Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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gest ... Ghats

gest: a story of achievements or adventures. Among several famous medieval collections of gests are Fulcher of Chartres's Gesta Francorum, Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum, and the compilation known as the Gesta Romanorum. The term was also used to refer to a ...
Gesta Romanorum: Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, probably compiled early in the 14th century. It was one of the most popular books of the time and the source, directly or indirectly, of much later literature, including that of Chaucer, John Gower, ...
Gestalt psychology: school of psychology founded in the 20th century that provided the foundation for the modern study of perception. Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts. That is, the attributes of the whole are not ...
Gestalt therapy: a humanistic method of psychotherapy that takes a holistic approach to human experience by stressing individual responsibility and awareness of present psychological and physical needs.
Gestapo: the political police of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo ruthlessly eliminated opposition to the Nazis within Germany and its occupied territories and was responsible for the roundup of Jews throughout Europe for deportation to extermination camps.
gestation: in mammals, the time between conception and birth, during which the embryo or fetus is developing in the uterus. This definition raises occasional difficulties because in some species (e.g., monkeys and man) the exact time of conception may not be ...
Gesu: mother church in Rome of the Jesuit order, designed by Giacomo da Vignola in 1568. The facade, which was the work of Giacomo della Porta, was added in 1575.
Gesualdo, Don Carlo, Principe di Venosa: Italian composer and lutenist whose fame rests on his highly individual madrigals.
get: Jewish document of divorce written in Aramaic according to a prescribed formula. Orthodox and Conservative Jews recognize it as the only valid instrument for severing a marriage bond. Rabbinic courts outside Israel, recognizing the need to comply with civil laws ...
Geta, Publius Septimius: Roman emperor from 209 to 212, jointly with his father, Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211), and his brother, Caracalla (reigned 198-217). The younger son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, he was given the title caesar in 198, when his elder ...
Getae: an ancient people of Thracian origin, inhabiting the banks of the lower Danube region and nearby plains. First appearing in the 6th century BC, the Getae were subjected to Scythian influence and were known as expert mounted archers and devotees ...
Getafe: town, south-central Madrid provincia (province), Madrid comunidad autonoma (autonomous community), central Spain, south of Madrid city. Notable buildings include a large Piarist seminary and the 16th-century Church of Santa Maria Magdalena, built in the ...
Gethsemane: garden across the Kidron Valley on the Mount of Olives (Hebrew Har ha-Zetim), a mile-long ridge paralleling the eastern part of Jerusalem, where Jesus is said to have prayed on the night of his arrest before his Crucifixion. The name ...
Getty Trust: private operating foundation that was founded by the American oil billionaire J. Paul Getty in 1953 for the purpose of establishing the J. Paul Getty Museum, which opened to the public in 1954. The Getty Trust has become a multibillion-dollar ...
Getty, J. Paul: American oil billionaire reputed to be the richest man in the world at the time of his death. He owned a controlling interest in the Getty Oil Company and in nearly 200 other concerns.
Gettysburg: borough (town), Adams county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., 38 miles (61 km) southwest of Harrisburg, just north of the Maryland border. Laid out in the 1780s by James Gettys and called Gettys-town, it was renamed in 1800 when it became the ...
Gettysburg Address: world-famous speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication (Nov. 19, 1863) of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., the site of one of the decisive battles of the American Civil War (July 1-3, 1863).
Gettysburg College: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. Though it is affiliated with the Lutheran church, the college maintains a policy of nonsectarian instruction. The college offers a liberal arts curriculum and awards bachelor's degrees only. Campus facilities ...
Gettysburg, Battle of: (July 1-3, 1863), major engagement in the American Civil War fought 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that was a crushing Southern defeat. After defeating the Union forces of General Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May, Confederate ...
Getz, Stan: American jazz tenor saxophonist known for his mellow, "cool" style of playing.
Geulincx, Arnold: Flemish metaphysician, logician, and leading exponent of a philosophical doctrine known as occasionalism based on the work of Rene Descartes, as extended to include a comprehensive ethical theory.
Geuzen: the largely Calvinist Dutch guerrilla and privateering forces whose military actions initiated the Netherlands' revolt against Spanish rule (1568-1609). The term was first applied derisively to the lesser nobility who, together with some of the great Netherlands magnates, in 1566 ...
Gevaudan: ancient region of France, formerly located in the southern province of Languedoc and corresponding to most of the modern departement of Lozere. A Roman community called Civitas Gabalitana, or Gabalitanus Pagus, it was occupied by the Visigoths in 472 and ...
Gevelsberg: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. It lies along the Ennepe River just northeast of Wuppertal. First mentioned in 1225, the city developed around a Cistercian abbey founded in 1230 and was chartered in 1887. Some ancient buildings survive ...
Gevers, Marie: Belgian novelist and poet whose works, almost without exception, evoke Kempenland, a rural area in which she spent most of her life; her family estate, Missembourg, was situated near Antwerp.
Geyl, Pieter: Dutch historian whose works on The Netherlands are highly respected both for their wealth of information and for their scholarly, incisive critical analysis.
Geyr von Schweppenburg, Leo: German tank commander in World War II.
geyser: hot spring that intermittently spouts jets of steam and hot water. The term is derived from the Icelandic word geysir, meaning "to gush."
Geysir: geyser in Arnes, southwestern Iceland, near the settlement of Haukadalur. The spouting hot spring gave its name (in use since 1647) to similar phenomena around the world. It spouted boiling water at least as early as the 13th century, but ...
Gezelle, Guido: Flemish priest and poet who was one of the masters of 19th-century European lyric poetry.
Gezer: ancient royal Canaanite city, near present-day Ramla, Israel. Gezer is often mentioned in the Old Testament and in the Egyptian records of the New Kingdom, from Thutmose III (1479-26 BC) to Merneptah (1213-04 BC). Gezer was abandoned about 900 BC ...
Gezing: town, southwestern Sikkim state, northern India. Gezing lies just west of the Rangit River on the Rathong-Kalet interfluve. The town has a hospital, a rest house, a higher secondary school, and a small hydroelectric project. Pop. (1981) 745.
Ghadmis: oasis, northwestern Libya, near the Tunisian and Algerian borders. It lies at the bottom of a wadi (seasonal river) bordered by the steep slopes of the stony al-Hamra' Plateau. Located at the junction of ancient Saharan caravan routes, the town ...
Ghadr: (Urdu: "Revolution"), an early 20th-century movement among Indians, principally Sikhs living in North America, to end British rule in their homeland of India. The movement originated with an organization of immigrants in California called the Hindustani Workers of the Pacific ...
Ghaffar Khan, Abdul: the foremost 20th-century leader of the Pashtuns (or Pathans; a Muslim ethnic group of Pakistan and Afghanistan), who became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was called "the Frontier Gandhi."
Ghaggar River: river, northern India. The Ghaggar rises in the Siwalik Range, northwestern Himachal Pradesh state, and flows about 200 miles (320 km) southwest through Haryana state, where it receives the Saraswati River. It eventually loses itself in the sands of the ...
Ghaghara River: major left-bank tributary of the Ganges River, rising as the Karnali River (Chinese: K'ung-ch'iao Ho) in the Tibetan Himalayas and flowing southeast into Nepal. Cutting southward across the Siwalik Hills, it splits into two branches, to rejoin south of the ...
Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan: the preeminent Indian poet of his time writing in Persian, equally renowned for poems, letters, and prose pieces in Urdu.
Ghana: first of the great medieval trading empires of western Africa (fl. 7th-13th century). It was situated between the Sahara (Desert) and the headwaters of the Senegal and Niger rivers, in an area that now comprises southeastern Mauritania and part of ...
Ghana: country of western Africa situated on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of 92,098 square miles (238,533 square kilometres). It is bordered on the northwest and north by Burkina Faso, on the east by Togo, ...
ghanimah: in the early Islamic community (7th century AD), booty taken in battle in the form of weapons, horses, prisoners, and movable goods. In pre-Islamic Bedouin society, where the ghazw (razzia, or raid) was a way of life and a point ...
Ghanzi: village, west-central Botswana. The village is located at the northern rim of the Kalahari (desert) and is the starting point of a 500-mile- (800-kilometre-) long cattle trek-one of the longest such routes remaining active in the world; cattle are driven ...
Gharbyah, Al-: muhafazah (governorate) in the middle Nile River delta, Lower Egypt. It is bounded to the east and west by the Damietta and the Rosetta branches of the Nile, to the north by Kafr al-Shaykh governorate, and by ...
Ghardaa: chief town of the M'zab Oasis, north-central Algeria. It lies along the left bank of the Wadi Mzab in the northern Sahara (Desert). Founded in the 11th century, it was built around the cave (ghar) reputedly inhabited ...
Gharyan: town, in the Tripolitania region of northwestern Libya. It lies at the foot of the plateau Jabal Nafusah, 50 miles (80 km) south of Tripoli, and was a major centre of Italian colonization in the early 1910s. After the Turko-Italian ...
Ghassan: Arabian kingdom prominent as a Byzantine ally (symmachos) in the 6th century AD. From its strategic location in portions of modern Syria, Jordan, and Israel, it protected the spice trade route from the south of the Arabian Peninsula and acted ...
Ghassaniy, Muyaka bin Haji al-: Kenyan poet who was the first Swahili-language secular poet known by name.
Ghassulian culture: archaeological stage dating to the Middle Chalcolithic Period in southern Palestine (c. 3800-c. 3350 BC). Its type-site, Tulaylat al-Ghassul, is located in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea in modern Jordan and was excavated (1929-38) by the Jesuits. The ...
ghata-pallava: in Indian art, important decorative motif consisting of a pot filled with flowers and leaves. In Vedic literature it is the symbol of life, the source of vegetation, a meaning that is still retained. The motif occurred in Indian art ...
ghatam: large, narrow-mouthed earthenware water pot used as a percussion instrument in India. Unlike other Indian percussion instruments, such as the tabla and mridanga, the ghatam does not have a membrane over its mouth. Ghatam produce a distinctive ...
Ghats: two mountain ranges forming the eastern and western edges, respectively, of the Deccan (q.v.) plateau of peninsular India. In Hindi ghat means "river landing stairs" or "mountain pass" and has been extended in its Anglicized plural form (formerly "ghauts") to ...