Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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felsic rock ... Ferahan carpet

felsic rock: igneous rock dominated by the light-coloured, silicon- and aluminum-rich minerals feldspar and quartz (qq.v.). The presence of these minerals gives felsic rock its characteristic light gray colour. The silica (SiO₂) content of felsic rock is greater than about 60 percent ...
Felsina: city founded by Etruscans c. 510 BC on the site of modern Bologna, Italy, an area rich in Villanovan Iron Age remains. By the mid-4th century Felsina had fallen to invading Gauls (Boii tribe), who called it Bononia. Captured by ...
felting: consolidation of certain fibrous materials by the application of heat, moisture, and mechanical action, causing the interlocking, or matting, of fibres possessing felting properties. Such fibres include wool, fur, and certain hair fibres that mat together under appropriate conditions because ...
Felton, Rebecca Ann: American political activist, writer, and lecturer, the first woman seated in the U.S. Senate.
Feltre: hill town, Belluno provincia, Veneto regione, northern Italy. Grouped around Alboino Castle, notable buildings include the cathedral, with a 14th-century campanile and a carved Byzantine cross of the 6th century, and the civic museum. In 1509 the heart of the ...
feme sole: in Anglo-American common law, a woman in the unmarried state or in the legally established equivalent of that state. The concept derived from feudal Norman custom and was prevalent through periods when marriage abridged women's rights. Feme sole (Norman French ...
feminine ending: in prosody, a line of verse having an unstressed and usually extrametrical syllable at its end. In the opening lines from Robert Frost's poem "Directive," the fourth line has a feminine ending while the rest are masculine: Back out of ...
feminine rhyme: in poetry, a rhyme involving two syllables (as in motion and ocean or willow and billow). The term feminine rhyme is also sometimes applied to triple rhymes, or rhymes involving three syllables (such as exciting and inviting). Robert Browning alternates ...
feminism: the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.
femur: upper bone of the leg or hindleg. The head forms a ball-and-socket joint with the hip (at the acetabulum), being held in place by a ligament (ligamentum teres femoris) within the socket and by strong surrounding ligaments. In humans the ...
fen: type of bog (q.v.), especially a low-lying area, wholly or partly covered with water and dominated by grasslike plants, grasses, sedges, and reeds. In strict usage, a fen denotes an area in which the soil is organic (peaty) and alkaline ...
Fen River: river in Shansi sheng (province), northern China. The Fen River is an eastern tributary of the Huang Ho. After rising in the Kuan-ts'en Mountains in northwestern Shansi, it flows southeast into the basin of T'ai-yuan and then southwest through the ...
fence: barrier erected to confine or exclude people or animals, to define boundaries, or to decorate. Timber, earth, stone, and metal are widely used for fencing. Fences of living plants have been made in many places, such as the hedges of ...
fencing: organized sport involving the use of the sword-epee, foil, or sabre-for attack and defense according to set movements and rules. Although the use of swords dates to prehistoric times and swordplay to ancient civilizations, the organized sport of fencing began ...
Fender, Leo: American inventor and manufacturer of electronic musical instruments.
Fenech Adami, Eddie: Maltese political leader who became prime minister in 1987 and again in 1998.
Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-: French archbishop, theologian, and man of letters whose liberal views on politics and education and whose involvement in a controversy over the nature of mystical prayer caused concerted opposition from church and state. His pedagogical concepts and literary works, nevertheless, ...
Fenestella: genus of extinct bryozoans, small colonial animals, especially characteristic of the Early Carboniferous Period (360 to 320 million years ago). Close study of Fenestella reveals a branching network of structures with relatively large elliptical openings and smaller spherical openings that ...
Fenestella: Latin poet and annalist whose lost work, the Annales, apparently contained a valuable store of antiquarian matter as well as historical narrative of the final century of the Roman Republic. Fenestella was used as a source by the 1st-century-ad ...
Feng Kuei-fen: Chinese scholar and official whose ideas were the basis of the Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-95), in which the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911/12) introduced Western methods and technology in an attempt to renovate Chinese diplomatic, fiscal, educational, and military policy.
Feng Tao: Chinese Confucian minister generally given credit for instigating the first printing of the Confucian Classics, in 932. As a result, Confucian texts became cheap and accessible, the number of scholars and the knowledge of literature greatly increased throughout the nation, ...
Feng Yu-hsiang: Chinese warlord, known as the Christian General, who dominated parts of North China from 1918 to 1930.
Feng Yun-shan: Chinese missionary and social reformer, one of the original leaders of the Taiping Rebellion, an uprising that occupied most of South China between 1850 and 1864, brought death to an estimated 20,000,000 people, and radically altered governmental structure. Feng was ...
Feng-fa-yao: (Chinese: "Essentials of the Dharma"), discussion of Buddhist precepts written in the 4th century AD by Hsi Ch'ao, who, although Taoist, was a great admirer of Buddhism. One of the earliest discourses on the subject by a non-Buddhist, it is ...
Feng-hua: town, Chekiang sheng (province), eastern China. Located in a fertile plain area 17 miles (27 km) southwest of Ning-po, Feng-hua is an agricultural-trade centre (rice, wheat) and specializes in orchard crops, especially peaches and plums. The Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang ...
Feng-man Dam: hydroelectric and flood-control project on the Sungari River some 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Chi-lin (Kirin) in Kirin sheng (province), China. The dam was constructed by the Japanese between 1937 and 1942 simultaneously with the Sup'ung Dam in Liaoning ...
Feng-shan: shih (municipality) and seat of Kao-hsiung hsien (county), southwestern Taiwan, situated about 5 miles (8 km) east of Kao-hsiung shih in Taiwan's western coastal plain. Developed during a politically unsettled period of the 17th century in an interregnum dominated by ...
Feng-yuan: shih (municipality) and seat of T'ai-chung hsien (county), west-central Taiwan, situated about 7 miles (11 km) north of T'ai-chung city, in the western uplands. The city was developed during the reign of Ch'ien-lung (the 4th emperor of the Manchu [Ch'ing] ...
fenghuang: in Chinese mythology, an immortal bird whose rare appearance is said to be an omen foretelling harmony at the ascent to the throne of a new emperor. Like the qilin (a unicorn-like creature), the
Fenian: member of an Irish nationalist secret society active chiefly in Ireland, the United States, and Britain, especially during the 1860s. The name derives from the Fianna Eireann, the legendary band of Irish warriors led by the fictional Finn MacCumhaill (MacCool). ...
Fenian cycle: in Irish literature, tales and ballads centring on the deeds of the legendary Finn MacCumhaill (MacCool) and his war band, the Fianna Eireann. An elite volunteer corps of warriors and huntsmen, skilled in poetry, the Fianna flourished under the reign ...
Fenland: district, administrative and historic county of Cambridgeshire, England. The district, in northern Cambridgeshire, covers only a part of the drained area of the Fens, from which it takes its name. In addition to Wisbech, the administrative centre, it includes the ...
Fenn, John B.: American scientist who, with Tanaka Koichi and Kurt Wuthrich, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2002 for developing techniques to identify and analyze proteins and other large biological molecules.
fennec: (species Fennecus zerda), desert-dwelling fox, family Canidae, found in north Africa and the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas. The fennec is characterized by its small size (head and body length 36-41 cm [14-16 inches], weight about 1.5 kg [3.3 pounds]) and ...
fennel: (species Foeniculum vulgare), perennial or biennial aromatic herb of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). According to a Greek myth, knowledge came to man from Olympus in the form of a fiery coal contained in a fennel stalk. Native to southern Europe ...
Fenno, John: publisher and editor, founder in 1789 of the Gazette of the United States, a major political organ of the Federalist Party.
Fennoman movement: in 19th-century Finnish history, nationalist movement that contributed to the development of the Finnish language and literature and achieved for Finnish a position of official equality with Swedish-the language of the dominant minority.
Fenoglio, Beppe: Italian novelist who wrote of the struggle against fascism and Nazism during World War II. Much of his best work was not published until after his death.
Fenollosa, Ernest F.: American Orientalist and educator who made a significant contribution to the preservation of traditional art in Japan.
Fenrir: monstrous wolf of Norse mythology. He was the son of the demoniac god Loki and a giantess, Angerboda. Fearing Fenrir's strength and knowing that only evil could be expected of him, the gods bound him with a magical chain made ...
Fens: natural region of about 15,500 sq mi (40,100 sq km) of reclaimed marshland in eastern England, extending north to south between Lincoln and Cambridge. Across its surface the Rivers Witham, Welland, Nen, and Ouse flow into the North Sea indentation ...
fentanyl: -(1-phenethyl-4-piperidyl)propionanilide, synthetic narcotic analgesic drug, the most potent narcotic in clinical use (50 to 100 times more potent than morphine). The citrate salt, fentanyl citrate, is administered by injection, either intramuscularly or intravenously, sometimes in combination with ...
Fenton, Elijah: English poet perhaps best known for his collaboration in a translation of the Greek epic poem Odyssey with Alexander Pope and William Broome.
Fenton, Lavinia: English actress and colourful social figure who created the role of Polly Peachum in John Gay's masterwork, The Beggar's Opera.
Fenton, Roger: English photographer best known for his pictures of the Crimean War, which were the first extensive photographic documents of a war.
fenugreek: (species Trigonella foenum-graecum), slender annual herb of the pea family (Fabaceae) or its dried seeds, used as a food, a flavouring, and a medicine. The seeds' aroma and taste are strong, sweetish, and somewhat bitter, reminiscent of burnt sugar. They ...
Feodosiya: city, southern Ukraine. It lies on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula on the western shores of Feodosiya Bay.
feoffment: in English law, the granting of a free inheritance of land (fee simple) to a man and his heirs. The delivery of possession (livery of seisin) was done on the site of the land and was made by the feoffor ...
Feoktistov, Konstantin Petrovich: Russian spacecraft designer and cosmonaut who took part, with Vladimir M. Komarov and Boris B. Yegorov, in the world's first multimanned spaceflight, Voskhod 1 (1964).
fer-de-lance: (genus Bothrops), extremely venomous snake of the viper family (Viperidae), found throughout tropical America in diverse habitats from cultivated lands to tropical forests. The fer-de-lance, known in Spanish as barba amarilla ("yellow chin"), is a pit viper (subfamily Crotalinae)-i.e., distinguished ...
Ferahan carpet: handwoven floor covering from the Farahan district, northeast of Arak in western Iran, produced in the 19th or early 20th century. Like the rugs of Ser-e Band, Ferahans have been prized for their sturdy construction and their quiet, allover patterning. ...