Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Sabbatarianism ... Sackville, Thomas, 1st Earl of Dorset

Sabbatarianism: doctrine of those Christians who believe that Sunday (the Christian Sabbath) should be observed in accordance with the Fourth Commandment, which forbids work on the Sabbath because it is a holy day. Some other Christians have contended that the Fourth ...
Sabbath: (from shavat, "cease," or "desist"), day of holiness and rest observed by Jews from sunset on Friday to nightfall of the following day. The time division follows the biblical story of creation: "And there was evening and there was morning, ...
Sabbath River: in Jewish legend, a river beyond which the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were exiled. See Sambation.
Sabbatini, Nicola: Italian architect and engineer who pioneered in theatrical lighting techniques. He worked in Pesaro, where he designed the Teatro del Sole, and possibly in Ravenna and Modena.
sabda: (Sanskrit: "sound"), in Indian philosophy, verbal testimony as a means of obtaining knowledge. In the orthodox philosophical systems (darsana), sabda is equated with the authority of the Vedas (most ancient sacred scriptures) as the only infallible testimony, since the Vedas ...
Sabellianism: Christian heresy that was a more developed and less naive form of Modalistic Monarchianism (see Monarchianism); it was propounded by Sabellius (fl. c. 217-c. 220), who was possibly a presbyter in Rome. Little is actually known of his life because ...
Sabellic dialects: group of minor Italic dialects spoken in central and southern Italy, closely related to the Oscan language (q.v.). Those dialects spoken by the Paeligni, Marrucini, and Vestini are considered North Oscan, and those spoken by the Volsci, Marsi, Aequi, and ...
Saberht: first Christian king of the East Saxons, or Essex (from sometime before 604).
sabha: ("assembly"), important unit of self-government in Hindu society. It is basically an association of persons who have common interests, such as members of the same endogamous groups, but may also be an intercaste group (e.g., a mazdur sabha, or association ...
Sabha: town, southwestern Libya, in a Saharan oasis. It was an active caravan centre from the 11th century. The modern town of stark white buildings and wide streets is surrounded by older settlements of mud-walled dwellings and covered alleyways. The former ...
Sabi River: river of southeastern Africa, flowing through Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river rises as the Sabi about 50 miles (80 km) south of Harare (formerly Salisbury) and flows southeast from the Zimbabwean highveld to its confluence with the Odzi. It then ...
Sabin, Albert Bruce: Polish American physician and microbiologist best known for developing the oral polio vaccine. He was also known for his research in the fields of human viral diseases, toxoplasmosis, and cancer.
Sabin, Florence Rena: American anatomist and investigator of the lymphatic system who was considered to be one of the leading women scientists of the United States.
Sabine: member of an ancient Italic tribe located in the mountainous country east of the Tiber River. They were known for their religious practices and beliefs, and several Roman institutions were said to have derived from them. The story recounted by ...
Sabine River: river in the southwestern United States, rising in northeastern Texas and flowing southeast and south, broadening near its mouth to form Sabine Lake, and continuing from Port Arthur through Sabine Pass, a dredged navigable channel, to the Gulf of Mexico ...
Sabine, Sir Edward: English astronomer and geodesist noted for his experiments in determining the shape of the Earth and for his studies of the Earth's magnetic field.
Sabine, Wallace Clement: U.S. physicist who founded the science of architectural acoustics.
Sabinian: Italian pope from 604 to 606.
Sabinio: extinct volcano (11,500 feet [3,505 m]) in the Virunga Mountains of east-central Africa. It lies northeast of Lake Kivu and south-southeast of Rutshuru, Congo (Kinshasa). Its summit marks the junction of the Congo (Kinshasa)-Rwanda-Uganda borders. It forms part of the ...
sabkhah: (Arabic), saline flat or salt-crusted depression, commonly found along the coasts of North Africa and Saudi Arabia. Sabkhahs are generally bordered by sand dunes and have soft, poorly cemented but impermeable floors, due to periodic flooding and evaporation. Concentration of ...
sable: (Martes zibellina), graceful carnivore of the weasel family, Mustelidae, found in the forests of northern Asia and highly valued for its fine fur. The common name is sometimes also applied to related European and Asian species and to the American ...
sable antelope: (Hippotragus niger), handsome antelope, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), that lives in herds in forests of southern Africa. Like the related roan antelope (H. equinus), the sable antelope is a graceful animal with an erect mane, long ears, long hair on ...
Sable Island: gently curving sandbar in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, 110 mi (180 km) southeast of Cape Canso. It is treeless, about 20 mi long and 1 mi wide, and comprises the exposed portion of a ...
sabot: heavy work shoe worn by European peasants, especially in France and the Low Countries. There are two kinds of sabots: one is shaped and hollowed from a single piece of wood (called klompen by the Dutch); the other is a ...
sabotage: deliberate destruction of property or slowing down of work with the intention of damaging a business or economic system or weakening a government or nation in a time of national emergency. The word is said to date from a French ...
Sabratha: western-most of the three cities of ancient Tripolis, located near the modern town of Sabratah, west of Tripoli, in Libya. Founded by the Carthaginians as a trading post, it was first permanently settled in the 4th century BC. Sabratha had ...
sabre: heavy military sword with a long cutting edge and, often, a curved blade, derived from a Hungarian cavalry sword introduced from the Orient in the 18th century; also a light fencing weapon developed in Italy in the 19th century for ...
sabre-toothed cat: any of the extinct carnivores forming the subfamily Machairodontinae of the cat family, Felidae. Sabre-toothed cats are named for the pair of elongated, bladelike canine teeth they possessed in the upper jaw. They are often called sabre-toothed tigers or sabre-toothed ...
Sabzevari, 'Abd al-A'la al-Musawi al-: Iranian-born cleric who, from 1992 to 1993, was the grand ayatollah in the Islamic holy city of Al-Najaf and, thus, spiritual leader to millions of Iraqi Shi'ites.
Sabzevari, Hajji Hadi: Iranian teacher and philosopher who advanced the hikmah (wisdom) school of Islamic philosophy. His doctrines-composed of diverse elements of gnosis (esoteric spiritual knowledge), philosophy, and revelation-are an exposition and clarification of the philosophical concepts of Mulla Sadra. But he differed ...
sac spider: any member of the family Clubionidae (order Araneida), a relatively common, widespread group. Sac spiders range in body length from 3 to 15 mm (about 0.12 to 0.6 inch) and build silken tubes under stones, in leaves, or in grass. ...
Sacagawea: Shoshone Indian woman who, as interpreter, traveled thousands of wilderness miles with the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06), from the Mandan-Hidatsa villages in the Dakotas to the Pacific Northwest.
Sacasa, Juan Bautista: Nicaraguan statesman who served as his country's president in 1932-36.
saccharin: organic compound employed as a non-nutritive sweetening agent. It occurs as insoluble saccharin or in the form of various salts, primarily sodium and calcium. Saccharin has about 200-700 times the sweetening power of granulated sugar and has a slightly bitter ...
Saccharomyces: genus of yeasts belonging to the family Endomycetales. An outstanding characteristic of members of Saccharomyces is their ability to convert sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol by means of enzymes. The yeasts used to ferment sugars in the manufacture of ...
Sacchetti, Franco: Italian poet and storyteller whose work is typical of late 14th-century Florentine literature.
Sacchi, Andrea: Italian painter, the chief Italian representative of the Classical style in the 17th-century painting of Rome.
Sacco-Vanzetti case: controversial murder trial in Massachusetts, U.S., extending over seven years, 1920-27, and resulting in the execution of the defendants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
Saccopastore skulls: two Neanderthal fossils found in 1929 and 1935 in a river deposit on the bank of a small tributary of the Tiber River outside Rome. The skulls, which represent an early phase in the development of western European Neanderthals, are ...
Sacheverell, Henry: English preacher, a fanatical High Church Anglican whose impeachment by the Whigs enabled the Tories to win control of the government in 1710. Although he was an undistinguished, somewhat ludicrous figure, his cause was championed by a populace weary of ...
Sachs, Curt: eminent German musicologist, teacher, and authority on musical instruments.
Sachs, Hans: German burgher, meistersinger, and poet who was outstanding for his popularity, output, and aesthetic and religious influence. He is idealized in Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
Sachs, Julius von: German botanist whose work on nutrition, tropism, and transpiration of water greatly advanced the knowledge of plant physiology during the second half of the 19th century.
Sachs, Nelly: German poet and dramatist who was transformed by the Nazi experience from a dilettante into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of her fellow Jews. When, with Shmuel Yosef Agnon, she was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize for ...
Sachsenhausen: one of the major Nazi German concentration camps, located at the edge of Oranienburg, 21 miles (34 km) northwest of Berlin. Sachsenhausen was established in 1936 as the northern German component of the system that would include Buchenwald (for central ...
Sachsenspiegel: the most important of the medieval compilations of Saxon customary law. Collected in the early 13th century by Eike von Repgow (also spelled Repkow, Repchow, or Repgau), a knight and a judge, it was written originally in Latin and later ...
sackbut: (from Old French saqueboute: "pull-push"), early trombone, invented in the 15th century, probably in Burgundy. It has thicker walls than the modern trombone, imparting a softer tone, and its bell is narrower.
Sackler, Arthur M.: American physician, medical publisher, and art collector who made large donations of money and art to universities and museums.
Sackville: town, Westmorland county, southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It lies near the Nova Scotia border, 27 miles (43 km) southeast of Moncton. Three French villages occupied the site about 1720, but these were destroyed with the capture of nearby Fort Beausejour ...
Sackville, George Sackville-Germain, 1st Viscount, Baron Bolebrooke of Sussex: English soldier and politician. He was dismissed from the British army for his failure to obey orders in the Battle of Minden (1759) during the Seven Years' War. As colonial secretary he was partly responsible for the British defeat at ...
Sackville, Thomas, 1st Earl of Dorset: English statesman, poet, and dramatist, remembered largely for his share in two achievements of significance in the development of Elizabethan poetry and drama: the collection A Myrrour for Magistrates (1563) and the tragedy Gorboduc (1561).