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Stanhope, Lady Hester Lucy

(Encyclopedia)Stanhope, Lady Hester Lucy, 1776–1839, English traveler. Leaving England in 1810, she traveled in the Levant, adopting Eastern male dress and a religion that was a composite of Christianity and Isla...

Barlaam and Josaphat

(Encyclopedia)Barlaam and Josaphat bärˈläəm, jōˈsəfăt [key], legend popular in medieval times. It corresponds in part to the legend of Buddha. Versions of the story have been found in nearly every language....

serpent

(Encyclopedia)serpent, term sometimes used to designate the larger species of snakes in mythology and folklore, a name often applied to any sinuous, crawling creature, chiefly to a snake. No sea serpents have been ...

Sialkot

(Encyclopedia)Sialkot syälˈkōt [key], city (1998 pop. 417,597), near the Indian border, Pakistan. It is a rail junction and a major trade and processing center. Manufactures include sporting goods, processed foo...

Balder

(Encyclopedia)Balder bôlˈdər, bäl– [key], Norse god of light; son of Odin and Frigg. He was the most beautiful and gracious of the gods of Asgard. His mother extracted oaths from all things in nature not to h...

Overbeck, Johann Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Overbeck, Johann Friedrich yōˈhän frēˈdrĭkh oˈvərbĕk [key], 1789–1869, German religious painter. Expelled from the Vienna Academy because of his opposition to its classicism, he went to Rom...

gender

(Encyclopedia)gender [Lat. genus=kind], in grammar, subclassification of nouns or nounlike words in which the members of the subclass have characteristic features of agreement with other words. The term gender is n...

Kossuth, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Kossuth, Louis kŏso͞othˈ [key], Hung. Kossuth Lajos, 1802–94, Hungarian revolutionary hero. Born of a Protestant family and a lawyer by training, he entered politics as a member of the diet and s...

Druze

(Encyclopedia)Druze or Druse dro͞oz [key], religious community of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, with important overseas branches in the Americas and Australia. The religious leadership prefers the name Muwah...

heresy

(Encyclopedia)heresy, in religion, especially in Christianity, beliefs or views held by a member of a church that contradict its orthodoxy, or core doctrines. It is distinguished from apostasy, which is a complete ...