Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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foil ... Fontaine, Hippolyte

foil: solid metal that has been reduced to a leaflike thinness by mechanical beating or rolling. Jewellers have long used a thin foil of copper-zinc alloy as backing for paste jewels and inferior gemstones. The colour and lustre of the gems ...
foil: in literature, a character who is presented as a contrast to a second character so as to point to or show to advantage some aspect of the second character. An obvious example is the character of Dr. Watson in Sir ...
foil: a sword with a light, flexible blade of rectangular cross section tapering to a blunt point. Designed as a practice weapon for the smallsword fashionable in the 17th century, it is now used primarily in the sport of fencing.
foil: in architecture, leaf-shaped, indented spaces which, combined with cusps (small, projecting arcs outlining the leaf design), are found especially in the tracery (decorative openwork) of Gothic windows. The term is derived from the Latin folium, meaning "leaf." A window or ...
Foix: feudal county of southwestern France, corresponding approximately to the modern departement of Ariege. Between the 11th and the 15th century, the counts of Foix built up a quasi-independent power bounded by Languedoc on the north and on the east, by ...
Foix: town, capital of Ariege departement, Midi-Pyrenees region, southwestern France, located in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Situated 1,250 ft (380 m) above sea level, at the fork where the Arget River joins the Ariege, it is dominated by its medieval ...
Fokine, Michel: dancer and choreographer who profoundly influenced the 20th-century classical ballet repertoire. In 1905 he composed the solo The Dying Swan for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. As chief choreographer for the impresario Sergey Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1914, ...
Fokker, Anthony Herman Gerard: Dutch airman and pioneer aircraft manufacturer who, during World War I, produced more than 40 types of airplanes (designed by Reinhold Platz) for the German High Command. Initially, he offered his designs to both combatants, but the Allies turned him ...
Folard, Jean-Charles, chevalier de: (knight of) French soldier and military theorist who championed the use of infantry columns instead of battle lines in warfare. Although he had a small but influential following during his lifetime, his concepts were not generally accepted by Europe's military ...
fold: in geology, undulation or waves in the stratified rocks of the Earth's crust. Stratified rocks were originally formed from sediments that were deposited in flat, horizontal sheets, but in a number of places the strata are no longer horizontal but ...
Folda: fjord, Nordland fylke (county), northern Norway. The fjord's mouth opens into Vest Fjord of the Norwegian Sea and is 25 miles (40 km) northeast of the town of Bodo and about 75 miles (120 km) north of the Arctic Circle. ...
Folengo, Teofilo: Italian popularizer of verse written in macaronics (q.v.), a synthetic combination of Italian and Latin, first written by Tisi degli Odassi in the late 15th century.
Folger Shakespeare Library: research centre in Washington, D.C., for the study of William Shakespeare, his contemporaries, Elizabethan society and culture, and 15th- through 18th-century British drama, literature, and history. The library, with approximately 280,000 books and manuscripts, possesses an unrivaled collection of Shakespeare's ...
Folger, Henry Clay: American lawyer, business executive, and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
foliation: planar arrangement of structural or textural features in any rock type, but particularly that resulting from the alignment of constituent mineral grains of a metamorphic rock of the regional variety along straight or wavy planes. Foliation often occurs parallel to ...
folic acid: water-soluble vitamin of the B complex that is essential in animals and plants for the synthesis of nucleic acids. Folic acid was isolated from liver cells in 1943.
folic-acid-deficiency anemia: type of anemia that is a result of a deficient intake of folic acid. This B vitamin is needed for the formation of heme, the pigmented, iron-containing portion of the hemoglobin in red blood cells. A deficient intake of folic ...
Folies-Bergere: Parisian music hall and variety-entertainment theatre that is one of the major tourist attractions of France. Following its opening in a new theatre on May 1, 1869, the Folies became one of the first major music halls in Paris. During ...
Foligno: town, Perugia provincia, Umbria regione, central Italy. It lies along the Topino River, southeast of Perugia. Originally an Umbrian settlement, the present site is that of the Roman town of Fulginium and still reflects the Romans' regular street plan. The ...
folk art: predominantly functional or utilitarian visual art created by hand (or with limited mechanical facilities) for use by the maker or a small circumscribed group and containing an element of retention-the prolonged survival of tradition. Folk art is the creative expression ...
folk dance: generally, a traditional, secular, recreational dance characteristic of a regional, ethnic, or national group. As thus defined, the term is applicable to a variety of dance traditions in the European world but is not so appropriate among peoples whose dances ...
folk high school: type of residential school for adults that is standard in Scandinavian countries and has also been adopted elsewhere in Europe. The concept of the folk high school was originated in Denmark by the theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig as a means of ...
folk literature: the lore (traditional knowledge and beliefs) of cultures having no written language. It is transmitted by word of mouth and consists, as does written literature, of both prose and verse narratives, poems and songs, myths, dramas, rituals, proverbs, riddles, and ...
folk music: type of traditional and generally rural music that originally was passed down through families and other small social groups. Typically, folk music, like folk literature, lives in oral tradition; it is learned through hearing rather than reading. It is functional ...
folk rock: hybrid musical style that emerged in the United States and Britain in the mid-1960s.
folk society: an ideal type or concept of society that is completely cohesive-morally, religiously, politically, and socially-because of the small numbers and isolated state of the people, because of the relatively unmediated personal quality of social interaction, and because the entire world ...
Folkers, Karl August: American chemist whose research on vitamins resulted in the isolation of vitamin B₁₂, the only effective agent known in countering pernicious anemia.
Folkestone: town, Shepway district, administrative and historic county of Kent, England. Once a "limb" of the Cinque Port of Dover (7 mi [11 km] east), Folkestone shared that town's privileges and duties until, in 1629, the local inhabitants obtained a license ...
folklore: in modern usage, an academic discipline the subject matter of which (also called folklore) comprises the sum total of traditionally derived and orally or imitatively transmitted literature, material culture, and custom of subcultures within predominantly literate and technologically advanced societies; ...
folkway: the learned behaviour, shared by a social group, that provides a traditional mode of conduct. According to the American sociologist William Graham Sumner, who coined the term, folkways are social conventions that are not considered to be of moral significance ...
Follen, Adolf Ludwig: German political and Romantic poet, an important founder and leader of radical student groups in the early 19th century.
Follen, Karl: educator who was Harvard University's first professor of German language and literature. He also was instrumental in establishing the first U.S. college gymnasium.
Follett, Mary Parker: American author and sociologist who was a pioneer in the study of interpersonal relations and personnel management.
follicle-stimulating hormone: one of two gonadotropic hormones (i.e., hormones concerned with the regulation of the activity of the gonads, or sex glands) produced by the pituitary gland. FSH, a glycoprotein operating in conjunction with luteinizing hormone (LH), stimulates development of the graafian ...
folly: (from French folie, "foolishness"), also called Eyecatcher, in architecture, a costly, generally nonfunctional building that was erected to enhance a natural landscape. Follies first gained popularity in England, and they were particularly in vogue during the 18th and early ...
Folquet De Marseille: Provencal troubadour and cleric.
Folsom complex: an early archaeological complex of North America characterized by a distinct leaf-shaped projectile point called a Folsom point. The Folsom complex of artifacts, which also includes a variety of scrapers, knives, and blades, was one variety of the Paleo-Indian hunting ...
Foltz, Clara Shortridge: lawyer and reformer who, after helping open the California bar to women, became a pioneering force for women in the profession and a major influence in reforming the state's criminal justice and prison systems.
Fomalhaut: the 18th star (excluding the Sun) in order of apparent brightness. It is used in navigation because of its conspicuous place in a sky region otherwise lacking in bright stars. It lies in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus, about 22.5 ...
Fon: people living in the south of Benin (called Dahomey until 1975) and adjacent parts of Togo. Speaking a dialect of Ewe, a language of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family of African languages, the Fon numbered some 3,010,000 in ...
Fond du Lac: city, seat (1844) of Fond du Lac county, east-central Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on the Fond du Lac River, at the southern end of Lake Winnebago, about 55 miles (90 km) northwest of Milwaukee. Ho-Chunk Nation (Winnebago) Indians were early ...
Fonda, Henry: American stage and motion-picture actor who appeared in more than 90 films over six decades and created quintessentially American heroes.
Fonda, Jane: American motion-picture actress who was also noted for her political activism.
fondant: confection of sugar, syrup, and water, and sometimes milk, cream, or butter, that is cooked and beaten so as to render the sugar crystals imperceptible to the tongue. The candy is characteristically glossy white in colour, velvety in texture, and ...
Fondi: town, Latina provincia, Lazio (Latium) regione, south-central Italy. It lies along the Appian Way at the foot of the Aurunci Mountains, northeast of Fondi Lake and 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Rome. Originally a town of the ancient Volsci ...
fondue neuchateloise: Swiss national dish of melted Emmentaler and Gruyere cheeses. In its preparation, white wine is heated in a heavy casserole, called a caquelon, that has been rubbed with garlic. The grated cheese is added to the hot wine along with ...
Fonseca, Gulf of: sheltered inlet of the Pacific Ocean, bounded northwest by El Salvador, northeast by Honduras, and southeast by Nicaragua. Discovered in 1522, it reaches inland for approximately 40 miles (65 km) and covers an area of about 700 square miles (1,800 ...
Fonseca, Manuel da: Portuguese novelist and poet who wrote realistic works about his homeland, the agricultural province of Alentejo.
Fonseca, Manuel Deodoro da: leader of the coup that toppled Emperor Pedro II. He became the first president of the Brazilian republic.
Font-de-Gaume: cave known for its lavish prehistoric wall paintings, located in the Beune valley near Les Eyzies, in Dordogne, Fr. The cave, with its high, narrow main gallery and several side passages, contains about 200 engraved and painted figures, including bison, ...
Fontaine, Hippolyte: French engineer who discovered that a dynamo can be operated in reverse as an electric motor; he was also the first to transmit electric energy (1873).