Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Tathagata ... Tavoras, Conspiracy of the

Tathagata: (Sanskrit and Pali), one of the titles of a buddha and the one most frequently employed by the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, when referring to himself. The exact meaning of the word is uncertain; Buddhist commentaries present as many as ...
Tati, Jacques: French filmmaker and actor who gained renown for his comic films that portrayed people in conflict with the mechanized modern world. He wrote and starred in all six of the feature films that he directed; in four of them he ...
Tatian: Syrian compiler of the Diatessaron (Greek: "From Four," or "Out of Four"), a version of the four Gospels arranged in a single continuous narrative that, in its Syriac form, served the biblical-theological vocabulary of the Syrian church for centuries. Its ...
Tatishchev, Vasily Nikitich: Russian economic administrator and historian who was the first to produce a comprehensive Russian history.
Tatler, The: a periodical launched in London by the essayist Sir Richard Steele in April 1709, appearing three times weekly until January 1711. At first its avowed intention was to present accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, of poetry, and of foreign ...
Tatlin, Vladimir Yevgrafovich: Ukrainian painter, sculptor, and architect remembered for his visionary "Monument to the Third International" in Moscow, 1920.
Tatra Mountains: highest range of the Central Carpathians. The mountains rise steeply from a high plateau and extend for approximately 40 miles (64 km) along the Slovakian-Polish frontier, varying in width from 9 to 15 miles (14 to 24 km). About 300 ...
Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Provincial Park: wilderness park, extreme northwestern British Columbia, Canada, sandwiched between Yukon Territory to the north and the Alaskan Panhandle (U.S.) to the west and south. It was created in 1993 largely to prevent the open-pit mining of a large copper deposit ...
Tattenai: (c. 6th-5th century BC), Persian governor of the province west of the Euphrates River (eber nari, "beyond the river") during the reign of Darius I (522-486 BC).
Tattersalls: horse auction mart, founded in London by Richard Tattersall (1724-95). The first premises occupied were near Hyde Park Corner, then in the outskirts of London. Tattersalls became a rendezvous for sporting and betting men, including the prince of Wales (later ...
tatting: process by which a fabric akin to lace is made of thread with a small hand shuttle and the fingers. It was once a widely practiced craft, known in Italy as occhi and in France as la frivolite. The resulting ...
tattler: any shorebird that is easily alarmed and calls loudly when it senses danger. Broadly, tattlers are birds of the subfamily Tringinae of the family Scolopacidae. Examples are the redshank, greenshank, willet, and yellowlegs. More narrowly, the name is given to ...
tattoo: permanent mark or design made on the body by the introduction of pigment through ruptures in the skin. Sometimes the term is also loosely applied to the inducement of scars (cicatrization). Tattooing proper has been practiced in most parts of ...
Tatum, Art: blind, self-taught American pianist, considered one of the greatest technical virtuosos in jazz.
Tatum, Edward L.: American biochemist who helped demonstrate that genes determine the structure of particular enzymes or otherwise act by regulating specific chemical processes in living things. His research helped create the field of molecular genetics and earned him (with George Beadle and ...
tau: elementary subatomic particle similar to the electron but approximately 3,500 times heavier. Like the electron and the muon, the tau is an electrically charged member of the lepton family of subatomic particles; the tau is negatively charged, while its antiparticle ...
Tau Sug: one of the largest of the Muslim cultural-linguistic groups of the Philippines. Numbering about 500,000 in the late 20th century, they live in the Sulu Archipelago southwest of Mindanao, mainly in the Jolo island cluster.
Taubate: city, southeastern Sao Paulo estado (state), southern Brazil, on the Paraiba do Sul River. Founded in the early 17th century by Jacques Felix on the site of a Guaianases Indian village, it was a starting point for ...
Taube, Henry: Canadian-born American chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1983 for his extensive research into the properties and reactions of dissolved inorganic substances, particularly oxidation-reduction processes involving the ions of metallic elements (see oxidation-reduction reaction).
Tauber, Richard: Austrian-born British tenor celebrated for his work in opera and, especially, operetta.
Taughannock Falls: waterfalls and the central feature of Taughannock Falls State Park, near the western shore of Cayuga Lake, in the Finger Lakes Region, 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Ithaca in west-central New York, U.S. The name originates either from that ...
Tauler, Johann: Dominican, who, with Meister Eckehart and Heinrich Suso, was one of the chief Rhineland mystics.
Taum Sauk Mountain: mountain in Iron county, southeastern Missouri, U.S., highest point (1,772 feet [540 m]) of the St. Francois Mountains and of the state. Centrepiece of Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, it is part of the main uplift of the forested Ozark ...
Taung: a former mine in South Africa in which the first fossil of Australopithecus africanus was discovered. Exhumed by miners in 1924, the fossil was recognized as a primitive hominin (member of the human lineage) by paleoanthropologist Raymond Dart.
Taunggyi: city, east-central Myanmar (Burma). It lies on the Thazi-Keng Tung road at an elevation of 4,712 feet (1,436 metres), just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake. Its facilities include hospitals, a technical high school, an institute for training teachers, the ...
Taunton: city, Bristol county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Taunton River, 33 miles (53 km) south of Boston. Elizabeth Poole, an early proprietor, was said to have purchased the site from Native Americans in 1638. It was organized as a town ...
Taunton Deane: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Somerset, England. It lies in the Vale of Taunton Deane, which is sheltered by the Quantock, Black Down, and Brendon hills.
Taunus: wooded highland of Germany, extending across parts of the Lander (states) of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The range is 50 miles (80 km) long and is bounded by the Rhine (west), Main (south), and Lahn (north) rivers. Although it stands 5 ...
Taupo, Lake: lake, the largest in New Zealand, on the volcanic plateau of central North Island. With a total surface area of 234 square miles (606 square km), it lies at an elevation of 1,172 feet (357 m) and has a depth ...
Tauranga: city, district, and port, north-central North Island, New Zealand. It is situated on a 2-mile (3-kilometre) neck projecting from the southeastern shore of Tauranga Harbour, a crescent-shaped inlet opening onto the Bay of Plenty. An Anglican mission was established there ...
Tauri: earliest known inhabitants of the mountainous south coast of what is now the Crimea, which itself was known in ancient times as the Tauric Chersonese. The Tauri were famous in the ancient world for their virgin goddess who was identified ...
Taurobolium: bull sacrifice practiced from about AD 160 in the Mediterranean cult of the Great Mother of the Gods. Celebrated primarily among the Romans, the ceremony enjoyed much popularity and may have been introduced by the Roman emperor. The nature and ...
Taurt: goddess of ancient Egypt, the benevolent protectress of fertility and childbirth, associated also with the nursing of infants. She was depicted as having the head of a hippopotamus standing upright (sometimes with the breasts of a woman), the tail of ...
Taurus: in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying between Aries and Gemini, at about 4 hours 20 minutes right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the Earth) and 16° north declination (angular distance north of the celestial equator). ...
Taurus Mountains: mountain range in southern Turkey, a great chain running parallel to the Mediterranean coast. The system extends along a curve from Lake Egridir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates River in the east. Aladag (10,935 feet ...
Taurus-Littrow Valley: region on the Moon selected as the landing site of the Apollo 17 manned lunar mission. Located at 22° N, 31° E, it is named for the surrounding Taurus Mountains, a part of the ramparts of the Serenitatis Basin (Mare ...
Tausen, Hans: religious Reformer known as "the Danish Luther" for his major role in bringing the Reformation to Denmark.
Tausig, Karl: Polish pianist and composer, probably Liszt's greatest pupil.
Taussig, Frank William: American economist whose contributions to trade theory have been of major importance in the 20th century.
Taussig, Helen Brooke: American physician who was the founder of pediatric cardiology.
tautog: fish of the western Atlantic, a large, commercially important species of wrasse (q.v.).
tautology: in logic, a statement so framed that it cannot be denied without inconsistency. Thus, "All men are rational" is held to assert with regard to anything whatsoever that either it is a man or it is not rational. But this ...
tautomerism: the existence of two or more chemical compounds that are capable of facile interconversion, in many cases merely exchanging a hydrogen atom between two other atoms, to either of which it forms a covalent bond. Unlike other classes of isomers, ...
Tavares, Eugenio: Cape Verdean poet who was one of the first Cape Verdeans to be published in the islands' vernacular, Crioulo, a creolized Portuguese with African-language influences.
Tavda: city and port, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), western Russia, on the Tavda River. Its main industries are locomotive repair, sawmilling, and woodworking. The city's timber complex produces prefabricated houses, veneers, and plywood. There is a technical institute devoted to the woodworking ...
Tavener, Sir John: British composer who was strongly influenced by sacred and spiritual texts. Although some critics dismissed his work as lightweight, Tavener drew praise for making classical music accessible to the masses.
tavern: an establishment where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises. Tavern keeping has paralleled the growth of trade, travel, and industry throughout history and virtually worldwide. The Code of Hammurabi of ancient Babylonia (c. 1750 BC) provided that ...
Taverner, John: English composer known primarily for his sacred works. His music represents the culmination of early 16th-century English polyphony.
Taveuni: third largest island of Fiji, in the South Pacific. The island has an area of 168 square miles (435 square km). It lies off the southeast coast of Vanua Levu and was sighted by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in ...
Taviani, Paolo; and Taviani, Vittorio: Italian brothers and filmmakers who combined the social concerns and documentary effects of Neorealism with modernist concerns for outstanding, often poetic, visual and aural effects.
Tavoras, Conspiracy of the: (1758-59), event in Portuguese history that enabled the Marquess de Pombal, chief minister to King Joseph I, to crush the higher nobility and the Jesuits, who had opposed him.