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Encyclopedias since 1768

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Quiche ... Quiris

Quiche: department, northwestern Guatemala, bounded on the north by Mexico. The 3,235 sq mi (8,378 sq km) of the department extend from the valley of the upper Rio Motagua across the Sierra de Chuacus and the Altos (mountains) Cuchumatanes to the ...
Quiche language: an American Indian language of the Mayan family, spoken in the western highlands of Guatemala. It is most closely related to the Cakchiquel, Tzutujil, Sacapultee, and Sipacapa languages of central Guatemala and more distantly related to Uspantec, Pocomam, Pocomchi, Kekchi, ...
Quicherat, Jules: French historian and pioneering archaeologist who was a major force in French scholarship during the 19th century.
quicklime: calcium oxide, an alkaline inorganic compound of calcium (q.v.).
quicksand: state in which saturated sand loses its supporting capacity and acquires the character of a liquid. Quicksand is usually found in hollows at the mouths of large rivers or along flat stretches of streams or beaches where pools of water ...
Quidde, Ludwig: historian, politician, and one of the most prominent German pacifists of the early 20th century. He was the cowinner (with Ferdinand-Edouard Buisson) of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1927.
Quidor, John: American genre painter and artisan. In 17 of his approximately 35 paintings he depicted subjects from Washington Irving's stories: e.g., the paintings Ichabod Crane at the Van Tassel's Ball (1855), The Money Diggers (1832), ...
Quietism: a doctrine of Christian spirituality that, in general, holds that perfection consists in passivity (quiet) of the soul, in the suppression of human effort so that divine action may have full play. Quietistic elements have been discerned in several religious ...
quill: hollow, horny barrel of a bird's feather, used as the principal writing instrument from the 6th century until the mid-19th century, when steel pen points were introduced. The strongest quills were obtained from living birds in their new growth period ...
Quillen, Daniel Gray: American mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1978 for contributions to algebraic K-theory.
Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur Thomas: English poet, novelist, and anthologist noted for his compilation of The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (1900; revised 1939) and The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910).
quillwork: type of embroidery done with the quills of a porcupine, or sometimes with bird feathers. This type of decoration was used by American Indians from Maine to Virginia and westward to the Rocky Mountains. For all practical purposes the art ...
quillwort: (Isoetes species), any of more than 60 species of small plants that constitute the genus Isoetes, of the order Isoetales (class Lycopsida). They are spore-bearing plants with grassy, spikelike leaves, native mostly to swampy, cooler parts of northern North America ...
Quilmes: cabecera (principal built-up area) and partido (political subdivision), of Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, southeast of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires province, Argentina, near the Rio de la Plata estuary. Colonization of the area began with the second ...
Quilon: town, administrative headquarters of Quilon district, southern Kerala state, southwestern India. Quilon has existed for many centuries and was called Elancon by early travellers, Kaulam Mall by the Arabs, and Coilum by the 13th-century Venetian traveller Marco Polo. Its location ...
quilting: sewing technique in which two layers of fabric, usually with an insulating interior layer, are sewn together with multiple rows of stitching. It has long been used for clothing in China, the Middle East, North Africa, and the colder areas ...
Quimby, Harriet: American aviator, the first female pilot to fly across the English Channel.
Quimby, Phineas Parkhurst: U.S. exponent of mental healing who is generally regarded as the founder of the New Thought movement, a religio-metaphysical healing cult.
Quimper: town, capital of Finistere departement, Bretagne region, France, and a port at the estuarine confluence of the Odet and Steir rivers. Once the ancient capital of the countship Cornouaille, it is associated with the legendary (5th century) king Gradlon, who ...
Quimper faience: tin-enamelled earthenware produced by a factory at Loc Maria, a suburb of Quimper in Brittany, Fr. The factory was founded in 1690 by Jean-Baptiste Bosquet, a potter from Marseille who had settled there. Both Pierre Caussy, who took over in ...
Quin, James: English actor whose Falstaff was considered the finest of his time.
Quinara: region, southwestern Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, bordered by the regions of Tombali on the south and east, Bafata on the northeast, Oio on the north, and Biombo on the northwest. Quinara fronts the Atlantic Ocean and the region of Bolama to ...
quince: fruit tree of the genus Cydonia, of the rose family (Rosaceae). The much-branched shrubs or small trees have entire leaves with small stipules and bear large, solitary, white or pink flowers like those of the pear or apple but with ...
quinceanera: Mexican celebration of a girl's 15th birthday, marking her passage from childhood to adulthood. The traditional quinceanera is both a religious and a social event that emphasizes the importance of the family and society in the life ...
Quincy: city, Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on Boston Harbor, just southeast of Boston. In 1625 the site, which was settled by Captain Wollaston, was given the name Mount Wollaston, and a short time afterward, under the leadership of Thomas Morton, ...
Quincy: city, seat (1825) of Adams county, western Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Mississippi River, there bridged to Missouri, about 140 miles (225 km) northwest of St. Louis. Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo Indians were early inhabitants of the area. Jacques ...
Quincy Plan: experimental, progressive, child-centred approach to education introduced in 1875 in Quincy, Mass., U.S., by superintendent of schools Francis W. Parker. Parker eliminated the rigid formalities of traditional school routine, arranged interrelated subjects around a central core, and emphasized socialized activities ...
Quindio: departamento, west-central Colombia, on the western slopes of the Andean Cordillera Central. The smallest department in the nation, it occupies an area of 712 square miles (1,845 square km) in one of Colombia's leading coffee-producing regions. Bananas, corn (maize), sugarcane, ...
Quine, Willard Van Orman: American logician and philosopher, widely considered one of the dominant figures in Anglo-American philosophy in the last half of the 20th century.
Quinet, Edgar: French poet, historian, and political philosopher who made a significant contribution to the developing tradition of liberalism in France.
quinidine: drug used in the treatment of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmia) and malaria. Obtained from the bark of the Cinchona tree, quinidine shares many of the pharmacological actions of quinine; i.e., both have antimalarial and fever-reducing activity. The ...
quinine: drug obtained from cinchona bark that is used chiefly in the treatment of malaria, an infection caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of various species of mosquitoes. During the ...
Quinisext Council: council that was convened in 692 by the Byzantine emperor Justinian II to issue disciplinary decrees related to the second and third councils of Constantinople (held in 553 and 680-681). They were the fifth and sixth ecumenical councils-hence the name ...
quinoline: any of a class of organic compounds of the aromatic heterocyclic series characterized by a double-ring structure composed of a benzene and a pyridine ring fused at two adjacent carbon atoms. The benzene ring contains six carbon atoms, while the ...
quinone: any member of a class of cyclic organic compounds containing two carbonyl groups, > C &doublehorzbond; O, either adjacent or separated by a vinylene group, &singlehorzbond;CH &doublehorzbond; CH&singlehorzbond;, in a six-membered unsaturated ring. In a few quinones, the carbonyl groups ...
Quintana Roo: state, Yucatan Peninsula, southeastern Mexico. Situated on the eastern side of the peninsula, it is bounded by the Caribbean Sea (east), by Belize (south), and by Campeche and Yucatan (west); its northern shore is on the Yucatan Channel between the ...
Quintana, Manuel Jose: Spanish patriot and Neoclassical poet, esteemed by his countrymen for poems, pamphlets, and proclamations written during the War of Independence from Napoleon. Although he was once regarded as a great poet, Quintana's reputation has since steadily declined.
Quinte, Bay of: arm of Lake Ontario, southeastern Ontario, Canada, extending for 75 miles (121 km) from its entrance near Amherst Island to Murray Canal at the western end. It is a narrow bay, ranging from one to six miles in width. The ...
Quintero, Jose: theatrical director and founder of Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City's Greenwich Village, the theatre whose productions sparked the growth of off Broadway into a nationally important theatre movement. Quintero's stagings of the plays of Eugene O'Neill ...
quintet: musical composition for five instruments or voices; also the group of musicians engaged in the performance of such a composition. The string quintet normally includes two violins, two violas, and a cello. Mozart's six works for this medium are usually ...
Quintilian: Latin teacher and writer whose work on rhetoric, Institutio oratoria, is a major contribution to educational theory and literary criticism.
Quintillus, Marcus Aurelius Claudius: Roman emperor in AD 270, who died or was killed a few weeks after being proclaimed emperor.
quinto real: (Spanish: "royal fifth"), in colonial Spanish America, a tax levied by the crown on mineral products; it was the principal source of profit derived by Spain from its colonies. The percentage was fixed at one-fifth in 1504, to be paid ...
Quinton, Amelia Stone: organizer of American Indian reform in the United States.
Quintus Smyrnaeus: Greek epic poet, the author of a hexameter poem in 14 books, narrating events at Troy from the funeral of Hector to the departure of the Achaeans after sacking the city (and hence called Ta met' Homeron or Posthomerica).
Quionga: village, Cabo (Cape) Delgado province, extreme northeastern Mozambique, East Africa, just south of the Rio Rovuma. In 1886 Germany and Portugal had agreed on the Rovuma as the boundary between then German East Africa (now Tanzania) and Portuguese Mozambique, but ...
quipu: an Incan accounting apparatus consisting of a long rope from which hung 48 secondary cords and various tertiary cords attached to the secondary ones. Knots were made in the cords to represent units, tens, and hundreds; and, in imperial accounting, ...
Quirino: landlocked province, north central Luzon, Philippines. It has an area of 1,180 sq mi (3,057 sq km) and until 1971 was the eastern part of Nueva Vizcaya province. It is a mountainous region, drained by the upper reaches of the ...
Quirino, Elpidio: political leader and second president of the independent Republic of the Philippines.
Quirinus: major Roman deity ranking close to Jupiter and Mars (qq.v.); the flamines (see flamen) of these gods constituted the three major priests at Rome. Quirinus' name is in adjectival form and would seem to mean "he of the quirium," a ...
Quiris: a Roman citizen. In ancient Roman law it was the name by which a Roman called himself in a civil capacity, in contrast to the name Romanus, used in reference to his political and military capacity. The jus Quiritium in ...