knight grand cross, or dame grand cross, of the British Empire, member of the highest class of a British order of knighthood. See British Empire, The Most Excellent Order of the.
knight grand cross, or dame grand cross, of the Bath, member of the highest rank of knightly class in a British order of knighthood. See Bath, The Most Honourable Order of the.
knight grand cross, or dame grand cross, of St. Michael and St. George, member of the highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Distinguished Order of.
knight grand cross, or dame grand cross, of the Royal Victorian Order, member of the highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Royal Victorian Order.
people of the southeast coast of Ghana, speaking a dialect of the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo languages. The Ga are descended from immigrants who came down the Niger River and across the Volta during the 17th century. The Ga-speaking peoples ...
any member of the small Zoroastrian minority in Iran. The name Gabar was formerly applied derogatorily to the Iranian Zoroastrians; the term is linguistically related to the Arabic kafir, meaning "infidel." The Zoroastrians who remained in Persia (modern Iran) after ...
any of several varieties of worsted, cotton, silk, and mixed tightly woven fabrics, embodying certain features in common and chiefly made into suits and overcoats. It is a relatively strong and firm cloth, made with a twill weave, and somewhat ...
treasurer or honorary official of a Jewish Orthodox congregation, often placed in charge of funds used for charity. The office is a carry-over from former times, when men whose reputations were above reproach collected funds for charity. These gabba'e tzedaqa ...
any of several medium- or coarse-grained rocks that consist primarily of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene. Essentially, gabbro is the intrusive (plutonic) equivalent of basalt, but whereas basalt is often remarkably homogeneous in mineralogy and composition, gabbros are exceedingly variable. Gabbros ...
German linguist, ethnologist, and government official who conducted important studies of a large number of languages. He also took some part in political affairs and was prime minister of the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg from 1848 to 1849.
inlet, on the east coast of Tunisia, northern Africa. It is 60 miles (100 km) long and 60 miles wide and is bounded by the Qarqannah (Kerkena) Islands on the northeast and by Jarbah (Djerba) Island on the southeast. Except ...
in Baltic religion, the domestic hearth fire. In pre-Christian times a holy fire (sventa ugnis) was kept in tribal sanctuaries on high hills and riverbanks, where priests guarded it constantly, extinguishing and rekindling it once a year at the midsummer ...
triangular section of wall at the end of a pitched roof, extending from the eaves to the peak. The gables in Classical Greek temples are called pediments.
American film actor who epitomized the American ideal of masculinity and virility for three decades. An enormously popular star during his lifetime, Gable was dubbed the "King of Hollywood."
country lying on the west coast of Africa, astride the Equator, with a total area estimated at 103,347 square miles (267,667 square kilometres). It is bordered by Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to ...
inlet of the Gulf of Guinea, in western Gabon. It is fed by the Como and Mbei rivers, which rise in the Cristal Mountains to the northeast. The estuary is 40 miles (64 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) ...
extremely venomous but usually docile, ground-dwelling snake found in tropical forests of central Africa. It is the heaviest venomous snake in Africa, weighing 8 kg (18 pounds), and it grows to a length of 2 metres (about 7 feet). The ...
Hungarian-born electrical engineer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971 for his invention of holography, a system of lensless, three-dimensional photography that has many applications.
town, capital of Botswana. The seat of government was transferred there from Mafeking (now spelled Mafikeng), South Africa, in 1965, one year before Botswana became independent of Britain. Gaborone is located on the Cape-Zimbabwe railway and is the site of ...
in the Bible and the Qur'an, one of the archangels. Gabriel was the heavenly messenger sent to Daniel to explain the vision of the ram and the he-goat and to communicate the prediction of the Seventy Weeks. He was also ...
American bondsman who planned the first major slave rebellion in U.S. history (Aug. 30, 1800). His abortive revolt greatly increased the whites' fear of the slave population throughout the South.
also called Jacques-ange Gabriel French architect who built or enlarged many chateaus and palaces during the reign of Louis XV. He was one of the most important and productive French architects of the 18th century.
former lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis and solo artist known for the intelligence and depth of his lyrics and for his commitment to various political causes.
Italian Renaissance composer and organist, known for his madrigals and his large-scale choral and instrumental music for public ceremonies. His finest work was composed for the acoustic resources of the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice. He was the uncle ...
Italian Renaissance composer, organist, and teacher, celebrated for his sacred music, including massive choral and instrumental motets for the liturgy.
any of two-and possibly three-dialectally and culturally related North American Indian groups who spoke a language of Uto-Aztecan stock and lived in the lowlands, along the seacoast, and on islands in southern California. The Gabrielino proper inhabited what are now ...
town, north-central Bulgaria. It is situated on both banks of the Yantra River, at the foot of the Shipka Pass in the Balkan Mountains. A major industrial centre, Gabrovo has a high in-migration population from the surrounding area. Called the ...
town, eastern Guinea-Bissau, western Africa. Gabu is situated along the Colufe River, a tributary of the Geba River, and is an agricultural marketing centre. Peanuts (groundnuts), grown mainly by the Muslim Fulani peoples, are the principal crop of the region. ...
among the image-worshipping Shvetambara sect of the Indian religion Jainism, a group of monks and their lay followers who claim descent from eminent monastic teachers. Although some 84 separate gacchas have appeared since the 7th-8th century, only a few have ...
one of the 12 tribes of Israel that in biblical times composed the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people. The tribe was named after the elder of two sons born to Jacob and Zilpah, a maidservant of ...
German philosopher whose system of philosophical hermeneutics, derived in part from concepts of Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger, was influential in 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, theology, and criticism.
ancient city of Palestine, a member of the Decapolis, located just southeast of the Sea of Galilee in Jordan. Gadara first appeared in history when it fell to the Seleucid Antiochus the Great (218 BC); the Jewish king Alexander Jannaeus ...
Italian essayist, short-story writer, and novelist outstanding particularly for his original and innovative style, which has been compared with that of James Joyce.
son and pupil of Taddeo Gaddi, who was himself the major pupil of the Florentine master Giotto. Agnolo was an influential and prolific artist who was the last major Florentine painter stylistically descended from Giotto.
pupil and most faithful follower of the Florentine master Giotto. A capable artist, although lacking his teacher's comprehensive aesthetic vision, he was, after Giotto's death, the leading Florentine painter for three decades.
Danish composer who founded the Romantic nationalist school in Danish music. He studied violin and composition and became acquainted with Danish poetry and folk music. Both Mendelssohn and Schumann, who were his friends, were attracted by the Scandinavian character of ...
(Gd), chemical element, rareearth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. Silvery white and moderately ductile, the metal reacts slowly with oxygen and water. Below 17° C it is ferromagnetic and at very low temperatures, superconducting. Credit for ...
