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snipe

(Encyclopedia)snipe, common name for a shore bird of the family Scolopacidae (sandpiper family), native to the Old and New Worlds. The common, or Wilson's snipe (Capella gallinago), also called jacksnipe, is a game...

Naipaul, V. S.

(Encyclopedia)Naipaul, V. S. (Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul) nīpôlˈ [key], 1932–2018, English writer, b. Chaguanas, Trinidad; grad. University College, Oxford, 1953. Naipul, whose family descended from Ind...

Frisian language

(Encyclopedia)Frisian language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). It has a number of dialects and is spoken by more than ...

Gans, Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Gans, Herbert găns [key], 1927–, American sociologist and educator, b. Cologne, Germany. He came to the United States in 1940 and became a U.S. citizen. In The Urban Villagers (2d ed. 1982), an imp...

Natives, Middle American

(Encyclopedia)Natives, Middle American or Mesoamerican, aboriginal peoples living in the area between present-day United States and South America. Although most of Mexico is geographically considered part of North ...

hurricane

(Encyclopedia)CE5 View into the eye of a hurricane showing the structure of the surrounding cloud wall hurricane, tropical cyclone in which winds attain speeds greater than 74 mi (119 km) per hr. Wind speeds gu...

Arledge, Roone Pinckney, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Arledge, Roone Pinckney, Jr., 1931–2002, American television executive, b. Forest Hills, N.Y., grad. Columbia (B.A., 1952). He was a producer-director (1955–60) at the National Broadcasting Compan...

Alliance for Progress

(Encyclopedia)Alliance for Progress, Span. Alianza para el Progreso, U.S. assistance program for Latin America begun in 1961 during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. It was created principally to counter the appea...

Scudder, Samuel Hubbard

(Encyclopedia)Scudder, Samuel Hubbard, 1837–1911, American entomologist, b. Boston, grad. Williams (B.A., 1857) and Harvard (B.S., 1862). The founder of American insect paleontology and an authority on Orthoptera...

gum tree

(Encyclopedia)gum tree, name for the eucalyptus (see myrtle) in Australia and for several other trees, e.g., the sweet gum, of the family Hamamelidaceae (witch hazel family), and the black gum or tupelo in North Am...