statesman and diplomat, Russia's minister of foreign affairs (1910-16) during the period immediately preceding and following the outbreak of World War I.
in botany, any of several bacterial or fungal diseases of plants characterized by crustaceous lesions on fruit, tuber, leaf, or stem. The term is also used for the symptom of the disease.
skin inflammation accompanied by severe nighttime itching caused by the itch mite (Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis). The mite passes from person to person by close contact. Scabies is characteristically a disease of wartime, for ...
(genus Scabiosa), any of about 100 species of annual and perennial herbs of the teasel family, Dipsacaceae, order Dipsacales. They are native to temperate Eurasia, the Mediterranean region, and the mountains of eastern Africa. Some are important garden plants. All ...
any of several species of fishes in the family Carangidae (order Perciformes), which also includes the jacks, amberjacks, and pompanos. The name scad is usually restricted to certain species in the genera Decapterus, Selar, and Trachurus. The half dozen species ...
legendary Roman hero who is said to have saved Rome (c. 509 BC) from conquest by the Etruscan king Lars Porsena. According to the legend, Mucius volunteered to assassinate Porsena, who was besieging Rome, but killed his victim's attendant by ...
in building construction, temporary platform used to elevate and support workers and materials during the construction, repair, or cleaning of a structure or machine; it consists of one or more planks of convenient size and length, with various methods of ...
in U.S. history, any Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction after the Civil War or who joined with the black freedman and the carpetbagger (q.v.) in support of Republican Party policies. The term is pejorative.
in zoology, small plate that forms part of the skin of certain animals. Scales provide protection from the environment and from predators. Fish scales are formed of bone from the deeper, or dermal, skin layer. The elasmobranchs (e.g., sharks) have ...
any member of several families of the insect order Homoptera. The females are wingless, with reduced legs and antennae; the males have one pair of delicate wings, well-developed legs and antennae, and no mouthparts. The body is covered by a ...
any member of the order Aphroditamorpha (class Polychaeta, phylum Annelida), a group of widely distributed free-moving, segmented marine worms. Scale worms range in size from 0.5 to 25 cm (about 0.2 to 10 inches). The order includes the sea mouse ...
any of the more than 90 species of marine fishes constituting the family Melanostomiatidae (order Salmoniformes), with representatives inhabiting tropical regions of the major oceans. The name refers to the total absence of scales and the fierce appearance resulting from ...
associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986, well known for his strong legal conservatism. He was the first Supreme Court justice of Italian ancestry.
Dutch philologist and historian whose works on chronology were among the greatest contributions of Renaissance scholars to revisions in historical and classical studies.
French classical scholar of Italian descent who worked in botany, zoology, grammar, and literary criticism. He claimed to be a descendant of the Della Scala family, whose Latinized name was Scaligerus and who had ruled the Italian city of Verona ...
any of the marine bivalve mollusks of the family Pectinidae, particularly the species of the genus Pecten. The family, which includes about 50 genera and subgenera and more than 400 species, is worldwide in distribution and ranges from the intertidal ...
removal of all or part of the scalp, with hair attached, from an enemy's head. Although best known as a practice of North American Indian warfare, scalping was not exclusive to the Indians. The Greek historian Herodotus attributed the practice ...
(Nephrops norvegicus), edible lobster of the order Decapoda (class Crustacea). It is widespread in the Mediterranean and northeastern Atlantic, from North Africa to Norway and Iceland, and as a gastronomic delicacy it is commercially exploited over much of its range, ...
part of northern Europe, generally held to consist of the two countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Norway and Sweden, with the addition of Denmark. Some authorities argue for the inclusion of Finland on geologic and economic grounds and of Iceland ...
one of the largest Pleistocene glacial masses, covering most of northern Europe (the Pleistocene Epoch began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). At its maximum extent, the Scandinavian Ice Sheet nearly reached latitude 48° N. It ...
languages forming the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. The modern standard languages are Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (Dano-Norwegian and New Norwegian), Icelandic, and Faroese. These languages are usually divided into East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) and West Scandinavian (Norwegian, ...
in medieval times, a separate and independent branch of early Germanic law. It originated within what are now Norway, Denmark, and Sweden and was extended between the 9th and 13th centuries to the settled or conquered territories of Iceland, Greenland, ...
in medieval times, a separate and independent branch of early Germanic law, and, in modern times, in the form of codifications, the basis of the legal systems of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland.
the body of writings in the North Germanic group of languages, the modern forms of which include Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish, and Faeroese. The literary works written in these languages, though manifesting certain differences reflective of distinct national institutions, exhibit ...
large promontory of northern Europe, occupied by Norway and Sweden. It is about 1,150 mi (1,850 km) long and extends southward from the Barents Sea of the Arctic Ocean between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea (east), Kattegat ...
(Sc), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. Scandium is a silvery-white, rather soft metal. After Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev predicted (1871) its existence, tentatively calling it ekaboron, Lars Fredrik Nilson discovered (1879) its oxide, scandia, ...
the analysis and visual representation of a poem's metrical pattern. Adapted from the classical method of analyzing ancient Greek and Roman quantitative verse, scansion in English prosody employs a system of symbols to reveal the mechanics of a poem-i.e., the ...
extensive landlocked anchorage in Scotland's Orkney Islands, which lie off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland. The anchorage is approximately 15 miles (24 km) long from north to south and 8 miles (13 km) wide and is bounded by ...
("goat for Azazel"), in the Old Testament ritual of Yom Kippur (Lev. 16:8-10), a goat symbolically burdened with the sins of the Jewish people. Some scholars believe that the animal was chosen by lot to placate Azazel, a wilderness demon, ...
extinct genus of cephalopods (animals related to the modern octopus, squid, and nautilus) found as fossils in marine deposits. Because Scaphites is restricted to certain divisions of Cretaceous time (the Cretaceous Period lasted from 144 to 66.4 million years ago) ...
(Italian: "bohemianism"), a mid-19th-century avant-garde movement found mostly in Milan; influenced by Baudelaire, the French Symbolist poets, Edgar Allan Poe, and German Romantic writers, it sought to replace the classical, Arcadian, and moralistic traditions of Italian literature with works that ...
(from Italian scappare, "to flee"), stock character of the Italian commedia dell'arte; one of the comic servants, or zanni, who was especially noted for his cowardice, taking flight at the first sign of a conflict. Usually cast as an unreliable ...
any of a group of feldspathoid minerals found in calcium-rich metamorphic rocks, particularly marble, gneiss, granulite, greenschist, and skarns. Principal occurrences are Quebec and Ontario, Canada; Kiruna, Swed.; Pennsylvania, United States; and Queensland, Australia. These minerals form a solid-solution (chemical-replacement) ...
either of two large bones of the shoulder girdle in vertebrates. In humans they are triangular and lie on the upper back between the levels of the second and eighth ribs. A scapula's posterior surface is crossed obliquely by a ...
mark left on the skin after the healing of a cut, burn, or other area of wounded tissue. As part of the healing process, specialized cells called fibroblasts in adjacent areas of skin produce a fibrous connective tissue made up ...
in ancient Egyptian religion, important symbol in the form of the dung beetle (Scarabaeus sacer). This beetle may be seen on sunny days forming a ball of dung and rolling it over the sand to its burrow, where the ball ...
any member of the beetle family Scarabaeidae (order Coleoptera), which contains about 30,000 species found throughout the world. Scarab beetles are compact and heavy-bodied insects with robustly oval outlines. They are distinguished from other beetles by their unusual antennae, each ...
stock character of the Italian theatrical form known as the commedia dell'arte; an unscrupulous and unreliable servant. His affinity for intrigue often landed him in difficult situations, yet he always managed to extricate himself, usually leaving an innocent bystander as ...
chief town and deepwater harbour of Tobago island in the Trinidad and Tobago group in the southern Caribbean Sea. Formerly called Port Louis, it overlooks Scarborough Harbour, formerly Rockly Bay, and is steeply laid out on the bottom slopes of ...
town, Cumberland county, southwestern Maine, U.S. It lies at the mouth of the Nonesuch River on the Atlantic coast. The town includes the communities of Scarborough, Higgins Beach, Prouts Neck, and West Scarborough. Scarborough is mainly a residential suburb for ...
town and borough on the North Sea coast, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England. Scarborough town originated from a 10th-century Viking fishing settlement in the shelter of a craggy sandstone headland, where there had earlier been ...
former city (1983-98), southeastern Ontario, Canada. In 1998 it amalgamated with the borough of East York and the cities of Etobicoke, York, North York, and Toronto to form the City of Toronto. Scarborough township (incorporated 1850) was reconstituted as a ...
device posted on cultivated ground to deter birds or other animals from eating or otherwise disturbing seeds, shoots, and fruit; its name derives from its use against the crow. The scarecrow of popular tradition is a mannequin stuffed with straw; ...
