Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Veliko Turnovo ... Venice

Veliko Turnovo: majestic old town in northern Bulgaria. Veliko Turnovo ("Great Turnovo") occupies near-vertical slopes above the 800-foot (240-metre) meandering gorge of the Yantra (Jantra) River. The houses, built in terraces, appear to be stacked one atop the other. The river divides ...
Velikonda Range: range of hills in southeastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. They trend north to south and form the eastern flank of the Eastern Ghats, which at that point are strongly folded and faulted. The Velikondas are assumed to have been ...
Velikovsky, Immanuel: American writer, proponent of controversial theories of cosmogony and history.
Veliky Ustyug: city, Vologda oblast (province), northwestern Russia, a port on the Sukhona River. One of the oldest settlements of European Russia, mentioned in documents from 1218, it was an important trading centre on the Moscow-Arkhangelsk road in the 16th century and ...
Velleius Paterculus: Roman soldier, political figure, and historian whose work on Rome is a valuable if amateurish source for the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius.
Vellore: city, northern Tamil Nadu state, southern India. Vellore lies along the Palar River, southwest of Chennai (Madras). A notable feature of the city is its fort, the site of the Vellore Mutiny in May 1806. The city played an important ...
Vellore Mutiny: (May 10, 1806), outbreak against the British by South Indian troops, who broke into the fort at Vellore, where the sons of Tippu Sultan of Mysore had been lodged since their surrender at Seringapatam in 1799. The outbreak, though it ...
velocipede: version of the bicycle reinvented in the 1860s by the Michaux family of Paris. Its iron and wood construction and lack of springs earned it the nickname boneshaker. It was driven by pedaling cranks on the front axle. To increase ...
Velociraptor: sickle-clawed dinosaur that flourished in central and eastern Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period (99 million to 65 million years ago). It is closely related to the North American Deinonychus of the Early Cretaceous in that both ...
velocity: quantity that designates how fast and in what direction a point is moving. A point always moves in a direction that is tangent to its path; for a circular path, for example, its direction at any instant is perpendicular to ...
Velsen: gemeente (commune), Noord-Holland provincie, western Netherlands. Velsen lies along the North Sea Canal, which connects Amsterdam with the North Sea. The commune embraces IJmuiden (the foreport of Amsterdam), Santpoort, Driehuis, and Velsen-Noord. A major ...
Veltman, Martinus J.G.: Dutch physicist, corecipient with Gerardus 't Hooft of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Physics for their development of a method of mathematically predicting the properties of both the subatomic particles that make up the universe and the fundamental forces through ...
velvet: in textiles, fabric having a short, dense pile, used in clothing and upholstery. The term derives from the Middle French velu, "shaggy." Velvet is made in the pile weave, of silk, cotton, or synthetic fibres, and is characterized by a ...
velvet ant: any species of solitary (nonsocial) wasp of the family Mutillidae, belonging to the order Hymenoptera. Velvet ants are so called because the females are covered with dense hairs and, like ants, are wingless. Most species are brightly coloured, with yellow, ...
velvet crab: any of certain species in the swimming crab (q.v.) group.
velvet grass: one of eight perennial grasses constituting the genus Holcus (family Poaceae), native to Europe and Africa. It has tufted flower clusters that may be white, green, pink, or purple.
Velvet Underground, the: American band of the 1960s whose primal guitar sound and urban-noir lyrics, influenced by avant-garde art and modern literature, inspired the punk and alternative rock movements of the 1970s and '80s. The principal members were Lou Reed (original name Lewis ...
velvet water bug: any member of the relatively rare insect family Hebridae (about 120 species) of the order Heteroptera. The small, plump insects are usually less than 3 mm (0.1 inch) long. Their body is covered with fine, velvetlike hairs. They can be ...
velvet worm: any of about 70 wormlike species of ancient, terrestrial invertebrates with short, thick legs and a dry, velveteen body. Onychophorans range in size from 14 to 150 mm (about 0.6 to 6 inches) and are found in rainforests. Unable to ...
velveteen: in textiles, fabric with a short, dense pile surface and a smooth back, usually made of cotton and resembling velvet. It is made by the filling-pile method, in which the plain or twill weave is used as a base and ...
velvetleaf: any of various plants with soft, velvety leaves, particularly Abutilon theophrasti (sometimes A. avicennae), commonly known as Indian mallow, an annual, hairy plant of the mallow family (Malvaceae). Native to southern Asia, A. theophrasti is cultivated in northern China for ...
velvety shore bug: any insect of the family Ochteridae (order Heteroptera), which numbers about 25 species. These insects resemble tiny toads, are about 4 or 5 mm (almost 0.2 inch) long, and live among plants near streams and ponds. As indicated by their ...
vena cava: in air-breathing vertebrates, including humans, either of two major trunks, the anterior and posterior venae cavae, that deliver oxygen-depleted blood to the right side of the heart. The anterior vena cava, also known as the precava, drains the head end ...
Venango: county, northwestern Pennsylvania, U.S., consisting of a hilly region on the Allegheny Plateau that is located midway between the cities of Erie and Pittsburgh and is bisected by the Allegheny River.
venationes: (Latin: "animal hunts"), in ancient Rome, type of public spectacle that featured animal hunts.
Venda: a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting the region of the Republic of South Africa known from 1979 to 1994 as the Republic of Venda. The area is now part of Northern Transvaal province, and is situated in the extreme northeastern corner of ...
Venda: former republic (though never internationally recognized as such) in southern Africa. It consisted of an enclave within the Transvaal, Republic of South Africa, just south of Zimbabwe. Its capital, formerly at Sibasa, was moved to Thohoyandou when Venda was declared ...
Vendee, Wars of the: (1793-96), counterrevolutionary insurrections in the west of France during the French Revolution. The first and most important occurred in 1793 in the area known as the Vendee, which included large sections of the departements of Loire-Inferieure (Loire-Atlantique), Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sevres, and ...
vending machine: coin-actuated machine through which various goods may be retailed. Vending machines should not be confused with coin-operated amusement games or music machines. The first known commercial use of vending machines came early in the 18th century in England, where coin-actuated ...
Vendome: historic town and capital of an arrondissement in the departement of Loir-et-Cher, Centre region, north-central France. It lies southwest of Paris and 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Blois. Vendome stands on the Loir River, which there divides and intersects ...
Vendome, Cesar, Duke de: leader in several aristocratic revolts during the reign of King Louis XIII of France (ruled 1610-43).
Vendome, Louis-Joseph, duc de: one of King Louis XIV's leading generals during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14).
Vendsyssel-Thy: (North Jutland Island), island at the north end of Jutland, Denmark, known as Vendsyssel in the east and Thy in the west. The Limfjorden separates it from the mainland, to which it was attached until 1825, when water erosion cut ...
veneer: extremely thin sheet of rich-coloured wood (such as mahogany, ebony, or rosewood) or precious materials (such as ivory or tortoiseshell) cut in decorative patterns and applied to the surface area of a piece of furniture. It is to be distinguished ...
Venera: any of a series of unmanned Soviet planetary probes that were sent to Venus. Venera 2 (launched 1965) flew to within 24,000 km (15,000 miles) of Venus in February 1966, and Venera 3 crash-landed on its surface the following month, ...
venerable: title or respectful form of address, used from very early times in Europe, especially for certain clergy or for laymen of marked spiritual merit. St. Augustine in some epistles cited the term in reference to bishops, and Philip I of ...
venereal disease: any of a number of contagious diseases that are most commonly acquired in sexual intercourse. See sexually transmitted disease.
Venericardia: genus of pelecypods (clams) abundant during the Eocene Epoch (the Eocene Epoch began 57.8 million years ago and ended 36.6 million years ago). The shell, composed of two halves (valves), is distinctive in form and generally large. Transverse ribs radiate ...
Venetan: group of dialects of Italian spoken in northeastern Italy. It includes the dialects spoken in Venice (Venetian), Verona (Veronese), Treviso (Trevisan), and Padua (Paduan).
Veneti: ancient Celtic people who lived in what is now the Morbihan district of modern Brittany. By the time of Julius Caesar they controlled all Atlantic trade to Britain. They submitted to Caesar in 57 BC; but the next winter, disturbed ...
Veneti: ancient people of northeastern Italy, who arrived about 1000 BC and occupied country stretching south to the Po and west to the neighbourhood of Verona. They left more than 400 inscriptions from the last four centuries BC, some in the ...
Venetia: territory of northeastern Italy and western Slovenia between the Alps and the Po River and opening on the Adriatic Sea. Italians often use the name Veneto for the region around Venice proper (Venezia) and the name Venezia Giulia for the ...
Venetian glass: variety of glasswares made in Venice from the 13th century, at the latest, to the present. Although a glassblowers' guild existed in Venice from 1224, the earliest extant specimens that can be dated with certainty are from the mid-15th century. ...
Venetian needle lace: Venetian lace made with a needle from the 16th to the 19th century. Early examples were deep, acute-angled points, each worked separately and linked together by a narrow band, or "footing," stitched with buttonholing. These points were used in ruffs ...
Venetian school: Renaissance art and artists, especially painters, of the city of Venice. Like rivals Florence and Rome, Venice enjoyed periods of importance and influence in the continuum of western European art, but in each period the outstanding Venetian characteristic has remained ...
Venetic language: a language spoken in northeastern Italy before the Christian era. Known to modern scholars from some 200 short inscriptions dating from the 5th through the 1st century BC, it is written either in Latin characters or in a native alphabet ...
Veneto: regione, northern and northeastern Italy, comprising the provincie of Venezia, Padova, Rovigo, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, and Belluno. It is bounded by Trentino-Alto Adige (north), Emilia-Romagna (south), Lombardia (west), Austria (northeast), and Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Adriatic Sea (east). The northern ...
Venette, Jean de: French chronicler who left a valuable eyewitness report of events of the central France of his time.
Venezuela: country located at the northern end of South America. It occupies a roughly triangular area of 352,144 square miles (912,050 square km)-larger than the combined areas of France and Germany. Venezuela is bounded by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic ...
Venezuela, Gulf of: inlet of the Caribbean Sea in Venezuela and Colombia, extending 75 miles (120 km) north-south and reaching a maximum east-west width of 150 miles (240 km). It is bounded by the Guajira Peninsula on the west and by the Paraguana ...
Venice: city, major seaport, and capital of both the provincia of Venezia and the regione of Veneto, northern Italy. An island city, it was once the centre of a maritime republic. It was the greatest seaport in late medieval Europe and ...