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Persian Gulf War, First ... Peruzzi, Baldassarre

Persian Gulf War, First: (1990-91), international conflict that was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait with the apparent aim of acquiring that nation's large oil reserves, canceling a large ...
Persian Gulf War, Second: brief conflict that took place in 2003 between Iraq and a combined force of troops from the United States and Great Britain, with smaller contingents from several other countries. The war led to the rapid defeat of Iraqi military and ...
Persian language: member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family; it is the official language of Iran. It is most closely related to Middle and Old Persian, former languages of the region of Fars ("Persia") in southwestern Iran. Modern Persian ...
Persian literature: body of writings in Modern Persian (Farsi), the form of the Persian language written with the Arabic alphabet and with many Arabic loanwords. Modern Persian emerged by the 9th century and became established as the literary form of the Persian ...
Persian Royal Road: ancient road running from Susa, the ancient capital of Persia, across Anatolia to the Aegean Sea, a distance of more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km). Royal messengers, who, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, were stopped by "neither snow, nor ...
Persichetti, Vincent: American composer noted for his succinct polyphonic style (based on interwoven melodic lines), forceful rhythms, and generally diatonic melodies (moving stepwise; not atonal or highly chromatic).
Persigny, Jean-Gilbert-Victor Fialin, Duke de: French statesman who helped pave the way for Louis-Napoleon's rise to power as the emperor Napoleon III.
persimmon: either of two trees of the genus Diospyros (family Ebenaceae) and their globular, edible fruits. The Oriental persimmon (D. kaki), an important and extensively grown fruit in China and Japan, where it is known as kaki, was introduced into France ...
Persis: ancient country in the southwestern part of Iran, roughly coextensive with the modern region of Fars. Its name was derived from the Iranian tribe of the Parsua (Parsuash; Parsumash; Persians), who settled there in the 7th century BC. Herodotus lists ...
Persius: Stoic poet whose Latin satires reached a higher moral tone than those of other classical Latin poets (excepting Juvenal).
persona: in psychology, the personality that an individual projects to others, as differentiated from the authentic self. The term, coined by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, is derived from the Latin persona, referring to the masks worn by Etruscan ...
persona: in literature, the person who is understood to be speaking (or thinking or writing) a particular work. The persona is almost invariably distinct from the author; it is the voice chosen by the author for a particular artistic purpose. The ...
personal computer: (PC), a computer designed for use by only one person at a time. A personal computer is a type of microcomputer-i.e., a small digital computer that uses only one microprocessor. (A microprocessor is a semiconductor chip that contains all the ...
personal income tax: a tax imposed by public authorities on the incomes of individuals or family units. See income tax.
personal-liberty laws: in U.S. history, pre-Civil War laws passed by Northern state governments to counteract the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Acts and to protect escaped slaves and free blacks settled in the North.
personalism: a school of philosophy, usually idealist, which asserts that the real is the personal, i.e., that the basic features of personality-consciousness, free self-determination, directedness toward ends, self-identity through time, and value retentiveness-make it the pattern of all reality. In the ...
personalismo: in Latin America, the practice of glorifying a single leader, with the resulting subordination of the interests of political parties and ideologies and of constitutional government.
personality: a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. It includes behavioral characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one person from another and that ...
personality assessment: the measurement of personal characteristics. Assessment is an end result of gathering information intended to advance psychological theory and research and to increase the probability that wise decisions will be made in applied settings (e.g., in selecting the most promising ...
personality disorder: mental disorder that is marked by deeply ingrained and lasting patterns of inflexible, maladaptive, or antisocial behaviour. A personality disorder is an accentuation of one or more personality traits to the point that the trait significantly impairs an individual's social ...
personification: figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object. An example is "The Moon doth with delight / Look round her when the heavens are bare" (William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality ...
personnel administration: the management of the people in working organizations. It is also frequently called personnel management, industrial relations, employee relations, and manpower management. It represents a major subsystem in the general management system, in which it refers to the management of ...
perspective: method of graphically depicting three-dimensional objects and spatial relationships on a two-dimensional plane or on a plane that is shallower than the original (for example, in flat relief).
perspective scenery: in theatre, scenery and the scene design technique that represents three-dimensional space on a flat surface, creating an illusion of reality and an impression of distance. Developed during the Italian Renaissance, perspective scenery applied the newly mastered science of linear ...
perspiration: in most mammals, water given off by the intact skin, either as vapour by simple evaporation from the epidermis (insensible perspiration) or as sweat, a form of cooling in which liquid actively secreted from sweat glands (q.v.) evaporates from the ...
persuasion: the process by which a person's attitudes or behaviour are, without duress, influenced by communications from other people. One's attitudes and behaviour are also affected by other factors (for example, verbal threats, physical coercion, one's physiological states). Not all communication ...
Perth: city and capital, Western Australia. Perth lies along the estuary of the Swan River, 12 miles (19 km) above that river's mouth, which forms the inner harbour of Fremantle. The city, the fourth largest in Australia, is the centre of ...
Perth: city and royal burgh, Perth and Kinross council area, historic county of Perthshire, Scotland. Perth lies on the right bank of the River Tay. Its name is probably Celtic.
Perth: town, seat of Lanark county, southeastern Ontario, Canada, on the Tay River, 45 miles (70 km) southwest of Ottawa. Named after the town in Scotland, it was founded in 1816 by Scottish immigrants who were later joined by British-Canadian veterans ...
Perth Amboy: city and port of entry, Middlesex county, east-central New Jersey, U.S. It lies at the mouth of the Raritan River, on Raritan Bay, at the southern end of Arthur Kill (channel), there bridged to Tottenville, Staten Island, New York City. ...
Perth and Kinross: council area, central Scotland. It encompasses the historic county of Kinross-shire (Kinross, which covers a small area in the southeast), a very small portion of the historic county of Angus (south of Coupar Angus), and most of the historic county ...
perthite: any member of a class of alkali feldspars in which tiny crystals of sodium-rich feldspar (albite; NaAlSi₃O₈) are intimately intergrown with, but distinct from, tiny crystals of potassium-rich feldspar (orthoclase or, less commonly, microcline; KAlSi₃O₈). Slow cooling of a homogeneous, ...
Perthshire: historic county of central Scotland, including a section of the Grampian Mountains in the southern Highlands and a portion of the northern Scottish Lowlands, centred on the city of Perth. Most of Perthshire lies within the council area of Perth ...
Pertinax, Publius Helvius: Roman emperor from January to March 193.
Pertini, Alessandro: politician and president of Italy (1978-85), distinguished by his statesmanship amid political and social upheaval.
perturbation: in mathematics, method for solving a problem by comparing it with a similar one for which the solution is known. Usually the solution found in this way is only approximate.
perturbation: in astronomy, deviation in the motion of a celestial object caused either by the gravitational force of a passing object or by a collision with it. For example, predicting the Earth's orbit around the Sun would be rather straightforward were ...
Peru: city, seat (1834) of Miami county, north-central Indiana, U.S. The city lies on the Wabash River near its juncture with the Mississinewa, midway between South Bend (70 miles [110 km] north) and Indianapolis. Founded in 1829 as Miamisport on the ...
Peru: country in South America. Except for the Lake Titicaca basin in the southeast, its borders lie in sparsely populated zones. The boundaries with Ecuador to the northwest, Bolivia to the southeast, and Chile to the south run across the high ...
Peru Current: cold-water current of the southeast Pacific Ocean, with a width of about 900 km (550 mi). Relatively slow and shallow, it transports only 350,000,000-700,000,000 cu ft (10,000,000-20,000,000 cu m) of water per second. It is an eastern boundary current similar ...
Peru, Viceroyalty of: the second of the four viceroyalties that Spain created to govern its domains in the Americas. Established in 1543, the viceroyalty initially included all of South America under Spanish control except for the coast of what is now Venezuela. It ...
Peru-Chile Trench: submarine trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles (160 km) off the coast of Peru and Chile. It reaches a maximum depth of 26,460 feet (8,065 m) below sea level in Richards Deep and is approximately 3,666 miles ...
Perugia: city, seat of an archbishopric and capital of Perugia province and Umbria region, in central Italy, north of Rome; it lies on an irregular cluster of hills overlooking the Umbrian and central Tiber valleys and Lake Trasimeno. Founded by the ...
Perugia, University of: coeducational state institution of higher learning at Perugia, Italy. The university was founded in 1200 by a group of students seceding from the University of Bologna. It was recognized by Pope Clement V in 1308 as a studium generale, a ...
Perugino: Italian early Renaissance painter of the Umbria school, the teacher of Raphael. His work (e.g., "Giving of the Keys to St. Peter," 1481-82, a fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Rome) anticipated High Renaissance ideals in its compositional clarity, sense of ...
peruke: man's wig, especially the type popular from the 17th to the early 19th century. It was made of long hair, often with curls on the sides, and drawn back on the nape of the neck.
Perun: the thunder god of the ancient pagan Slavs, a fructifier, purifier, and overseer of right and order. His actions are perceived by the senses: seen in the thunderbolt, heard in the rattle of stones, the bellow of the bull, or ...
Perutz, Max Ferdinand: Austrian-born British biochemist, corecipient of the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his X-ray diffraction analysis of the structure of hemoglobin, the protein that transports oxygen from the lungs to the tissues via blood cells. He shared the award with ...
Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation: transitory union of Peru and Bolivia (1836-39). Bolivia's dictator, Andres Santa Cruz, conquered Peru after helping to quell an army rebellion against Peruvian president Luis Jose de Orbegoso in 1835. Santa Cruz then divided Peru into a northern and a ...
Peruzzi Family: leading family of medieval Italian financiers whose bankruptcy in the 14th century contributed to the economic depression of the late Middle Ages.
Peruzzi, Baldassarre: Sienese architect and painter, one of the earliest artists to attempt illusionist architectural painting (quadratura), the extension of real architecture into imaginary space.