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Ayton, Sir Robert

(Encyclopedia)Ayton or Aytoun, Sir Robert both: āˈtən [key], 1570–1638, English poet and courtier. He was private secretary to the queens of James I and Charles I, besides holding other posts of honor. He wrot...

vocative

(Encyclopedia)vocative vŏkˈətĭv [key] [Lat.,=calling], in the grammar of certain languages (e.g., Latin), the case referring to a person addressed. In English a special intonation expresses the vocative, as in ...

Quine, W. V.

(Encyclopedia)Quine, W. V. (Willard Van Orman Quine) kwīn [key], 1908–2000, American philosopher and mathematical logician, b. Akron, Ohio, grad. Oberlin, 1930. He studied at Harvard (Ph.D., 1932) under Alfred N...

phonology

(Encyclopedia)phonology, study of the sound systems of languages. It is distinguished from phonetics, which is the study of the production, perception, and physical properties of speech sounds; phonology attempts t...

Goliardic songs

(Encyclopedia)Goliardic songs gōlēärˈdĭk [key], Late Latin poetry of the “wandering scholars,” or Goliards. The Goliards included university students who went from one European university to another, schol...

Minucius Felix, Marcus

(Encyclopedia)Minucius Felix, Marcus märˈkəs mĭnyo͞oshˈəs fēˈlĭks [key], fl. 2d cent., Christian apologist, author of a dialogue, Octavius, one of the earliest Latin apologies. In it a pagan and a Christi...

Barbier, Antoine Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Barbier, Antoine Alexandre äNtwänˈ älĕksäNˈdrə bärbyāˈ [key], 1765–1825, French bibliographer and government librarian. Barbier was one of a committee appointed to collect works suppresse...

Régnier, Mathurin

(Encyclopedia)Régnier, Mathurin rānyāˈ [key], 1573–1613, French poet. He wrote 16 vigorous, realistic, and often licentious verse satires in the manner of Latin authors, first published as a whole in 1613. ...

Scot, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Scot, Michael, c.1175–c.1234, medieval scholar, b. Scotland. He served as astrologer and physician at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, where with other scholars he translated Aristotle ...

Prudentius

(Encyclopedia)Prudentius (Aurelius Clemens Prudentius) pro͞odĕnˈshəs [key], b. 348, Christian Latin poet, b. Spain. He wrote a number of hymns, occasional Christian lyrics, and poems on saints. Although he held...