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Lat, al- ... Lattes, C.M.G.

Lat, al-: North Arabian goddess of pre-Islamic times to whom a stone cube at at-Ta'if (near Mecca) was held sacred as part of her cult. Two other North Arabian goddesses, Manat (Fate) and al-'Uzza (Strong), were associated with al-Lat in the Qur'an ...
Latacunga: capital of Cotopaxi province, north central Ecuador, in an Andean basin on the upper Rio Patate, at an elevation of 9,055 ft (2,760 m). The city dates from precolonial times, when it was frequented by Incan royalty because of its ...
Latakia: city and muhafazah (governorate), northwestern Syria. The city, capital of the governorate, is situated on the low-lying Ra's Ziyarah promontory that projects into the Mediterranean Sea. It was known to the Phoenicians as Ramitha and to the Greeks as Leuke ...
late blight: disease of potato and tomato plants that is caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans. The disease occurs in humid regions with temperature ranges of between 40° and 80° F (4° and 29° C); hot, dry weather checks its spread. Potato ...
Latecoere, Pierre: French aircraft manufacturer who aided the development of international airline service.
lateen sail: triangular sail that was of decisive importance to medieval navigation. The ancient square sail permitted sailing only before the wind; the lateen was the earliest fore-and-aft sail. The triangular sail was affixed to a long yard or crossbar, mounted at ...
latent heat: characteristic amount of energy absorbed or released by a substance during a change in its physical state that occurs without changing its temperature. The latent heat associated with melting a solid or freezing a liquid is called the heat of ...
latent image: in photography, the invisible configuration of silver halide crystals on a piece of film after exposure to image-bearing focussed light; it is distinguishable from unexposed silver halide only by its ability to be reduced to metallic silver by a developing ...
Later Le Dynasty: (1428-1788), the greatest and longest lasting dynasty of traditional Vietnam. Its predecessor, the Earlier Le, was founded by Le Hoan and lasted from 980 to 1009.
Later Ly Dynasty: (1009-1225), first of the three great dynasties of Vietnam. The kingdom, known later as Dai Viet, was established by Ly Thai To in the Red River Delta area of present northern Vietnam. Its capital was Thang Long (Hanoi). (It is ...
lateral: in phonetics, a consonant sound produced by raising the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth so that the airstream flows past one or both sides of the tongue. The l sounds of English, Welsh, and other ...
lateral line system: network of sensory receptors located along the head and sides of fishes and amphibians. The system serves to detect movements and pressure changes in the surrounding water. The individual receptor, called a lateral line organ, or neuromast, consists of a ...
lateral secretion: geological process by which ore minerals dissolved from wall rocks by percolating waters are redeposited in nearby openings. Put forth in 1847, the theory was vigorously attacked in the late 1800s by geologists who contended that the deposits were formed ...
laterality: in biological psychology, the development of specialized functioning in each hemisphere of the brain or in the side of the body which each controls.
Lateran Council: any of the five ecumenical councils of the Roman Catholic Church held in the Lateran Palace in Rome.
Lateran Treaty: treaty (effective 1929 to 1985) between Italy and the Vatican. It was signed by Benito Mussolini for the Italian government and by cardinal secretary of state Pietro Gasparri for the papacy and confirmed by the Italian constitution of 1948.
laterite: soil layer that is rich in iron oxide and derived from a wide variety of rocks weathering under strongly oxidizing and leaching conditions. It forms in tropical and subtropical regions where the climate is humid. Lateritic soils may contain clay ...
latex: colloidal suspension, either the milky white liquid emulsion found in the cells of flowering plants such as the Para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) or any of various manufactured water emulsions consisting of synthetic rubber or plastic.
lath: any material fastened to the structural members of a building to provide a base for plaster. Lath can be of wood, metal, gypsum, or insulated board. In older residential buildings, narrow wood strips were generally used.
lathe: machine tool that performs turning operations in which unwanted material is removed from a workpiece rotated against a cutting tool.
Lathrop, Julia Clifford: American social welfare worker who was the first director of the U.S. Children's Bureau.
Lathrop, Mother Alphonsa: U.S. author, nun, and founder of the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer, a Roman Catholic congregation of nuns affiliated with the Third Order of St. Dominic and dedicated to serving victims of terminal cancer.
latifundium: any large ancient Roman agricultural estate that used a large number of peasant or slave labourers.
Latimer, Hugh: English Protestant who advanced the cause of the Reformation in England through his vigorous preaching and through the inspiration of his martyrdom.
Latin: the ancient people of Latium (q.v.).
Latin alphabet: most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and the languages of most of Europe and those areas settled by Europeans. Developed from the Etruscan alphabet at some time before 600 BC, ...
Latin America: the countries of South America and North America (including Central America and the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants speak a Romance language. Most frequently the term Latin America is restricted to countries whose inhabitants speak either Spanish or Portuguese, ...
Latin America, history of: history of the region from the pre-Columbian period and including colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in the 15th century, the 19th-century wars of independence, and developments to the end of World War II.
Latin American art: artistic traditions that developed in Mesoamerica, Central America, and South America after contact with the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in 1492 and 1500, respectively, and continuing to the present.
Latin American Central of Workers: (CLAT), regional Christian Democrat trade union federation linked to the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). Its affiliated member groups represent some 10,000,000 workers in more than 35 Latin-American and Caribbean countries and territories. Its headquarters are in Caracas, Venez. From ...
Latin American Economic System: association formed to promote economic cooperation and development throughout the region of Latin America. Established in 1975 through the Panama Convention, SELA succeeded the Special Committee for Latin American Coordination (CECLA). Nearly 30 Latin American and Caribbean countries are members. ...
Latin American Integration Association: organization that was established by the Treaty of Montevideo (August 1980) and became operational in March 1981. It seeks economic cooperation among its members. Original members were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Cuba ...
Latin American literature: the national literatures of the Spanish-speaking countries of the Western Hemisphere. Historically, it also includes the literary expression of the highly developed American Indian civilizations conquered by the Spaniards. Over the years, Latin American literature has developed a rich and ...
Latin Averroism: the teachings of a number of Western Christian philosophers who, in the later Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, drew inspiration from the interpretation of Aristotle put forward by Averroes, a Muslim philosopher. The basic tenet of Latin Averroism was ...
Latin language: Indo-European language belonging to the Italic group; it is the language ancestral to the modern Romance languages.
Latin League: originally a confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the neighbourhood of ancient Rome that joined for mutual protection and defense against hostile adjoining communities. The city of Alba Longa, the leader of this federation, was the site of ...
Latin literature: the body of writings in Latin, primarily produced during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, when Latin was a spoken language. When Rome fell, Latin remained the literary language of the Western medieval world until it was superseded by ...
Latin-Faliscan languages: language group proposed by some scholars to be included in the Italic branch of Indo-European languages. The group includes Latin, which emanated from Rome, and Faliscan, spoken in the Falerii district in southeastern Etruria. Closely related to Latin, Faliscan is ...
Latina: city, capital of Latina provincia, Lazio (Latium) regione, south-central Italy, 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Rome. Built in 1932 as the first centre of the newly reclaimed Agro Pontino (see Pontine Marshes), it became the provincial capital when Latina ...
Latini, Brunetto: Florentine scholar who helped disseminate ideas that were fundamental to the development of early Italian poetry. He was a member of the Guelph party and a leading figure in the political life of Florence.
Latinus: in Roman legend, king of the aborigines in Latium and eponymous hero of the Latin race. He was believed to be either the son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe or the son of the Roman god ...
latissimus dorsi: widest and most powerful muscle of the back. It is a large, flat, triangular muscle covering the lower back. It arises from the lower half of the vertebral column and iliac crest (hipbone) and tapers to a rounded tendon inserted ...
latite: extrusive igneous rock very abundant in western North America. Usually coloured white, yellowish, pinkish, or gray, it is the volcanic equivalent of monzonite (q.v.). Latites contain plagioclase feldspar (andesine or oligoclase) as large, single crystals (phenocrysts) in a fine-grained matrix ...
latitude and longitude: coordinate system by means of which the position or location of any place on the Earth's surface can be determined and described.
latitudinarian: any of the 17th-century Anglican clerics whose beliefs and practices were viewed by conservatives as unorthodox or, at best, heterodox. After first being applied to the Cambridge Platonists, the term was later used to categorize churchmen who depended upon reason ...
Latium: south of the Tiber River as far as the promontory of Mount Circeo. It was bounded on the northwest by Etruria, on the southeast by Campania, on the east by Samnium, and on the northeast by the territory of the ...
Latreille, Pierre-Andre: French zoologist and Roman Catholic priest, father of modern entomology, who achieved the first detailed classification of crustaceans and insects.
Latrobe Valley: river valley in southeastern Victoria, Australia. It is one of the most important economic areas in the state.
Latrobe, Benjamin: British-born architect and civil engineer who established architecture as a profession in the United States. Latrobe was the most original proponent of the Greek Revival style in American building.
Latter Rain revival: early name for the Pentecostal movement within U.S. Protestantism; it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Tennessee and North Carolina and took its name from the "latter rain" referred to in Joel 2:23. The Bible passage ...
Lattes, C.M.G.: Brazilian physicist who, with American physicist Eugene Gardner at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1948 confirmed the existence of heavy and light mesons formed during the bombardment of carbon nuclei with alpha particles.