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polecat

(Encyclopedia)polecat, carnivorous mammal of the weasel family. The name refers especially to the common Old World polecat, Mustela putorius, found in wooded areas of N Eurasia and N Africa. Similar to weasels, but...

Mayweather, Floyd, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Mayweather, Floyd, Jr., 1977–, American boxer, b. Grand Rapids, Mich., as Floyd Joy Sinclair. He began boxing at an early age, coached by his father, a welterweight boxer whose name he subsequently ...

Reading, borough, England

(Encyclopedia)Reading rĕdˈĭng [key], borough and unitary authority (1991 pop. 194,727), S central England, on the Kennet River near its influx to the Thames. Reading, which was the seat of the former county of B...

Ríos Montt, José Efraín

(Encyclopedia)Ríos Montt, José Efraín hōsāˈ ĕfräēnˈ rēˈōs mōnt [key], 1926–2018, Guatemalan general and politician. A career army officer, he became head of the Guatamalan army in 1970. As a Christi...

Dukakis, Olympia

(Encyclopedia) Dukakis, Olympia, 1931-2021, American actress, b. Lowell, Ma., Boston Univ. (B.A., M.F.A.). Dukakis’s parents were Greek immigrants. After ...

Brasília

(Encyclopedia)Brasília bräzēlˈyä [key], capital city and federal district of Brazil (2,264 sq mi/5,864 sq ...

Carson, Edward Henry Carson, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Carson, Edward Henry Carson, Baron, 1854–1935, Irish politician. After a successful legal career in Dublin, he was elected to the British Parliament (1892) and called to the English bar (1893). He s...

Lorenz, Konrad

(Encyclopedia)Lorenz, Konrad kônˈrät lôrˈĕnts [key], 1903–89, Austrian zoologist and ethologist. He received medical training at the Univ. of Vienna and spent two years at the medical school of Columbia Uni...

Belo Horizonte

(Encyclopedia)Belo Horizonte bəlˌo͝orēzôNˈtĭ [key] [Port.,=beautiful horizon], city, capital of Minas Gerais ...

decadents

(Encyclopedia)decadents, in literature, name loosely applied to those 19th-century, fin-de-siècle European authors who sought inspiration, both in their lives and in their writings, in aestheticism and in all the ...