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mother-of-pearl

(Encyclopedia)mother-of-pearl or nacre nāˈkər [key], the iridescent substance that forms the lining of the shells of some fresh-water and some salt-water mollusks. Like the pearl it is a secretion of the mantle,...

marten

(Encyclopedia)marten, name for carnivorous, largely arboreal mammals (genus Martes) of the weasel family, widely distributed in North America, Europe, and central Asia. Martens are larger, heavier-bodied animals th...

hamster

(Encyclopedia)hamster, Old World rodent, related to the voles, lemmings, and New World mice. There are many hamster species, classified in several genera. All are solitary, burrowing, nocturnal animals, with chunky...

Job's-tears

(Encyclopedia)Job's-tears, tall tropical plant of the family Poaceae (grass family), Coix lacrymajobi, native to E Asia and Malaya but elsewhere cultivated in gardens as an annual and naturalized in the S United St...

Bonvalot, Pierre Gabriel Édouard

(Encyclopedia)Bonvalot, Pierre Gabriel Édouard pyĕr gäbrēĕlˈ ādwärˈ bôNvälōˈ [key], 1853–1933, French explorer and author. In 1880–82 he visited central Asia, explored Kohistan, and returned to Fra...

Corinthian War

(Encyclopedia)Corinthian War (395 b.c.–86 b.c.), armed conflict between Corinth, Argos, Thebes, and Athens on one side and Sparta on the other. Angered by Sparta's tyrannical overlordship in Greece after the Pelo...

Strabo

(Encyclopedia)Strabo strāˈbō [key], b. c.63 b.c., d. after a.d. 21, Greek geographer, historian, and philosopher, b. Amasya, Pontus. He studied in Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and Alexandria and traveled in Europe,...

Huntington, Ellsworth

(Encyclopedia)Huntington, Ellsworth, 1876–1947, American geographer, b. Galesburg, Ill., grad. Beloit College, 1897, M.A. Harvard, 1902, Ph.D. Yale, 1909. He taught at Euphrates College, Turkey (1897–1901); acc...

Shanghai Cooperation Organization

(Encyclopedia)Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), association of Eurasian nations founded 2001 in Shanghai by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Under the charter signed in 2002...

Tchernaiev, Mikhail Grigoryevich

(Encyclopedia)Tchernaiev or Chernyaiev, Mikhail Grigoryevich mēkhəyēlˈ grĭgôrˈyəvĭch chĭrnyīˈəf [key], 1828–98, Russian general and Pan-Slavist. Sent on a minor mission to central Asia in 1864, he ex...