Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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gaucho ... Gay, Sophie

gaucho: the nomadic and colourful horseman and cowhand of the Argentine and Uruguayan Pampas (grasslands), who flourished from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century and has remained a folk hero similar to the cowboy in western North America. The term also ...
gaucho literature: Spanish American poetic genre that imitates the payadas ("ballads") traditionally sung to guitar accompaniment by the wandering gaucho minstrels of Argentina and Uruguay. By extension, the term includes the body of South American literature that treats the ...
Gauda: a city, a country, and a literary style in ancient India. The city is better-known under its Anglicized form, Gaur. Its first recorded reference is by the grammarian Panini (5th century BC), and its location may be inferred to have ...
Gaudi, Antoni: Catalan architect, whose distinctive style is characterized by freedom of form, voluptuous colour and texture, and organic unity. Gaudi worked almost entirely in or near Barcelona. Much of his career was occupied with the construction of the Expiatory Temple of ...
Gaudier-Brzeska, Henri: French artist who was one of the earliest abstract sculptors and an exponent of the Vorticist movement; he was instrumental in introducing modern art to England during the early years of the 20th century.
Gaudin, Martin-Michel-Charles, Duc De Gaete: French finance minister throughout the French Consulate and the First Empire (1799-1814) and founder of the Bank of France (1800).
Gaugamela, Battle of: (Oct. 1, 331 BC) clash between the forces of Alexander the Great of Macedonia and Darius III of Persia that decided the fate of the Persian empire. Attempting to stop Alexander's incursion into the Persian empire, Darius prepared a battleground ...
gauge: in railroad transportation, the width between the inside faces of running rails. Because the cost of construction and operation of a rail line is greater or less depending on the gauge, much controversy has surrounded decisions in respect to it, ...
gauge: in manufacturing and engineering, a device used to determine, either directly or indirectly, whether a dimension is larger or smaller than another dimension that is used as a reference standard. Some devices termed gauges may actually measure the size of ...
gauge: a measure of the bore of a shotgun. See bore.
gauge theory: class of quantum field theory, a mathematical theory involving both quantum mechanics and Einstein's special theory of relativity that is commonly used to describe subatomic particles and their associated wave fields. In a gauge theory there is a group of ...
gauging station: site on a stream, canal, lake, or reservoir where systematic observations of gauge height (water level) or discharge are obtained. From the continuous records obtained at these stations, hydrologists make predictions and decisions concerning water level, flood activity and control, ...
Gauguin, Paul: French painter, printmaker, and sculptor who sought to achieve a "primitive" expression of spiritual and emotional states in his work. The artist, whose work has been categorized as Post-Impressionist, Synthetist, and Symbolist, is particularly well known for his creative relationship ...
Gauhati: (India): see Guwahati.
Gaul: the region inhabited by the ancient Gauls, comprising modern-day France and parts of Belgium, western Germany, and northern Italy. A Celtic race, the Gauls lived in an agricultural society divided into several tribes ruled by a landed class.
Gaulish language: ancient Celtic language or languages spoken in western and central Europe and Asia Minor before about 500. Gaulish is attested by inscriptions from France and northern Italy and by names occurring in classical literature. Modern knowledge of the vocabulary and ...
Gaulle, Charles de: French soldier, writer, statesman, and architect of France's Fifth Republic.
Gaultheria: genus of about 100 species of upright or prostrate evergreen shrubs, of the heath family (Ericaceae), occurring in North and South America, Asia, and Australia. The plants are distinguished by alternate, ovate leaves, white or pink flowers, and round fruit ...
Gaultier de Varennes et de la Verendrye, Pierre: (French-Canadian explorer): see La Verendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de.
Gaultier, Denys: celebrated lute virtuoso whose style influenced the French school of harpsichord music.
Gaunilo: Benedictine monk of the Marmoutier Abbey near Tours, France, who opposed St. Anselm of Canterbury's ontological argument for God's existence.
gaur: (Bos gaurus), one of several species of wild cattle, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla). The gaur lives in small herds in the mountain forests of India, Southeast Asia, and the Malay Peninsula. Larger than any other wild cattle, it attains a ...
gauss: unit of magnetic induction in the centimetre-gram-second system of physical units. One gauss corresponds to the magnetic flux density that will induce an electromotive force of one abvolt (10^-8 volt) in each linear centimetre of a wire moving laterally at ...
Gauss elimination: in linear and multilinear algebra, a process for finding the solutions of a system of simultaneous linear equations by first solving one of the equations for one variable (in terms of all the others) and then substituting this expression into ...
Gauss's law: either of two statements describing electric and magnetic fluxes. Gauss's law for electricity states that the electric flux across any closed surface is proportional to the net electric charge enclosed by the surface. The law implies that isolated electric charges ...
Gauss, Carl Friedrich: German mathematician, generally regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time for his contributions to number theory, geometry, probability theory, geodesy, planetary astronomy, the theory of functions, and potential theory (including electromagnetism).
Gauteng: province, northeastern South Africa. It consists of the cities of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Germiston, and Vereeniging and their surrounding metropolitan areas in the eastern part of the Witwatersrand region. Gauteng is the smallest South African province. It is bordered by the ...
Gauthey, Emiland-Marie: French engineer, best known for his construction of the Charolais Canal, or Canal du Centre, which united the Loire and Saone rivers in France, thus providing a water route from the Loire to the Rhone River.
Gautier D'arras: author of early French romances. He lacked the skill and profundity of his contemporary, Chretien de Troyes, but his work, emphasizing human action and its psychological foundations, exercized an important influence on the genre known as roman d'aventure ("romance of ...
Gautier De Metz: also known as Gauthier De Mes En Loherains French poet and priest who is usually credited with the authorship of a treatise about the universe, L'Image du monde (c. 1246; "The Mirror of the World"; also called Mappemonde), based on ...
Gautier, Hubert: French engineer and scientist, author of the first book on bridge building.
Gautier, Leon: literary historian who revived an interest in early French literature with his translation and critical discussion of the Chanson de Roland (1872) and with his research on the chansons de geste.
Gautier, Theophile: poet, novelist, critic, and journalist whose influence was strongly felt in the period of changing sensibilities in French literature-from the early Romantic period to the aestheticism and naturalism of the end of the 19th century.
Gautsch von Frankenthurn, Paul, Baron: statesman who served three times as Austrian prime minister.
gauze: light, open-weave fabric made of cotton when used for surgical dressings and of silk and other fibres when used for dress trimming. The name is derived from that of the Palestinian city of Gaza, where the fabric is thought to ...
Gavarni, Paul: French lithographer and painter whose work is enjoyable for its polished wit, cultured observation, and the panorama it presents of the life of his time. However, his work lacks the power of his great contemporary Honore Daumier.
Gavarnie: mountain village and valley on the approach to the natural amphitheatre known as the Cirque de Gavarnie, in Hautes-Pyrenees departement, Midi-Pyrenees region, southwestern France. Gavarnie lies in the central Pyrenees, on the French side of the Franco-Spanish frontier. The village, ...
Gavazzi, Alessandro: reformer in church and politics during the Risorgimento (Italian unification) who inveighed against the neglect of social problems and Italian unity by the papacy.
Gaveston, Piers, Earl of Cornwall: favourite of the English king Edward II. The king's inordinate love for him made him rapacious and arrogant and led to his murder by jealous barons.
gavial: (Gavialis gangeticus), long-snouted reptile that is related to alligators and crocodiles but classified as the sole species in the separate family Gavialidae (order Crocodilia). The gavial inhabits the rivers of northern India. Like other crocodilians, it is lizardlike and reproduces ...
Gavin, James Maurice: U.S. Army commander known as "the jumping general" because he parachuted with combat troops during World War II.
Gavle: town and port, capital of Gavleborg lan (county), east-central Sweden, on an inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia, northwest of Stockholm. Although first mentioned in documents in the 8th century, it was not chartered until 1446. Despite several devastating fires, ...
Gavleborg: lan (county), east-central Sweden, on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. It is composed of the traditional landskap (province) of Gastrikland, most of Halsingland, and a small part of Dalarna. Although low and ...
gavotte: lively peasants' kissing dance that became fashionable at the 17th- and 18th-century courts of France and England. Supposedly originated by the natives of Gap (Gavots) in the southeastern French province of Dauphine, the gavotte was danced in royal ballrooms as ...
Gavrilo: original name Gavrilo Dozic, or Dozitch patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (1938-50), noted for his anti-Nazi stand and, later, for his limited accommodations with the Communists.
Gawain: hero of Arthurian legend and romance. A nephew and loyal supporter of King Arthur, Gawain appeared in the earliest Arthurian literature as a model of knightly perfection, against whom all other knights were measured. In the 12th-century Historia regum Britanniae, ...
Gawler: town, South Australia, northeast of Adelaide. It lies at the confluence of the North and South Para rivers (which there form the Gawler River), at the western foot of the Mt. Lofty Ranges. Surveyed in 1839, it was named after ...
Gawler Ranges: mountains and hills in South Australia, extending 100 mi (160 km) east-west across the northern part of Eyre Peninsula, south of Lake Gardner; in altitude they rise in the west to as high as 1,550 ft (475 m) in Mount ...
gay rights movement: civil-rights movement that advocates equal rights for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals; seeks to eliminate sodomy laws barring homosexual acts between consenting adults; and calls for an end to discrimination against gay men and lesbians in employment, credit lending, ...
Gay, John: English poet and dramatist, chiefly remembered as the author of The Beggar's Opera, a work distinguished by good-humoured satire and technical assurance.
Gay, Sophie: in full Marie-francoise-sophie Nichault De Lavalette Gay French writer and grande dame who wrote romantic novels and plays about upper-class French society during the early 19th century.