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South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

(Encyclopedia)South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, at Rapid City; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1887 as Dakota School of Mines, renamed 1943. Of note are an engineering and mining e...

tapir

(Encyclopedia)tapir tāˈpər [key], nocturnal, herbivorous mammal, genus Tapirus, of the jungles of Central and South America and SE Asia. The tapir is somewhat piglike in appearance; however, it is not related to...

Somoza Debayle, Anastasio

(Encyclopedia)Somoza Debayle, Anastasio änästäsˈyō sōmōˈsä ᵺābīˈlā [key], 1925–80, president of Nicaragua (1967–72, 1974—79). The younger son of dictator Anastasio Somoza, he was educated in th...

Mennonites

(Encyclopedia)Mennonites mĕnˈnənīts [key], descendants of the Dutch and Swiss evangelical Anabaptists of the 16th cent. The name Mennonite is derived from Menno Simons (c.1496–1561), Dutch reformer and org...

shopping center

(Encyclopedia)shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marke...

potato

(Encyclopedia)potato or white potato, common name for a perennial plant (Solanum tuberosum) of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family) and for its swollen underground stem, a tuber, which is one of the most widel...

mestizo

(Encyclopedia)mestizo māstēˈsō [key] [Span.,=mixture], person of mixed race; particularly, in Mexico and Central and South America, a person of European (Spanish or Portuguese) and indigenous descent. The mesti...

maroon

(Encyclopedia)maroon, term for a fugitive slave in the 17th and 18th cent. in the West Indies and Guiana, or for a descendant of such slaves. They were called marron by the French and cimarrón by the Spanish. Form...

de los Angeles, Victoria

(Encyclopedia)de los Angeles, Victoria dā lōs änˈhālās [key], 1923–2005, Spanish soprano, b. Barcelona. After a concert debut in Madrid in 1944, de los Angeles toured Scandinavia, France, England, and South...

fermented milk

(Encyclopedia)fermented milk, whole or skim milk curdled to beverage or custardlike consistency by lactic-acid-producing microorganisms. Many forms of fermented milk were used by early nomadic herders, especially i...