Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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fin whale ... fir

fin whale: a slender baleen whale, second in size to the blue whale and distinguishable by its asymmetrical coloration. The fin whale is generally gray with a white underside, but the right side of the head has a light gray area, a ...
finale: in music, the last and, as a rule, lively movement of a multimovement instrumental work, or the culminating section of an operatic act or scene, usually involving a vocal ensemble rather than a single singer. During the musical era dominated ...
finance: the process of raising funds or capital for any kind of expenditure. Consumers, business firms, and governments often do not have the funds available to make expenditures, pay their debts, or complete other transactions and must borrow or sell equity ...
finance company: specialized financial institution that supplies credit for the purchase of consumer goods and services by purchasing the time-sales contracts of merchants or by granting small loans directly to consumers. Specialized consumer-finance agencies now operate throughout western Europe, Canada, the United ...
Financial Times: morning daily newspaper published in London that has had strong influence on the financial policies of the British government. It is known as one of England's superior daily newspapers.
finch: any of several hundred species of small, conical-billed, seed-eating songbirds belonging to several families in the order Passeriformes. These families are the Fringillidae, Emberizidae, Estrildidae, Carduelidae, and Ploceidae (qq.v.), although authorities disagree as to which finchlike birds should be classified ...
Finch, Robert: American-born Canadian poet whose gift for satire found an outlet in lyrics characterized by irony, metaphysical wit, complex imagery, and a strong sense of form.
Findlay: city, seat (1828) of Hancock county, northwestern Ohio, U.S. It lies along the Blanchard River, 47 miles (76 km) south of Toledo. The site was laid out by Joseph Vance and Elnathan Cory in 1821 and named for Colonel James ...
Findley, Timothy: Canadian author known for his intelligent writing and storytelling. His subject matter is often the lives of troubled individuals.
Fine Arts, Museum of: museum in Caracas, Venez., containing a variety of international and Venezuelan art, and also possessing fine gardens. It adjoins the Gallery of National Art (Galeria de Arte Nacional), one of the few museums in South America founded to show the ...
Fine Arts, Museum of: cultural centre in Boston, Mass., U.S., whose balanced collections have made it one of the world's most comprehensive art museums. The museum was founded in 1870 with the art holdings of the Boston Athenaeum library as the nucleus of its ...
Fine Arts, Palace of: cultural centre in Mexico City that was built between 1904 and 1934. The palace contains a large theatre, concert hall, museum of popular arts, and halls and galleries for paintings and other works of art. Balcony lobbies display murals by ...
Fine Gael: centrist political party that has provided the major political opposition to the Fianna Fail party in Ireland.
fine structure: in spectroscopy, the splitting of the main spectral lines of an atom into two or more components, each representing a slightly different wavelength. Fine structure is produced when an atom emits light in making the transition from one energy state ...
finfoot: any of three species of medium-sized, semiaquatic birds constituting the family Heliornithidae (order Gruiformes). Characteristically, they are brown above and whitish below, with lobed feet. They are poor flyers, spending most of their time in shady, quiet rivers, half-submerged near ...
Fingal: county in the province of Leinster, east-central Ireland. The county of Fingal was created in 1994 when County Dublin was split administratively into three separate councils. Area 176 square miles (455 square km). Pop. (2002) 196,413.
finger: ancient and medieval measure of 18yard, or 4 12inches (11.4 cm), used primarily to measure lengths of cloth. The finger derives ultimately from the digitus, the smallest of the basic Roman linear measures. From the
Finger Lakes: group of narrow, glacial lakes in west-central New York state, U.S. They lie in north-south valleys between the vicinity of Syracuse (east) and Geneseo (west). The region, which embraces more than a dozen state parks, is noted for its scenery, ...
fingerfish: any of the half dozen species of fishes in the family Monodactylidae (order Perciformes), found from the Atlantic coast of western Africa to the Indo-Pacific region and usually inhabiting inshore or estuarine waters. They are extremely compressed and deep-bodied and ...
fingerprint: impression made by the papillary ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs. Fingerprints afford an infallible means of personal identification, because the ridge arrangement on every finger of every human being is unique and does not alter with ...
finial: in architecture, the decorative upper termination of a pinnacle, gable end, buttress, canopy, or spire. In the Romanesque and Gothic styles, it usually consists of a vertical, pointed central element surrounded by four outcurving leaves or scrolls. When the form ...
Finiguerra, Maso: Renaissance goldsmith, engraver, draftsman, and designer, known for his work in niello, a type of decorative metalwork, and as one of the first major Italian printmakers.
Finisterre Range: mountain range at the base of the Huon Peninsula, northeastern Papua New Guinea. It comprises a section of the northern boundary of the great Central Depression. Tributaries rising in this range feed the Markham and Ramu rivers, which flow in ...
Fink, Albert: German-born American railroad engineer and executive who was the first to investigate the economics of railroad operation on a systematic basis. He was also inventor of the Fink truss, used to support bridges and the roofs of buildings.
Fink, Mike: American keelboatman of the Old West, who became the legendary hero of the American tall tale.
Fink, Theodore: Australian politician and publisher, noted for his interests in education.
Finke River: major but intermittent river of central Australia that rises south of Mount Ziel in the MacDonnell Ranges of south-central Northern Territory. The Finke passes through Glen Helen Gorge and Palm Valley and then meanders generally southeast over the Missionary Plain. ...
Finland: European country. It is one of the world's most northern and geographically remote countries and is subject to a severe climate. It is bordered on the north by Norway, on the northwest by Sweden, on the southwest by the Gulf ...
Finland, Church of: national church of Finland, which changed from the Roman Catholic to the Lutheran faith during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Christianity was known in Finland as early as the 11th century, and in the 12th century Henry, bishop ...
Finland, Gulf of: easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland (north) and Russia and Estonia (east and south). Covering an area of 11,600 square miles (30,000 square km), the gulf extends for 250 miles (400 km) from east to west but only ...
Finlay, Carlos J.: Cuban epidemiologist who discovered that yellow fever is transmitted from infected to healthy humans by a mosquito. Although he published experimental evidence of this discovery in 1886, his ideas were ignored for 20 years.
Finlay, George: British historian and participant in the War of Greek Independence (1821-32) who is known principally for his histories of Greece and the Byzantine Empire.
Finley, Charlie: American insurance executive and professional baseball club owner who was frequently involved in controversy with the commissioner of baseball, the American League, managers, and players. His Oakland Athletics won three consecutive World Series (1972-74).
Finley, Martha: prolific and, in her day, immensely popular American writer of children's books about pious youngsters rewarded for their virtue.
Finnbogadottir, Vigdis: teacher, cultural figure, and politician who served as president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. She was the first woman in the world to be elected head of state in a national election.
Finney, Charles Grandison: American lawyer, president of Oberlin College, and a central figure in the religious revival movement of the early 19th century; he is sometimes called the first of the professional evangelists.
Finnic Peoples: descendants of a collection of tribal peoples speaking closely related languages of the Finno-Ugric family who migrated to the area of the eastern Baltic, Finland, and Karelia before AD 400-probably between 100 BC and AD 100, though some authorities place ...
Finnish language: member of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family, spoken in Finland. At the beginning of the 19th century, Finnish had no official status, with Swedish being used in Finnish education, government, and literature. The publication in 1835 of ...
Finnish literature: the body of writings in Finland in the Finnish, Swedish, and, in the Middle Ages, Latin languages. The oldest form, folk poetry in Finnish, was transmitted orally until its transcription in the late 18th century. From the mid-12th century until ...
Finnmark: fylke (county), northern Norway, located above the Arctic Circle. It is bordered by Finland (south) and Russia (southeast), with the Arctic Ocean to the north and northeast. Long, broad fjords indent the coast; in the west they are protected by ...
Finno-Ugric languages: group of languages constituting much the larger of the two branches of a more comprehensive grouping, the Uralic languages (q.v.). The Finno-Ugric languages are spoken by several million people distributed discontinuously over an area extending from Norway in the west ...
Finno-Ugric religion: pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religious beliefs and practices of the Finno-Ugric peoples, who inhabit regions of northern Scandinavia, Siberia, the Baltic area, and central Europe. In modern times the religion of many of these peoples has been an admixture of agrarian ...
Finschhafen: town and port at the tip of Huon Peninsula, eastern Papua New Guinea. The three-basin harbour, an inlet of the Solomon Sea, was charted by the British navigator Captain John Moresby in 1873-74. Named after the German explorer Otto Finsch, ...
Finsen, Niels Ryberg: Danish physician, founder of modern phototherapy (the treatment of disease by the influence of light), who received the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the application of light in the treatment of skin diseases.
Fiordland National Park: park in the southernmost part of South Island, New Zealand. It was established in 1952 and has an area of 4,834 square miles (12,519 square km), making it one of the largest national parks in the world. It is renowned ...
Fiore, Pasquale: Italian jurist and leading authority on international law.
Fiorelli, Giuseppe: Italian archaeologist whose systematic excavation at Pompeii helped to preserve much of the ancient city as nearly intact as possible and contributed significantly to modern archaeological methods.
Fiorillo, Tiberio: Italian actor of the commedia dell'arte who developed the character Scaramouche.
fipple flute: any of several end-blown flutes having a plug ("block," or "fipple") inside the pipe below the mouth hole, forming a flue, duct, or windway that directs the player's breath alternately above and below the sharp edge of a lateral hole. ...
fiqh: (Arabic: "understanding"), Muslim jurisprudence, i.e., the science of ascertaining the precise terms of the Shari'ah, or Islamic law. The collective sources of Muslim jurisprudence are known as usul al-fiqh (q.v.).
fir: properly, any of about 40 species of trees constituting the genus Abies of the family Pinaceae, although many other coniferous evergreen trees are commonly called firs-e.g., the Douglas fir (q.v.), the hemlock fir (see hemlock), and the joint fir (see ...