Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Pagosa Springs ... Palacky, Frantisek

Pagosa Springs: city, seat (1891) of Archuleta county, south-central Colorado, U.S. Located near large mineral springs, the town site was established in 1874 after control of the area was wrested from the Ute people (in whose language pagosa means "healing water"). Pagosa ...
Pahang: region, eastern West Malaysia (Malaya). Its eastern coastline stretches along the South China Sea. Pahang occupies the vast Pahang River basin, which is enclosed by the Main Range to the west and the eastern highlands to the north.
Pahang River: river in Pahang region, West Malaysia (Malaya). It is the longest river on the Malay Peninsula. It rises in two headstreams, the Jelai and Tembeling, about 10 miles (16 km) north of Jerantut and flows south past Temerloh, paralleling the ...
Pahari: people of mixed descent who constitute about three-fifths the population of Nepal and a majority of the population of neighbouring Himalayan India (in Himachal Pradesh and northern Uttar Pradesh). They speak languages belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European ...
Pahari languages: group of Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the lower ranges of the Himalayas (pahari is Hindi for "of the mountains"). Three divisions are distinguished: Eastern Pahari, represented by Nepali of Nepal; Central Pahari, spoken in the north of Uttar Pradesh state; ...
Pahari painting: style of miniature painting and book illustration that developed in the independent states of the Himalayan foothills in India. The style is made up of two markedly contrasting schools, the bold intense Basohli and the delicate and lyrical Kangra. Pahari ...
Pahiatua: town, Manawatu-Wanganui local government region, southern North Island, New Zealand, at the confluence of the Mangatainoka River and Mangaramarama Creek, 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Wellington. It was founded in 1881 by Scandinavian immigrants. The town was almost totally ...
Pahlavi alphabet: until the advent of Islam (7th century AD); the Zoroastrian sacred book, the Avesta, is written in a variant of Pahlavi called Avestan.
Pahlavi language: major form of the Middle Persian language (see Persian language), which existed from the 3rd to the 10th century and was the official language of the Sasanian empire (AD 226-652). It is attested by Zoroastrian books, coins, and inscriptions. Pahlavi ...
Pahud de Mortanges, Charles Ferdinand: Dutch equestrian who was one of the most successful riders in Olympic history, winning four gold medals and a silver in the 1920s and '30s.
Pai: people of northwestern Yunnan province, southwest China. Min-chia is the Chinese (Wade-Giles) name for them; they call themselves Pai, or Po, in their own language, which has been classified in the Yi group of the Tibeto-Burman languages. Until recently the ...
Pai-ch'eng: city, northwestern Kirin sheng (province), China. The region was originally a hunting ground reserved for the Mongols and was not opened for legitimate colonization by the Chinese until 1902; it is now an area of extensive agriculture, with pastoral activities ...
pai-hua: (Chinese: "colloquial language"), vernacular style of Chinese that was adopted as a written language in a movement to revitalize the Classical Chinese literary language and make it more accessible to the common people. Started in 1917 by the philosopher and ...
Pai-se: city in western Kwangsi Chuang autonomous ch'u (region), China. It lies along the Yu River, which flows southeast to Nan-ning, and is situated at its junction with its tributary, the Ssu-ch'eng River. It is at the limit of navigation on ...
paideia: (Greek: "education," or "learning"), system of education and training in classical Greek and Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) cultures that included such subjects as gymnastics, grammar, rhetoric, music, mathematics, geography, natural history, and philosophy. In the early Christian era the Greek paideia, called ...
Paige, Satchel: American professional baseball pitcher whose prowess became legendary during his many years in the Negro leagues; he finally was allowed to enter the major leagues in 1948 after the unwritten rule against black players was abolished. A right-handed, flexible "beanpole" ...
Paijanne, Lake: lake located in parts of the laanit (provinces) of Keski-Suomi, Hame, and Mikkeli, south-central Finland. The lake has an area of 407 square miles (1,054 square km) and a maximum depth of 305 feet (93 m). It is about 85 ...
pain: a complex experience consisting of a physiological and emotional response to a noxious stimulus. Pain is a warning mechanism that protects an organism by influencing it to withdraw from harmful stimuli; it is primarily associated with injury or the threat ...
Paine, John Knowles: composer and organist, the first American to win wide recognition as a composer and the first professor of music at an American university.
Paine, Robert Treat: American politician, jurist, member of the Continental Congress (1774-78), and signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Paine, Thomas: English-American writer and political pamphleteer whose "Common Sense" and "Crisis" papers were important influences on the American Revolution. Other works that contributed to his reputation as one of the greatest political propagandists in history were Rights of Man, a defense ...
Painesville: city, seat (1840) of Lake county, northeastern Ohio, U.S., near the mouth of the Grand River and Lake Erie, 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Cleveland. The site, first settled permanently by Gen. Edward Paine with a party of 66, ...
Painleve, Paul: French politician, mathematician, and patron of aviation who was prime minister at a crucial period of World War I and again during the 1925 financial crisis.
paint: decorative and protective coating commonly applied to rigid surfaces as a liquid consisting of a pigment suspended in a vehicle, or binder. The vehicle, usually a resin dissolved in a solvent, dries to a tough film, binding the pigment to ...
Painted Desert: section of the high plateau in north-central Arizona, U.S. The Painted Desert extends from the Grand Canyon in a southeasterly direction along the north side of the Little Colorado River to Holbrook. It is approximately 150 miles (240 km) long ...
painted lady: any of certain butterflies of the genus Vanessa (family Nymphalidae, order Lepidoptera), specifically V. virginiensis in North and Central America and V. cardui in Africa and Europe. The adults have broad wings (span about 4 to 5 cm [1.5 to ...
painted snipe: either of two species of marsh birds comprising the family Rostratulidae (order Charadriiformes). They are boldly marked birds with a snipelike body and bill. Painted snipes are about 25 cm (10 inches) in length and are brown and white in ...
painted turtle: (Chrysemys picta), brightly marked North American turtle (family Emydidae) found from southern Canada to northern Mexico. The painted turtle is a smooth-shelled reptile with a shell about 10 to 18 centimetres (4 to 7 inches) long. It has red and ...
Painter, Theophilus Shickel: American zoologist and cytologist who first identified individual genes in the chromosomes of fruit flies.
Painter, William: English author whose collection of tales The Palace of Pleasure, based on classical and Italian originals, served as a sourcebook for many Elizabethan dramatists.
painting: the expression of ideas and emotions, with the creation of certain aesthetic qualities, in a two-dimensional visual language. The elements of this language-its shapes, lines, colours, tones, and textures-are used in various ways to produce sensations of volume, space, movement, ...
painting, Western: history of Western painting from its beginnings in prehistoric times to the present.
pair production: in physics, formation or materialization of two electrons, one negative and the other positive (positron), from a pulse of electromagnetic energy traveling through matter, usually in the vicinity of an atomic nucleus. Pair production is a direct conversion of radiant ...
Pais, El: (Spanish: "The Country"), daily newspaper published in Madrid, an independent paper dedicated to the promotion of democratic ideals in post-Franco Spain.
Paisiello, Giovanni: Neapolitan composer of operas admired for their robust realism and dramatic power.
paisley: textile pattern characterized by colourful, curved abstract figures; it is named for the shawls manufactured at the town of Paisley, Scot. When, about 1800, patterned shawls made from the soft fleece of the Kashmir goat began to be imported to ...
Paisley: large burgh (town) and an industrial centre, Renfrewshire council area and historic county, west-central Scotland, 7 miles (11 km) west of Glasgow. It is situated on the River White Cart, a tributary of the River Clyde.
Paisley, Ian: militant Protestant leader in the sectarian conflict that divided Northern Ireland from the 1960s, and a member of the British Parliament (from North Antrim) since 1970 and the European Parliament since 1979.
Paiute: either of two distinct American Indian groups that speak languages of the Numic group of the Uto-Aztecan family. The Southern Paiute, who speak Ute, at one time occupied southern Utah, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern California, the last group ...
pajamas: loose, lightweight trousers worn in the East, or a loose two-piece suit of silk, cotton, or synthetic material worn for sleeping or lounging.
Pajon, Claude: French Protestant theologian who was influential during the later Reformation.
Pajou, Augustin: French sculptor and decorator known mainly for his portrait busts of figures, such as his patroness, Madame du Barry, and for directing the decoration of the Versailles opera house.
Pakistan: country in South Asia. It is bounded to the west by Iran, to the north by Afghanistan, to the northeast by China, to the east and southeast by India, and to the south by the Arabian Sea. It has an ...
Pakistan, Church of: denomination inaugurated in Pakistan in 1970 and comprising former Anglican, Methodist, Scottish Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches and mission bodies. It is the only church in the world joining Lutherans with Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians and one of three in which ...
Pakokku: town, central Myanmar (Burma), on the Irrawaddy River below its junction with the Chindwin. A trading centre for the Chindwin and Yaw river valleys, the town deals in timber and palm sugar and is the head of downstream Chindwin navigation. ...
Pakxe: town, in the southern panhandle of Laos, at the confluence of the Xedon and Mekong rivers. Before 1966 Pakxe functioned as the chief port of entry of Laos. East of Pakxe begins the rolling Bolovens Plateau, nearly 3,300 feet (1,000 ...
Pala Dynasty: ruling dynasty in Bihar and Bengal, India, from the 8th to the 12th century. Its founder, Gopala, was a local chieftain who rose to power in the mid-8th century during a period of anarchy. His successor, Dharmapala (reigned c. 770-810), ...
palace: royal residence, and sometimes a seat of government or religious centre. The word is derived from the Palatine Hill in Rome, where the Roman emperors built their residences. As a building a palace should be differentiated from a castle, which ...
Palace Museum: ("Ancient Palace Museum"), in Peking, museum housed in the main buildings of the former Imperial Palaces. The museum displays valuable objects from Chinese history.
Palacio Valdes, Armando: one of the most popular 19th-century Spanish novelists, distinguished by his optimism, his charming heroines, his realism, and his qualities of moderation and simplicity.
Palacky, Frantisek: the founder of modern Czech historiography and a leading figure in the political life of 19th-century Bohemia.