million years ago). It has been suggested that Eunotosaurus may be the ancestral form from which the turtles evolved. ...
eunuch: castrated human male. From remote antiquity, eunuchs were employed in the Middle East and in China in two main functions: as guards and servants in harems or other women's quarters, and as chamberlains to kings. Eunuchs were considered the most ...
Eunus: leader of a slave revolt against the Romans in Sicily from 135 to 132 BC.
Euonymus: genus of about 170 species of shrubs, woody climbers, and small trees, in the staff tree family (Celastraceae), native to temperate Asia, North America, and Europe. The genus includes many popular landscape ornamental shrubs and ground covers.
Euoplocephalus: armoured North American dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous Period (99 million to 65 million years ago). Like its close relative Ankylosaurus and the more distantly related Nodosaurus, Euoplocephalus was a massive ...
Euparkeria: extinct genus of reptiles that may have been ancestral to the major reptilian groups of the Mesozoic era; specimens are found as fossils in Early Triassic rocks of South Africa (245 to 240 million years ago). Euparkeria was about 1 ...
Eupatorium: large genus of plants belonging to the family Compositae and containing about 600 species, nearly all American and found chiefly in tropical South America, the West Indies, and Mexico. They are mostly perennial herbs, but a few are annuals, and ...
eupatrid: (Greek: "of a good father"), member of the nobility of ancient Athens. It is likely that public office before 594 BC was in practice confined to the eupatridae and that they had a political monopoly comparable to that of other ...
Eupen-et-Malmedy: region in Verviers arrondissement, Liege province, Wallonia region, Belgium. Eupen-et-Malmedy lies along the border with Germany and consists of the so-called cantons redimes ("redeemed cantons") of Eupen, Malmedy, and Sankt Vith. Until 1794 the region was part of the duchy ...
Euphemites: extinct genus of gastropods (snails) abundant during the Late Carboniferous Period (between 320 and 286 million years ago) in the shallow seas that covered the midcontinental region of North America. Euphemites was a small, globular snail with a broad and ...
euphonia: any of several tropical American birds of the tanager family. See tanager.
euphonium: brass wind instrument with valves, pitched in C or B♭ an octave below the trumpet; it is the leading instrument in the tenor-bass range in military bands. It was invented in 1843 by Sommer of Weimar and derived from the ...
euphony and cacophony: sound patterns used in verse to achieve opposite effects: euphony is pleasing and harmonious; cacophony is harsh and discordant. Euphony is achieved through the use of vowel sounds in words of generally serene imagery. Vowel sounds, which are more easily ...
Euphorbia: large and variable genus of shrubs, trees, and herbaceous plants, in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), characterized by a milky sap. The genus, which contains some 1,500-1,600 species, is also commonly called spurge (q.v.).
Euphorbiaceae: the spurge family of flowering plants, in the order Euphorbiales, containing some 7,500 species in 275 genera. Many members are important food sources; others are useful for their waxes and oils and as a source of medicinal drugs; dangerous for ...
Euphorbiales: order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Rosidae. In the strict sense, the order includes only one family, the Euphorbiaceae (spurge). Traditionally, however, a number of other families, especially Buxaceae (boxwood), have been included by various authors, ...
Euphorion: Greek poet and grammarian, of Chalcis in Euboea, whose poetry was highly regarded in Hellenistic literary circles and later among Catullus' generation of Roman poets in the 1st century BC.
Euphranor: Greek sculptor and painter from Corinth. In the Stoa Basileios at Athens he painted the "Twelve Gods," "Theseus with Democracy and Demos," and the cavalry engagement at Mantinea (362). At Ephesus he depicted the feigned madness of Odysseus. A statue ...
Euphrates Dam: dam on the Euphrates River in north-central Syria. The dam, which is located 30 miles (50 km) upriver from the town of Ar-Raqqah, was begun in 1968. Its construction prompted an intense archaeological excavation of the area around the town ...
Euphronius: one of the most celebrated Greek painters and potters of his time. He experimented with new ideas, forms, and designs within the context of the Archaic tradition. His signature has been identified on 17 vessels, 5 signed by him as ...
euphuism: an elegant Elizabethan literary style marked by excessive use of balance, antithesis, and alliteration and by frequent use of similes drawn from mythology and nature. The word is also used to denote artificial elegance. It was derived from the name ...
Eupolis: one of the leading Athenian poets of the vigorous and satirical Old Comedy, and a rival of Aristophanes.
Eupteleaceae: family of dicotyledonous flowering plants with one genus, Euptelea, and two species of trees or large shrubs. The group is characterized by alternately arranged, simple, deciduous, marginally toothed leaves; bisexual flowers with 6 to 18 pistils (female organs) on short ...
Eure River: river in northern France, a left-bank tributary of the Seine, with a length of 140 miles (225 km). From its source in the Perche Hills, Orne departement, at an elevation of about 800 feet (240 m), to its confluence with ...
Eureka: city, port, and seat (1856) of Humboldt county, northern California, U.S. Lying on Humboldt Bay, Eureka is located 275 miles (440 km) north of San Francisco and about 90 miles (145 km) south of the border between Oregon and California. ...
Eureka: European cooperative organization inaugurated in April 1985 by 18 European nations and formally established with a secretariat in Brussels in 1986. Its purpose is to promote European high-technology industries by linking the efforts of various companies and channeling moneys for ...
Eureka: county, central Nevada, U.S. It is drained by the Humboldt River and Pine Creek. The Sulphur Springs, Fish Creek, and Cortez ranges cover the largely mountainous and arid area; the county is sparsely populated.
Eureka Stockade: (Dec. 3, 1854), the most celebrated rebellion in Australian history. It involved the gold prospectors of Ballarat, Victoria, and was named for the rebels' hastily constructed fortification in the Eureka goldfield.