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Encyclopedias since 1768

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Sardinian language ... Sarti, Giuseppe

Sardinian language: Romance language spoken on the Italian-ruled island of Sardinia; it is most similar to Vulgar Latin of all the modern Romance languages. Major dialects of Sardinian are Logudorian, spoken in central Sardinia; Campidanian, spoken in the south; Sassarian, spoken in ...
Sardis: ruined capital of ancient Lydia, near present Izmir, Turkey. Strategically located on a spur at the foot of Mount Tmolus (Boz Dag), it commanded the central plain of the Hermus Valley and was the western terminus of the Persian royal ...
Sardou, Victorien: playwright who, with Emile Augier and Alexandre Dumas fils, dominated the French stage in the late 19th century and is still remembered as a craftsman of bourgeois drama of a type belittled by George Bernard Shaw as "Sardoodledom." His work ...
Sarduy, Severo: novelist, poet, critic, and essayist, one of the most daring and brilliant writers of the 20th century.
Sarek National Park: park in Norrbotten lan (county), northwestern Sweden, encompassing most of the Sarek mountain range. It was established in 1909, with the setting aside of an area of 746 square miles (1,931 square km), and it adjoins two other national parks-Stora ...
Sarekat Islam: the first nationalist political party in Indonesia to gain wide popular support. Founded in 1912 the party originated as an association of those Muslim merchants who wanted to advance their economic interests in relation to Chinese merchants in Java, but ...
Sargasso Sea: area of the North Atlantic Ocean, elliptical in shape and relatively still, that is strewn with free-floating seaweed of the genus Sargassum. It lies between the parallels 20° N and 35° N and the meridians 30° W and 70° W ...
Sargassum: genus of brown algae (150 species) adapted for a free-floating tropical environment even though many species grow attached to rocks along the coast. The Sargasso Sea, a free-floating mass of seaweed, predominately S. natans, occurs in the Atlantic Ocean.
Sargeant, Winthrop: influential American music critic noted for his fine writing and conservative tastes.
Sargent, John Singer: Italian-born American painter whose elegant portraits provide an enduring image of Edwardian-age society. The wealthy and privileged on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean came to his studio in London to be immortalized.
Sargent, Sir John Philip: British statesman and educator who served as the principal educational adviser to the government of India from 1938 to 1948.
Sargent, Sir Malcolm: English conductor who, as Britain's self-styled "ambassador of music," toured throughout the world.
Sargeson, Frank: novelist and writer of short stories whose ironic, stylistically diverse works made him the most widely known New Zealand literary figure of his day.
Sargodha: city, Punjab province, Pakistan. The city is a grain and cash crop market connected by road with Lahore and Mianwali and by rail with Faisalabad (formerly Lyallpur) and Lahore. Industries include textile, hosiery, flour, and oilseed mills, cotton gins, and ...
Sargon: ancient Mesopotamian ruler (reigned c. 2334-2279 BC), one of the earliest of the world's great empire builders, conquering all of southern Mesopotamia as well as parts of Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (western Iran). He established the region's first Semitic dynasty ...
Sargon I: ruler of Assyria during the old Akkadian period. Little is known in detail of Assyria during the time of Sargon, but clearly the Assyrian trading colony in Cappadocia, known from the tablets discovered at Kultepe, was then in its heyday. ...
Sargon II: one of Assyria's great kings (reigned 721-705 BC) during the last century of its history. He extended and consolidated the conquests of his presumed father, Tiglath-pileser III.
Sarh: city, southern Chad, central Africa, on the Chari River. It is named for the dominant ethnic group, the Sara, and is the country's fourth largest city. Its warm and seasonally wet climate permits the cultivation of cotton, Chad's major export, ...
sari: principal outer garment of women of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of a piece of often brightly coloured, frequently embroidered, silk, cotton, or, in recent years, synthetic cloth five to seven yards long. It is worn wrapped around the body with ...
Sari: city and capital, Mazandaran ostan (province), northern Iran. Founded during the Sasanid period (AD 224-651), it became the capital of Tabarestan (7th-9th century) after the Arab conquest of the region. The city was ravaged by the Mongols in the 12th ...
sarinda: Indian folk instrument of the fiddle family. It has a heart-shaped wooden body, a short fretless neck, lateral pegs inserted in a cubed pegbox, and three horsehair or gut strings.
Sariska Wild Life Sanctuary: wildlife preserve in Alwar district, Rajasthan state, northwestern India, established in 1955 with an area of 190 sq mi (492 sq km) in Sariska Forest. Acacia forests cover the arid lower slopes of the hills and the deep, narrow valleys; ...
Sarit Thanarat: field marshal and premier in a military government of Thailand from 1958 to 1963.
Sariwon: city and provincial capital, Hwanghae-pukto (North Hwanghae Province), southwestern North Korea. Situated on the middle channel of the Chaeryong-gang (river), it is the market centre for agricultural products of the Chaeryong plain. A planned city, developed when the railway from ...
Sark: one of the Channel Islands (q.v.), in the English Channel. Sark lies 7 miles (11 km) east of Guernsey and about 25 miles (40 km) west of the Cherbourg Peninsula of France. It consists of Great Sark and Little Sark, ...
Sarkar, Sir Jadunath: foremost Indian historian of the Mughal dynasty (1526-1857).
Sarmatian: and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans.
Sarmatian Stage: major division of Miocene rocks and time (23.7 to 5.3 million years ago). The Sarmatian Stage, which occurs between the Pontian and Tortonian stages, was named for Sarmatia, the ancient homeland of the Sarmatian tribes in what is presently southern ...
Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino: educator, statesman, and writer who rose from a position as a rural schoolmaster to become president of Argentina (1868-74). As president, he laid the foundation for later national progress by fostering public education, stimulating the growth of commerce and agriculture, ...
Sarnath: archaeological site north of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, where, according to tradition, the Buddha first began teaching his followers; the site contains a stupa (shrine) and the famous lion-capital memorial pillar, which was erected by the 3rd-century-BC Maurya ...
Sarnen: capital of Obwalden half canton, central Switzerland, at the efflux of the Sarner River from the northern end of Lake Sarnen, southwest of Lucerne. In its town hall (1729-31), the Weisses Buch ("White Book") contains the oldest ...
Sarnia-Clearwater: city, seat of Lambton county, southeastern Ontario, east-central Canada, on the St. Clair River, at the southern end of Lake Huron, 55 miles (90 km) west of London. First visited by French explorers as early as 1627, its site was ...
Sarno: town, Salerno provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy, at the foot of Saretto hill near the sources of the Sarno (ancient Sarnus) River, just northwest of Salerno. Near Sarno in AD 553, Teias, king of the Goths, was defeated and slain ...
Sarnoff, David: American pioneer in the development of both radio and television broadcasting.
saro: rare South American species of otter (q.v.).
sarod: stringed musical instrument of the lute family that is common to northern India. The modern classical sarod is about 40 inches (102 cm) long and has a lightly waisted body with a skin belly, a broad neck with a fretess ...
sarong: principal silk, cotton, or synthetic-fabric garment worn in the Malay Archipelago and the Pacific islands. Brightly coloured fabric 4 or 5 yards (up to 4 12 m) long is wrapped around the lower part of the body and tucked in ...
Saronic Gulf: gulf of the Aegean Sea between Akra (cape) Sounion of the Attica peninsula and Akra Skillaion of the Argolis peninsula of the Greek Peloponnese. A maximum of 50 mi (80 km) long northwest-southeast and about 30 mi wide, it is ...
saros: in astronomy, interval of 18 years 11 13 days (10 13 days when five leap years are included) after which the Earth, Sun, and Moon return to nearly the same relative positions and the cycle of lunar and solar eclipses ...
Saroyan, William: U.S. writer who made his initial impact during the Depression with a deluge of brash, original, and irreverent stories celebrating the joy of living in spite of poverty, hunger, and insecurity.
Sarpedon: in Greek legend, son of Zeus, the king of the gods, and Laodameia, the daughter of Bellerophon; he was a Lycian prince and a hero in the Trojan War. Sarpedon fought with distinction on the side of the Trojans but ...
Sarpi, Paolo: Italian patriot, scholar, and state theologian during Venice's struggle with Pope Paul V. Between 1610 and 1618 he wrote his History of the Council of Trent, an important work decrying papal absolutism. Among Italians, he was an early advocate of ...
Sarraceniaceae: family of pitcher plants that belong to the order Nepenthales and are native to North and South America. These low-growing perennial herbs are notable for their pitcherlike leaves, which are specialized for trapping insects. The family consists of three genera: ...
Sarraut, Albert: French Radical Socialist statesman most noted for his colonial policy and liberal rule as governor-general of Indochina.
Sarraute, Nathalie: French novelist and essayist, one of the earliest practitioners and a leading theorist of the nouveau roman, the French post-World War II "new novel," or "antinovel," a phrase applied by Jean-Paul Sartre to Sarraute's Portrait d'un inconnu (1947; Portrait of ...
SARS: highly contagious respiratory illness characterized by a persistent fever, headache, and bodily discomfort, followed by a dry cough that may progress to great difficulty in breathing. SARS appeared in November 2002 in Guangdong province, China, where it was first diagnosed ...
sarsaparilla: aromatic flavouring agent made from the roots of several tropical vines belonging to the Smilax genus of the lily family (Liliaceae). Once a popular tonic, sarsaparilla is now used to flavour and mask the taste of medicines. In combination with ...
Sarsfield, Patrick: Jacobite soldier who played a leading role in the Irish Roman Catholic resistance (1689-91) to England's King William III. Sarsfield remains a favourite hero of the Irish national tradition.
Sartawi, 'Isam: Palestinian nationalist who, as one of the moderate leaders in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), attracted much hostility from Palestinian extremists because he advocated coexistence with Israel.
Sarthe River: river, rising in the Perche hills north of Mortagne-au-Perche, Orne departement, northwestern France. The Sarthe flows alternately west and south to a point near Angers, where it joins the Loire and Mayenne rivers to form the Maine, a tributary of ...
Sarti, Giuseppe: Italian conductor and composer of liturgical music and more than 50 operas.