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Peeblesshire

(Encyclopedia)Peeblesshire pēˈbəlz [key], former county, SE Scotland. Under the Local Government Act of 1973, Peeblesshire became (1975) part of the new Borders region (now the Scottish Borders council area). ...

Menshikov, Aleksandr Danilovich, Prince

(Encyclopedia)Menshikov, Aleksandr Danilovich, Prince əlyĭksänˈdər dənyēˈləvĭch mĕnˈshĭkəf [key], 1672?–1729, Russian field marshal and statesman. Of lowly origin, he became an intimate companion of...

marquetry

(Encyclopedia)marquetry märˈkətrē [key], branch of cabinetwork in which a decorative surface of wood or other substance is glued to an object on a single plane. Unlike inlaying, in which the secondary material ...

Shapley, Lloyd Stowell

(Encyclopedia)Shapley, Lloyd Stowell shăpˈlē [key], 1923–2016, American mathematician and economist, b. Cambridge, Mass., Ph.D Princeton, 1953; son of Harlow Shapley. He worked at the RAND Corp. from 1954 to 1...

Alberti, Leone Battista

(Encyclopedia)Alberti, Leone Battista, 1404–72, Italian architect, musician, painter, and humanist, active at the papal court, Florence, Rimini, and Mantua. Alberti was the first architect to argue for the correc...

decathlon

(Encyclopedia)decathlon dĭkăthˈlŏn [key], in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. It consists of the long jump; the high jump; the discus throw; ...

weight

(Encyclopedia)weight, measure of the force of gravity on a body (see gravitation). Since the weights of different bodies at the same location are proportional to their masses, weight is often used as a measure of m...

Mabillon, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Mabillon, Jean zhäN mäbēyôNˈ [key], 1623–1707, French scholar, a Benedictine monk. His De re diplomatica (1681; with a supplementary volume, 1704) was the first attempt to develop a critical me...

Peabody, Endicott

(Encyclopedia)Peabody, Endicott pēˈbädē, –bədē [key], 1857–1944, American educator, b. Salem, Mass., grad. Cheltenham College, 1876, LL.B. Cambridge, 1880. Ordained (1885) in the Episcopal Church, Peabody...

Roraima, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Roraima, Mount ro͝orīˈmə [key], mountain, 9,219 ft (2,810 m) high, at the junction of the boundaries of Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela. A giant table mountain, it is the highest point in the Guiana...