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Biringuccio, Vannocio

(Encyclopedia)Biringuccio, Vannocio vän-nôˈchō bērēn-go͞otˈchō [key], 1480–c.1539, Italian metallurgist. He is best known for his practical manual of metallurgy, De la pirotechnia (1540, tr. 1942). As a ...

borstal system

(Encyclopedia)borstal system bôrˈstəl [key], rehabilitation method formerly used in Great Britain for delinquent boys aged 16 to 21. The idea originated (1895) with the Gladstone Committee as an attempt to refor...

cuckoo

(Encyclopedia)cuckoo, common name for members of the extensive avian family Cuculidae, including the ani and the roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions. Cuckoos a...

Lueger, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Lueger, Karl kärl lüˈgər [key], 1844–1910, Austrian politician. He was the leader of the Christian Social party. Lueger appealed to the lower middle classes of Vienna through his anti-Semitism, ...

Malcolm IV

(Encyclopedia)Malcolm IV, 1141–65, king of Scotland (1153–65), grandson and successor of David I. On his accession the young king was at once faced with a rebellion of the western Gaels, supported by the Norse,...

Mansur, al-, 914–1002, Moorish regent of Córdoba

(Encyclopedia)Mansur, al- (Muhammad ibn Abi-Amir al-Mansur billah), 914–1002, Moorish regent of Córdoba, known in Spanish as Almanzor. He became steward to Princess Subh, wife of the caliph Hakim II, and under h...

Masaoka Shiki

(Encyclopedia)Masaoka Shiki mäˈsäˈōˈkä shēˈkē [key], 1867–1902, Japanese waka and haiku poet. Founder of the literary magazine Hototogisu and patron to a number of young poets, Shiki played a leading ro...

Ramadan

(Encyclopedia)Ramadan rämädänˈ, rămˌədänˈ [key], in Islam, the ninth month of the Muslim year, during which all Muslims must fast during the daylight hours. Indulgence of any sort is forbidden during the f...

Thayer, Abbott Handerson

(Encyclopedia)Thayer, Abbott Handerson thâr [key], 1849–1921, American painter, b. Boston, studied in Paris with Gérôme and at the École des Beaux-Arts. Known as a painter of animals and of landscapes, he was...

tinamou

(Encyclopedia)tinamou tĭnˈəmo͞o [key], common name for a South American game bird related to the ostrich. It is protectively colored in browns and grays. The females are the aggressors in courtship, and the mal...