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Johnson, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Jack (John Arthur Johnson), 1878–1946, American boxer, b. Galveston, Tex., the son of two ex-slaves. Emerging from the battle royals (dehumanizing fights between blacks for the amusement of...

Kleinrock, Leonard

(Encyclopedia)Kleinrock, Leonard, 1934–, American computer scientist, b. New York City, B.E.E. City College of New York (1957), Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1963). Moving to the Univ. of Californi...

Dempsey, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Dempsey, Jack (William Harrison Dempsey), 1895–1983, American boxer, b. Manassa, Colo. Dempsey, called the “Manassa Mauler,” emerged from fights on saloon floors near mining camps to become (191...

Wayne, John

(Encyclopedia)Wayne, John, 1907–79, American movie actor, b. Winterset, Iowa, as Marion Michael Morrison. An enduringly popular movie star from his debut in 1930, Wayne combined the toughness necessary to play we...

adjective

(Encyclopedia)adjective, English part of speech, one of the two that refer typically to attributes and together are called modifiers. The other kind of modifier is the adverb. Adjectives and adverbs are functionall...

Lauren, Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Lauren, Ralph lôrˈən, lərĕnˈ [key], 1939–, American fashion designer, b. New York City as Ralph Lipschitz. He began his career by creating neckties under the name Polo for Beau Brummel. In 196...

Rotary International

(Encyclopedia)Rotary International, organization of business and professional people, founded (1905) by Paul Percy Harris, a Chicago lawyer. Beginning with one club in Chicago, it spread to other cities, and in 191...

transformational-generative grammar

(Encyclopedia)transformational-generative grammar, linguistic theory associated with Noam Chomsky, particularly with his Syntactic Structures (1957), and with Chomsky's teacher Zellig Harris. Generative grammar att...

Langton, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Langton, Stephen, c.1155–1228, English prelate, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was educated at Paris. Innocent III named him cardinal in 1206, and he became archbishop of Canterbury the f...

Nahum

(Encyclopedia)Nahum nāˈəm, –həm [key], 7th of the books of the Minor Prophets of the Bible. It contains oracles of doom against Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire, delivered by one Nahum of Elkosh, who i...