Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Ida ... IG Farben

Ida: king of Bernicia (from 547), soon after the foundation of the kingdom of Bernicia by the Angles in the British Isles. He built the fortress of Bebbanburh, the modern Bamborough; and after his death his kingdom, which did not extend ...
Ida: mountain range in northwestern Asia Minor (now Turkey), near the site of ancient Troy. A classic shrine, Ida was where Paris passed judgment on the rival goddesses and was the scene of the rape of Ganymede. From its highest peak, ...
Idah: town, Kogi state, south-central Nigeria. It lies on a sandstone cliff on the east bank of the Niger River. The traditional capital of the Igala people, Idah was brought under the jurisdiction of the kingdom of Benin by Oba (King) ...
Idaho: constituent state of the United States of America. With 83,564 square miles (216,432 square kilometres), including 1,153 square miles of inland water, it has twice the combined area of the six New England states. Its boundaries are both historical and ...
Idaho City: city, seat (1864) of Boise county, southwestern Idaho, U.S., above the confluence of Elk and Mores creeks. It lies in a mountainous area of Boise National Forest at an elevation of 4,400 feet (1,340 metres), 24 miles (39 km) northeast ...
Idaho Falls: city, seat (1911) of Bonneville county, southeastern Idaho, U.S., on the upper Snake River. Originally the territory of the Shoshone-Bannock and Northern Paiute Indians, it began as the Eagle Rock settlement at Taylor's Ferry (1863), later Taylor's Bridge. The town ...
Idaho State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Pocatello, Idaho, U.S. It comprises colleges of arts and sciences, business, education, engineering, health professions, pharmacy, and technology. The university offers a wide range of associate, bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degree programs. ...
Idaho, University of: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Moscow, Idaho, U.S. It is a land-grant university consisting of colleges of agricultural and life sciences, art and architecture, business and economics, education, engineering, graduate studies, law, letters and science, mines and earth ...
Idalium: ancient city in southern Cyprus, near modern Dali. Of pre-Greek origin, Idalium was one of 10 Cypriot kingdoms listed on the prism (many-sided tablet) of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680-669 BC). Eventually dominated by the Phoenician city of Citium, it ...
Idar-Oberstein: city, Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), southwestern Germany, on the Nahe River at the mouth of the Idarbach. The present city was formed in 1933 through the union of Idar, Oberstein (both chartered in 1865), Algenrodt, and Tiefenstein. Until 1670 Idar and ...
iddah: a specified period of time that must elapse before a Muslim widow or divorcee may legitimately remarry. The Qur'an (2:228) prescribes that a menstruating woman have three monthly periods before contracting a new marriage; the required delay for a nonmenstruating ...
Iddings, Joseph Paxson: American geologist who demonstrated the genetic relationships of neighbouring igneous rocks formed during a single period of magmatic activity.
ide: common sport and food fish of the carp family, Cyprinidae, widely distributed in rivers and lakes of Europe and western Siberia. An elongated, rather stout fish, the ide is blue-gray or blackish with silvery sides and belly, and is usually ...
ideal language: in analytic philosophy, a language that is precise, free of ambiguity, and clear in structure, on the model of symbolic logic, as contrasted with ordinary language, which is vague, misleading, and sometimes contradictory. In the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922), the Viennese-born ...
ideal solution: homogeneous mixture of substances that has physical properties linearly related to the properties of the pure components. The classic statement of this condition is Raoult's law, which is valid for many highly dilute solutions and for a limited class of ...
ideal type: a common mental construct in the social sciences derived from observable reality although not conforming to it in detail because of deliberate simplification and exaggeration. It is not ideal in the sense that it is excellent, nor is it an ...
Idealism: in philosophy, any view that stresses the central role of the ideal or the spiritual in the interpretation of experience. It may hold that the world or reality exists essentially as spirit or consciousness, that abstractions and laws are more ...
idee recue: an idea that is unexamined. The phrase is particularly associated with Gustave Flaubert, who in his Le Dictionnaire des idees recues (published posthumously in 1913; Flaubert's Dictionary of Accepted Ideas) mocked the use of cliches and platitudes and the uncritical ...
Idelsohn, Abraham Zevi: Jewish cantor, composer, founder of the modern study of the history of Jewish music, and one of the first important ethnomusicologists.
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.: Japanese petrochemical corporation founded in 1911, as Idemitsu Shokai, and reorganized and incorporated under its current name in 1940. Headquarters are in Tokyo.
identity theory: in philosophy, one view of modern Materialism that asserts that mind and matter, however capable of being logically distinguished, are in actuality but different expressions of a single reality that is material. Strong emphasis is placed upon the empirical verification ...
ideology: a form of social or political philosophy in which practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones. It is a system of ideas that aspires both to explain the world and to change it.
Ideology: French philosophic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that reduced epistemological problems (concerning the nature or grounds of knowledge) to those of psychology (as in the work of Etienne Condillac), before advancing to ethical and political problems. ...
Idfu: town on the west bank of the Nile in Aswan muhafazah (governorate), Upper Egypt.
Idhi: mountain riddled with caves, west-central Crete, in the nomos (department) of Rethimnon, southern Greece. One of Idhi's two peaks, Timios Stavros, at 8,058 feet (2,456 m), is Crete's highest mountain. According to one legend Zeus was reared in the Idhiean ...
idiophone: class of musical instruments in which a resonant solid material-such as wood, metal, or stone-vibrates to produce the initial sound. The eight basic types are concussion, friction, percussion, plucked, scraped, shaken, stamped, and stamping. In many cases, as in the ...
idiorrhythmic monasticism: the original form of monastic life in Christianity, as exemplified by St. Anthony of Egypt (c. 250-355). It consisted of a total withdrawal from society, normally in the desert, and the constant practice of mental prayer. The contemplative and mystical ...
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race: annual dogsled race held in March between Anchorage and Nome, Alaska, U.S. Both men and women compete together. A short race of 56 miles (90 km) organized in 1967 evolved in 1973 into the current race. The course, roughly 1,100 ...
Idku: town, northern al-Buhayrah muhafazah (governorate), Lower Egypt. It lies on a sandy strip behind Abu Qir Bay, in the northwestern Nile River delta. Immediately south is Lake Idku, a 58-square-mile (150-square-kilometre) lagoon that stretches some 22 miles (35 km) behind ...
Idlib: town, northwestern Syria. It is situated in a fertile basin midway between Aleppo and Latakia and is an important textile centre and a market for one of Syria's better agricultural districts. Major crops include cotton, cereals, olives, figs, grapes, tomatoes, ...
Ido: artificial language constructed by the French logician and Esperantist Louis de Beaufront and presented at the Delegation pour l'Adoption d'une Langue Auxiliaire Internationale (Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language) of 1907. The language is a reworking of ...
idolatry: in Judaism and Christianity, the worship of someone or something other than God as though it were God. The first of the biblical Ten Commandments prohibits idolatry: "You shall have no other gods before me."
Idoma: inhabitants of the region east of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers in southern Nigeria. A number of peoples, including the Agala, Iyala, Okpoto, Nkum, and Iguwale, are classified as speakers of distinguishable Idoma dialects, which belong to ...
Idomeneus: in Greek legend, son of Deucalion, grandson of Minos and Pasiphae, and king of Crete. He courted Helen and took a distinguished part in the Trojan War. According to the Odyssey, he returned home safely, but a later tradition relates ...
Idris: an immortal figure in Islamic legend, mentioned in the Qur'an (Islamic sacred scriptures) as a prophet. According to the traditions of the Sunnah, the major sect of Islam, Idris appeared sometime between the prophets Adam and Noah and transmitted divine ...
Idris I: in full Sidi Muhammad Idris Al-mahdi As-sanusi the first king of Libya when that country gained its independence in 1951.
Idris ibn Raja Iskandar, Sultan: sultan of Perak, 1887-1916.
Idris, Yusuf: Egyptian playwright and novelist who broke with traditional Arabic literature by mixing colloquial dialect with conventional classical Arabic narration in the writing of realistic stories about ordinary villagers.
Idrisi, ash-Sharif al-: Arab geographer, an adviser to Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily. He wrote one of the greatest works of medieval geography, Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq ("The Pleasure Excursion of One Who Is Eager to Traverse the Regions ...
Idrisid Dynasty: Arab Muslim dynasty that ruled in the Berber areas of Morocco from 789 until 921.
Idukki: town, southeastern Kerala state, southwestern India. It lies 81 miles (130 km) southeast of Cochin and 79 miles (127 km) northeast of Kottayam. It is known for its large hydroelectric project. The Idukki arch dam, 554 feet (169 m) high, ...
Idun: in Norse mythology, the goddess of spring or rejuvenation and the wife of Bragi, the god of poetry. She was the keeper of the magic apples of immortality, which the gods must eat to preserve their youth. When, through the ...
idyll: also spelled Idyl (from Greek eidyllion, "little picture"), a short poem of a pastoral or rural character in which something of the element of landscape is depicted or suggested. The term was used in Greco-Roman antiquity to designate a ...
If: small Mediterranean island 2 miles (3.2 km) outside the port of Marseille, Fr. Its castle, built by the French king Francis I in 1524, was later used as a state prison. The castle was made famous when Alexandre Dumas pere, ...
Ifat: Muslim state that flourished in central Ethiopia from 1285 to 1415 in the fertile uplands of eastern Shewa. Toward the end of the 13th century a ruler whose dynastic title was Walashma gained an ascendancy over the Muslim kingdoms of ...
Iffland, August Wilhelm: German actor, dramatist, and manager, a major influence on German theatre.
Ifni: former north African enclave of Spain and now part of the southwestern region of Morocco, along the Atlantic coast. An arid semidesert region of mountains and coastal plain, Ifni was first settled in 1476 by Diego Garcia de Herrera, lord ...
Ifrane: town, north-central Morocco. Founded in 1929, Ifrane is situated in the Moyen (Middle) Atlas Mountains and includes in its immediate environs Morocco's premier winter and summer resort areas. Located at an elevation of about 5,400 feet (1,650 m) above sea ...
ifrit: in Islamic mythology, a class of infernal jinn (spirits below the level of angels and devils) noted for their strength and cunning. An ifrit is an enormous winged creature of smoke, either male or female, who lives underground and frequents ...
Ifugao: group of wet-rice agriculturalists occupying the mountainous area of northern Luzon, Philippines. They are of Malay stock and their language is Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian), as is that of their neighbours, but they have developed a number of cultural characteristics that set ...
IG Farben: (German: "Syndicate of Dyestuff-Industry Corporations"), world's largest chemical concern, or cartel, from its founding in Germany in 1925 until its dissolution by the Allies after World War II. The IG (Interessengemeinschaft, "syndicate" or, literally, "community of interests"), partly patterned after ...