(species Aruncus dioicus or A. sylvester), herbaceous perennial plant, of the rose family (Rosaceae), native to the North Temperate Zone. It occurs most commonly in rich woods, especially in mountainous regions. The plant grows 1.2 to 1.8 m (4 to ...
alternative name of birds of the family Caprimulgidae, otherwise known as nightjars (q.v.). The name goatsucker is sometimes applied to the order, Caprimulgiform.
town, eastern Namibia. It lies on the edge of the Kalahari (Desert) on the intermittent Black Nossob River at an elevation of 4,740 feet (1,445 m). It is a rail terminus and cattle-marketing centre. Tribal reserves (homelands) for the Herero ...
Swiss politician, administrator, philanthropist, and author, cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1902. He shared the prize with Elie Ducommun (d. 1906), whom he succeeded as director of the International Peace Bureau (Bureau International de la Paix), which ...
archbishop of Paris whose resignation doomed him to association with the Hebertists, followers of the extremist journalist Jacques-Rene Hebert, who, during the French Revolution, pursued an anti-Christian policy in a program of "worship of Reason."
French family of dyers and clothmakers whose factory became world-famous for its tapestries. Jehan Gobelin who ran a factory in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel just southeast of Paris, discovered a scarlet dyestuff and spared no expense to exploit his creation. His ...
great desert and semidesert region of Central Asia. The Gobi (from Mongolian gobi, meaning "waterless place") stretches across huge portions of both Mongolia and China. Contrary to the perhaps romantic image long associated with what-at least to the European mind-was ...
(count of) French diplomat, writer, ethnologist, and social thinker whose theory of racial determinism had an enormous influence upon the subsequent development of racist theories and practices in western Europe.
in Western folklore, a wandering sprite that is usually mischievous but often malicious. Goblins supposedly live in grottoes but attach themselves to households, where they are believed to bang upon pots and pans, snatch nightclothes off the bodies of sleeping ...
rare species of shark belonging to the family Mitsukurinidae (order Lamniformes). Only one extant species (Mitsukurina owstoni) is known, on the basis of a few specimens, although fossils of extinct species have been found. The goblin shark is closely related ...
any of the more than 800 species of fishes of the suborder Gobioidei (order Perciformes). Gobies are carnivorous, usually small in size, and found throughout the world. Especially abundant in the tropics, they are primarily marine in habit. Most species ...
religious sect founded in 1896 by Prophet William S. Crowdy. He passed his mantle of leadership to Bishop William Plummer, who announced himself as "Grand Father Abraham." This group believes that all Jews were originally black and that modern-day blacks ...
one of the two national anthems of New Zealand (the other being God Save the Queen, national anthem of the United Kingdom). The words to the anthem were written in the early 1870s by Thomas Bracken, who offered a prize ...
British royal and national anthem. The origin of both the words and the music is obscure. The many candidates for authorship include John Bull (c. 1562-1628), Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1583-c. 1633), Henry Purcell (c. 1639-95), and Henry Carey (c. 1687-1743). ...
Christian fellowship that considers itself a "reformation movement" among Christians and not a church or sect; it accepts its title for identification purposes only. Its members believe that they have organized themselves to carry on the work of the church, ...
any of several Pentecostal churches that developed in the U.S. South from the late 19th- and early 20th-century Latter Rain revival, based on a belief that a second rain of the gifts of the Holy Spirit would occur similar to ...
in Christianity, the spiritual realm over which God reigns as king, or the fulfillment on Earth of God's will. The phrase occurs frequently in the New Testament, primarily used by Jesus Christ in the first three Gospels. It is generally ...
a measure by the medieval Roman Catholic Church to suspend warfare during certain days of the week and during the period of certain church festivals and Lent.
pilgrimage centre, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It lies along the Narmada River southeast of Indore. Godarpura has noted Saivite, Vaisnavite, and Jaina temples, mostly of the 14th and 18th centuries. The Omkar temple, on an island in the ...
sacred river of central India. It rises in the Western Ghats 50 miles (80 km) from the Arabian Sea and flows generally eastward across the Deccan Plateau, along the Maharashtra-Andhra Pradesh border and across Andhra Pradesh state, turning southeastward for ...
lord chief justice of England from 1946 to 1958. Seldom lenient but always respectful of legal proprieties, he set a valuable example to the lower judiciary in controlling the crime wave that followed World War II in England.
American professor and inventor generally acknowledged to be the father of modern rocketry. He published his classic treatise, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, in 1919.
important Belgian Romanesque goldsmith and enamelist of the Mosan school. Little is known of his life, but he seems to have been most active in the service of the abbot of Stavelot Abbey. Among the best known works attributed to ...
distinguished French family of legal scholars and historians. Denis I Godefroy, called Denis the Old (1549-1621), was a Protestant who for that reason lived in exile in Switzerland and Germany. His Corpus juris civilis (1583) had a long life, going ...
Austrian-born U.S. mathematician, logician, and author of Godel's proof, which states that within any rigidly logical mathematical system there are propositions (or questions) that cannot be proved or disproved on the basis of the axioms within that system and that, ...
British tennis player, a dominant figure in women's tennis in the 1920s who won two singles titles at the All-England Championships at Wimbledon, five doubles titles in Grand Slam events, and five Olympic medals, including a gold in women's doubles ...
Danish Godfred, or Gudfred king in Denmark who halted the northward extension of Charlemagne's empire. He may have ruled over all Denmark, but his centre of power was in the extreme south of Jutland. There Hedeby (q.v.) became an important ...
duke of Lower Lorraine (as Godfrey IV; 1089-1100) and a leader of the First Crusade, who became the first Latin ruler in Palestine after the capture of Jerusalem from the Muslims in July 1099.
French Aristotelian philosopher and theologian prominent in the medieval controversy over faith versus reason that dominated the intellectual life of the University of Paris, then the academic centre of the West.
French monk, philosopher, theologian, and poet whose writings summarized an early medieval Christian Humanism that strove to classify areas of knowledge, to integrate distinctive methods of learning, and to recognize the intrinsic dignity of man and nature.
U.S. radio and television entertainer widely popular in the 1940s and '50s, whose many broadcast programs launched the careers of numerous popular singers and other entertainers.
English magistrate whose death, allegedly at the hands of Roman Catholics, touched off a wave of anti-Catholic hysteria that shook the government of King Charles II.
town, administrative headquarters of Panch Mahals district, northeastern Gujarat state, west central India. Godhra is a road and rail junction and a commercial centre for timber and agricultural produce. Industries include oilseed pressing, flour milling, and glass manufacture. Pop. (1981) ...
