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Joinville, Jean, sire de

(Encyclopedia)Joinville, Jean, sire de zhäN sēr də zhwăNvēlˈ [key], 1224?–1317?, French chronicler, biographer of Louis IX of France (St. Louis). As seneschal (governor) of Champagne, Joinville was a close ...

cataract

(Encyclopedia)cataract, in medicine, opacity of the lens of the eye, which impairs vision. In the young, cataracts are generally congenital or hereditary; later they are usually the result of degenerative changes b...

rainbow

(Encyclopedia)rainbow, arc showing the colors of the spectrum, violet inside and red outside, which appears when the sun shines through water droplets. It often appears while the sun is shining after a brief thunde...

curare

(Encyclopedia)curare kyo͝orärˈē [key], any of a variety of substances originally used as arrow poisons by Native South Americans in hunting and in warfare. The main active substance of curare, tubocurarine, is ...

op art

(Encyclopedia)op art ŏp [key], movement that became prominent in the United States and Europe in the mid-1960s. Deriving from abstract expressionism, op art includes paintings concerned with surface kinetics. Colo...

Eisenstaedt, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Eisenstaedt, Alfred, 1898–1995, American photographer, b. Dirschau, Germany (now Tczew, Poland). Widely considered the father of photojournalism, he began creating photo essays in Berlin during the ...

Harte, Bret

(Encyclopedia)Harte, Bret (Francis Brett Harte) härt [key], 1836–1902, American writer of short stories and humorous verse, b. Albany, N.Y. At 19 he went to California, where he tried his hand at teaching, clerk...

needle

(Encyclopedia)needle, implement of metal or other material used to carry the thread in sewing and in various forms of needlework and manufacturing. The earliest needles were merely awls or punches. Stone, bone, ivo...

Libra

(Encyclopedia)Libra lēˈbrə, līˈ– [key] [Lat.,=the scales], southern constellation lying on the ecliptic (the sun's apparent path through the heavens) between Virgo and Scorpius; it is one of the constellatio...

lobotomy

(Encyclopedia)lobotomy lōbŏtˈəmē, lə– [key], surgical procedure for cutting nerve pathways in the frontal lobes of the brain. The operation has been performed on mentally ill patients whose behavioral patte...