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limpkin

(Encyclopedia)limpkin or courlan ko͝orˈlən [key], common terms for a long-legged, nonmigratory marsh bird, considered the connecting evolutionary link between the crane and the rail. They have a cranelike skelet...

Charles, Ray

(Encyclopedia)Charles, Ray (Ray Charles Robinson), 1930–2004, African-American musician and composer, b. Albany, Ga. Blinded at age seven, he was raised in Florida and at 16 began singing in a local hillbilly gro...

initiative

(Encyclopedia)initiative, the originating of a law or constitutional amendment by popular petition. It is intended to allow the electorate to initiate legislation independently of the legislature. This direct form ...

Harris, Joel Chandler

(Encyclopedia)Harris, Joel Chandler, 1848–1908, American short-story writer and humorist, b. Eatonton, Ga., considered one of the great American regionalist writers. As an apprentice to the editor of the Countrym...

Jordan, Vernon Eulion, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Jordan, Vernon Eulion, Jr., 1935–2021, African-American civil-rights leader and lawyer, b. Atlanta, Ga., DePauw Univ. (BA, 1957), Howard Univ. Law Sch...

Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of brĕst-lĭtôfskˈ [key], separate peace treaty in World War I, signed by Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, Mar. 3, 1918, at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus). After the ...

Yamasee

(Encyclopedia)Yamasee, Yamasi yĕmˈ– [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the late 16th cent., wh...

Norris, Edwin

(Encyclopedia)Norris, Edwin, 1795–1872, English philologist. Norris wrote a number of articles on little-known languages of Asia and Africa. His most important work was his uncompleted Assyrian Dictionary (3 vol....

Nyssa

(Encyclopedia)Nyssa nĭsˈə [key], name of several ancient cities devoted to the worship of Dionysus. The best known of them is a town of Cappadocia, Asia Minor, near the Halys (now the Kizil Irmak) River. It was ...

gamboge

(Encyclopedia)gamboge gămbōjˈ [key] [Fr.,=Cambodia], an intensely yellow pigment obtained from the sap of Garcinia morella, a tree of SE Asia and Sri Lanka. ...