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canzone, in literature

(Encyclopedia)canzone –nä [key], in literature, Italian term meaning lyric or song. It is used to designate such various literary forms as Provençal troubadour poems and the lyrics of Dante, Petrarch, and other...

arithmetic

(Encyclopedia)arithmetic, branch of mathematics commonly considered a separate branch but in actuality a part of algebra. Conventionally the term has been most widely applied to simple teaching of the skills of dea...

Overland Trail

(Encyclopedia)Overland Trail, any of several trails of westward migration in the United States. The term is sometimes used to mean all the trails westward from the Missouri to the Pacific and sometimes for the cent...

Saladin

(Encyclopedia)Saladin sălˈədĭn [key], Arabic Salah ad-Din, 1137?–1193, Muslim warrior and Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, the great opponent of the Crusaders, b. Mesopotamia, of Kurdish descent. He lived for 10 year...

Jones, John Paul

(Encyclopedia)Jones, John Paul, 1747–92, American naval hero, b. near Kirkcudbright, Scotland. His name was originally simply John Paul. After the Revolution Jones was sent to Europe to collect the prize mone...

obbligato

(Encyclopedia)obbligato ŏbləgäˈtō [key] [Ital.,=obligatory], in music, originally a term by which a composer indicated that a certain part was indispensable to the music. Obbligato was thus the direct opposite...

maya, in Hinduism

(Encyclopedia)maya mäˈyä [key], in Hinduism, term used in the Veda to mean magic or supernatural power. In Mahayana Buddhism it acquires the meaning of illusion or unreality. The term is pivotal in the Vedanta s...

anathema

(Encyclopedia)anathema ənăˈthĭmə [key] [Gr.,=something set up; dedicated to a divinity as a votive offering], term that came to denote something devoted to a divinity for destruction. In the Bible, the term is...

Kafirs

(Encyclopedia)Kafirs or Kaffirs both: kăfˈərz [key] [Arab.,=infidel], name applied by European settlers to the Xhosa branch of the Bantu-speaking people of S Africa. Originally used only for the inhabitants of t...

Caraway, Hattie Wyatt

(Encyclopedia)Caraway, Hattie Wyatt kărˈəwāˌ [key], 1878–1950, U.S. senator (1932–45), b. near Bakerville, Tenn. In 1932 she was appointed to fill the unexpired Senate term from Arkansas of her late husban...