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dementia

(Encyclopedia)dementia dĭmĕnˈshə [key] [Lat.,=being out of the mind], progressive deterioration of intellectual faculties resulting in apathy, confusion, and stupor. In the 17th cent. the term was synonymous wi...

Ruskin, John

(Encyclopedia)Ruskin, John, 1819–1900, English critic and social theorist. During the mid-19th cent. Ruskin was the virtual dictator of artistic opinion in England, but Ruskin's reputation declined after his deat...

translation

(Encyclopedia)translation [Lat.,=carrying across], the rendering of a text into another language. Applied to literature, the term connotes the art of recomposing a work in another language without losing its origin...

Singer, Isaac Bashevis

(Encyclopedia)Singer, Isaac Bashevis bäshĕvˈĭs [key], 1904–91, American novelist and short-story writer in the Yiddish language, younger brother of I. J. Singer, b. Leoncin, Poland (then in Russia). The son o...

American architecture

(Encyclopedia)American architecture, the architecture produced in the geographical area that now constitutes the United States. Wright, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest architects of the 20th cent., ...

Brodie, Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Brodie, Bernard, 1910–78, American military strategist, b. Chicago. Brodie edited The Absolute Weapon (1946), the first book on nuclear strategy, and was a strategic theorist at the Rand Corporation...

Knossos

(Encyclopedia)Knossos or Cnossus both: nŏsˈəs [key], ancient city of Crete, on the north coast, near modern Iráklion. The site was occupied long before 3000 b.c., and it was the center of an important Bronze Ag...

Beauvoir, Simone de

(Encyclopedia)Beauvoir, Simone de sēmônˈ də bōvwärˈ [key], 1908–86, French author. A leading exponent of existentialism, she is closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre, with whom she had a life-long relat...

Parkinson's disease

(Encyclopedia)Parkinson's disease or Parkinsonism, degenerative brain disorder first described by the English surgeon James Parkinson in 1817. When there is no known cause, the disease usually appears after age 40 ...

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

(Encyclopedia)Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), U.S. agency created in 1964 to end discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and to promote programs to make ...