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Satan

(Encyclopedia)Satan [Heb.,=adversary], traditional opponent of God and humanity in Judaism and Christianity. In Scripture and literature the role of the opponent is given many names, such as Apolyon, Beelzebub, Sem...

adolescence

(Encyclopedia)adolescence, time of life from onset of puberty to full adulthood. The exact period of adolescence, which varies from person to person, falls approximately between the ages 12 and 20 and encompasses b...

ladybird beetle

(Encyclopedia)ladybird beetle or ladybug, member of a cosmopolitan beetle family with over 4,000 species, including 350 species in the United States. Ladybird beetles are mostly under 1⁄4 in. (6 mm) long and are ...

Lusignan

(Encyclopedia)Lusignan lüzēnyäNˈ [key], French noble family. The name is derived from a castle in Poitou, built, according to legend, by Mélusine. The family was powerful in the Middle Ages and ruled (13th–1...

hat

(Encyclopedia)hat, headdress developed from the simple close-fitting cap and hood of antiquity. The first hat, which was distinguished as such by having a brim, was the felt petasus of the Greeks, which tied under ...

genealogy

(Encyclopedia)genealogy jēˌnēŏlˈəjē, –ălˈ–, jĕ– [key], the study of family lineage. Genealogies have existed since ancient times. Family lineage was originally transmitted through oral tradition and...

conducting

(Encyclopedia)conducting, in music, the art of unifying the efforts of a number of musicians simultaneously engaged in musical performance. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance the conductor was primarily a time beat...

estate

(Encyclopedia)estate. 1 In property law, see property; tenure. 2 In constitutional law, an estate denotes an organized class of society with a separate voice in government. Representation by estate arose in Europe ...

fair

(Encyclopedia)fair, market exhibition at which producers, traders, and consumers meet either to barter or to buy and sell goods and services. Before the development of transportation and marketing, fairs furnished ...

pidgin

(Encyclopedia)pidgin pĭjˈən [key], a lingua franca that is not the mother tongue of anyone using it and that has a simplified grammar and a restricted, often polyglot vocabulary. The earliest documented pidgin i...