Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Jason ... Jayadeva

Jason: in Greek mythology, leader of the Argonauts (see ) and son of Aeson, king of Iolcos in Thessaly. His father's half-brother Pelias seized Iolcos, and thus for safety Jason was sent away to the Centaur Chiron. Returning as a young ...
Jason: Hellenistic Jewish high priest (175-172 BC) in Jerusalem under the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. By promising greater tribute to Antiochus, he obtained the high priesthood and, scorning the traditional Jewish monotheism of the Pharasaic party, promoted Greek culture and ...
Jaspar, Henri: Belgian statesman and one of his country's chief negotiators in the peace conferences following World War I. As prime minister (1926-31), he resolved a serious financial crisis at the outset of his ministry.
Jasper: city, seat (1824) of Walker county, northwestern Alabama, U.S., about 40 miles (65 km) northwest of Birmingham. Settled in 1815, it was named for Sergeant William Jasper, a defender of Fort Moultrie (then Fort Sullivan) during the American Revolution. It ...
jasper: opaque, fine-grained or dense variety of the silica mineral chert that exhibits various colours, but chiefly brick red to brownish red. It owes its colour to admixed hematite; but when it occurs with clay admixed, the colour is a yellowish ...
Jasper: county, southern South Carolina, U.S. It is bounded to the west by the Savannah River border with Georgia. The county's short southern coast along the Atlantic Ocean includes a portion of the Sea Islands and, at the southern tip, Tybee ...
Jasper: unincorporated place, western Alberta, Canada. It lies at the confluence of the Athabasca and Miette rivers, near the British Columbia border, and is the headquarters of Jasper National Park. Jasper Hawes of the North West Company established a fur-trading post ...
Jasper National Park: national park in western Alberta, Canada, located on the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains, north of Banff National Park. Jasper spans 4,200 square miles (10,878 square km) and contains significant active geologic processes, scenic mountains, and diverse animal and ...
Jaspers, Karl: German philosopher, one of the most important Existentialists in Germany, who approached the subject from man's direct concern with his own existence. In his later work, as a reaction to the disruptions of Nazi rule in Germany and World War ...
jasperware: type of fine-grained, unglazed stoneware introduced by the English potter Josiah Wedgwood in 1775 as the result of a long series of experiments aimed at discovering the techniques of porcelain manufacture. Its name derives from the fact that it resembles ...
Jassy, Treaty of: (Jan. 9, 1792), pact signed at Jassy in Moldavia (modern Iasi, Romania), at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-92; it confirmed Russian dominance in the Black Sea.
Jastrun, Mieczyslaw: Polish lyric poet and essayist whose work represents a constant quest for new poetic forms of expression.
Jastrzebie Zdroj: city, Slaskie wojewodztwo (province), southern Poland. Joined by the cities of Raciborz and Rybnik, Jastrzebie Zdroj forms a secondary industrial zone within the Upper Silesian area that borders the Czech industrial region of Ostrava.
Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok: megye (county), east-central Hungary. Situated in the Great Hungarian Plain, the county is drained from north to south by the Tisza River. In the northwest the Zagyva River flows across the Jaszsag, a marginal depression of the plain, which extends ...
Jat: peasant caste of northern India and Pakistan. In the 1960s the Jat constituted about 20 percent of the population of Punjab, nearly 10 percent of the population of Balochistan, Rajasthan, and Delhi, and from 2 to 5 percent of the ...
Jata: town, southwestern Goias estado ("state"), south-central Brazil. It lies at the confluence of the Claro and Sao Pedro rivers at 2,323 feet (708 m) above sea level. Livestock raising is the principal source of income, and agriculture (especially rice and ...
Jataka: any of the extremely popular stories of former lives of the Buddha, which are preserved in all branches of Buddhism. Some Jataka tales are scattered in various sections of the Pali canon of Buddhist writings, including a ...
jati: caste, in Hindu society. The term is derived from the Sanskrit jata, "born" or "brought into existence," and indicates a form of existence determined by birth. In Indian philosophy jati (genus) describes any group of things that have generic characteristics ...
jatropha: (genus Jatropha), member of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), native in both New World and Old World tropics and containing about 125 species of milky-juiced herbs, shrubs, and trees, some useful for their oils or as ornamental plants in tropical gardens.
Jau: city, central Sao Paulo estado ("state"), Brazil, on the Jau River, a tributary of the Tiete River, at an elevation of 1,775 feet (541 m) above sea level. It was given town status and made the seat of a municipality ...
jaundice: excess accumulation of bile pigments in the bloodstream and bodily tissues that causes a yellow to orange and sometimes even greenish discoloration of the skin, the whites of the eyes, and the mucous membranes. Jaundice is best seen in natural ...
Jaunpur: town, southeastern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, straddling the Gomati River, northwest of Varanasi (Benares). Jaunpur probably was originally founded in the 11th century but was washed away by Gomati floods. It was rebuilt in 1359 by Firuz Shah Tughluq, ...
jaunting car: two-wheeled, open vehicle, popular in Ireland from the early 19th century. It was unusual in having lengthwise, back-to-back or face-to-face passenger seats. The light, horse-drawn cart carried four passengers (although the earliest versions carried more). It usually had a narrow, ...
Jaures, Jean: French socialist leader, cofounder of the newspaper L'Humanite, and member of the French Chamber of Deputies (1885-89, 1893-98, 1902-14); he achieved the unification of several factions into a single socialist party, the Section Francaise de l'Internationale Ouvriere. During the war ...
Java: Indonesian island lying southeast of Malaysia and Sumatra, south of Borneo (Kalimantan), and west of Bali. Java is only the fourth largest island in the Republic of Indonesia but contains more than half of the nation's population and dominates it ...
Java man: extinct hominin (member of the human lineage) known from fossil remains found on the island of Java, Indonesia. A skullcap and thighbone discovered by the Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugene Dubois in the early 1890s were the first known fossils ...
Java Sea: portion of the western Pacific Ocean between the islands of Java and Borneo. It is bordered by Borneo (Kalimantan) on the north, the southern end of Makassar Strait on the northeast, Celebes and the Flores and Bali seas on the ...
Java sparrow: (species Padda oryzivora), bird of the mannikin group in the family Estrildidae (order Passeriformes), one of the best-known cage birds. It is an attractive pet that chirps and trills. Native to Java and Bali, it has become established in the ...
Java Trench: deep submarine depression in the eastern Indian Ocean that extends some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) in a northwest-southeast arc along the southwestern and southern Indonesian archipelago. It is located about 190 miles (305 km) off the southwestern coasts of the ...
Javadi Hills: range of hills, one of the larger of the Eastern Ghats, northern Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. About 50 miles (80 km) wide and 20 miles (32 km) long, they are bisected into eastern and western sections by the Cheyyar ...
Javanese: largest ethnic group on the island of Java, Indonesia. Their language, spoken by more than 71 million people, belongs to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family, as do those of neighbouring but different groups such as the Sundanese of southwest Java and ...
Javanese language: member of the Western, or Indonesian, branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family, spoken as a native language by more than 68 million persons living primarily on the island of Java. The largest of the Austronesian languages in number of ...
Javanthropus: original genus name assigned to Solo man, now widely considered a subspecies of Homo erectus. See Solo man.
Javari River: river that rises on the border between Amazonas state, Brazil, and Loreto department, Peru. It flows northeast for 540 miles (870 km) to join the Amazon River near the Brazilian outpost of Benjamin Constant. The river follows a winding course ...
javelin throw: athletics (track-and-field) sport of throwing a spear for distance, included in the ancient Greek Olympic Games as one of five events of the pentathlon competition.
Javorniky: mountain range on the western fringe of the Carpathian Mountains that forms the northern segment of the boundary between Moravia (Czech Republic) and Slovakia. The ridge of the Javorniky peaks-the highest, at 3,514 feet (1,071 metres), is Velky Javornik, overlooking ...
jaw: either of a pair of bones that form the framework of the mouth of vertebrate animals, usually containing teeth and including a movable lower jaw (mandible) and fixed upper jaw (maxilla). Jaws function by moving in opposition to each other ...
Jawa Barat: propinsi (province), western Java, Indonesia. It is bounded by Jawa Tengah (Central Java) province to the east, the Indian Ocean to the south, the Java Sea to the north, and the metropolitan capital district of Jakarta Raya ...
Jawa Tengah: provinsi (province), central Java, Indonesia. It is bounded by Jawa Barat (West Java) province on the west, the Java Sea on the north, Jawa Timur (East Java) province on the east, the Indian Ocean on the south, ...
Jawa Timur: provinsi (province), eastern Java, Indonesia. It is bounded by the province of Jawa Tengah (Central Java) on the west, the Java Sea on the north, the Indian Ocean on the south, and the Bali Strait on the ...
Jawara, Sir Dawda Kairaba: politician and veterinarian who was The Gambia's prime minister from 1962 to 1970 and its president from 1970 until he was overthrown in 1994.
Jawf, Al-: oasis region, western Yemen. It is bordered by the far-southwest extension of the Rub' al-Khali, the great sandy desert of the Arabian Peninsula. The Wadi al-Jawf, an intermittent stream with headwaters in the mountains of the Yemen Highlands, crosses the ...
Jawf, Al-: town and oasis, northern Saudi Arabia. It lies at the northern edge of an-Nafud desert near the source of the Wadi as-Sirhan. Formerly considered a part of the Jabal Shammar region, the oasis now lies within the northern reaches of ...
Jawlensky, Alexey von: Russian painter noted for his Expressionistic portraits and the mystical tone of his late paintings of abstract faces.
jawless fish: any of numerous primitive, fishlike, jawless vertebrates comprising the class Agnatha, which includes the lampreys, hagfishes, and some extinct groups. See hagfish; lamprey.
Jaworzno: city, Slaskie wojewodztwo (province), south-central Poland. It was founded in the 18th century when rich deposits of zinc and lead ore and beds of coal were discovered nearby. Jaworzno is an important coal-mining and industrial city, with ...
jay: any of about 35 to 40 bird species belonging to the family Corvidae (order Passeriformes) that inhabits woodlands and is known for its bold, raucous manner. Most are found in the New World, but several are Eurasian. Jays are nearly ...
Jay Treaty: (Nov. 19, 1794), agreement that assuaged antagonisms between the United States and Great Britain, established a base upon which America could build a sound national economy, and assured its commercial prosperity.
Jay, John: a founding father of the United States who served the new nation in both law and diplomacy. He established important judicial precedents as first chief justice of the Supreme Court (1789-95) and negotiated the Jay Treaty of 1794, which settled ...
Jaya, Mount: highest peak on the island of New Guinea, in the Sudirman Range, western central highlands. Located in the Indonesian part of New Guinea, known as Irian Jaya, the 16,500-ft (5,030-m) Ngga Palu summit is the highest in the southwestern Pacific ...
Jayadeva: Indian author of the celebrated Sanskrit poem Gitagovinda ("Song of the Cowherd"), which helped to popularize devotional Hinduism.