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alpaca

(Encyclopedia)alpaca ălpăkˈə [key], partially domesticated South American mammal, Lama pacos, of the camel family. Genetic studies show that it is a descendant of the vicuña. Although the flesh is sometimes us...

Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of

(Encyclopedia)Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of sŭfˈək [key], d. 1545, English nobleman. A member of the court of Henry VIII, he received many preferments. He was created (1513) Viscount Lisle on his betroth...

yak

(Encyclopedia)yak, bovine mammal, Bos grunniens, of the Tibet region of China and adjacent areas. It is oxlike in build, with short, thick legs, humped shoulders, large upcurved horns, and a thick coat that hangs d...

Johns, Jasper

(Encyclopedia)Johns, Jasper, 1930–, American artist, b. Augusta, Ga. Influenced by Marcel Duchamp in the mid-1950s, Johns attempted to transform common objects into art by placing them in an art context. Along wi...

Prescott, William Hickling

(Encyclopedia)Prescott, William Hickling, 1796–1859, American historian, b. Salem, Mass. He entered his father's law office, but was compelled by a serious eye injury to abandon law. He received medical attention...

logic

(Encyclopedia)logic, the systematic study of valid inference. A distinction is drawn between logical validity and truth. Validity merely refers to formal properties of the process of inference. Thus, a conclusion w...

Freemasonry

(Encyclopedia)Freemasonry, teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Because of its identification with 19th-cent...

biogenetic law

(Encyclopedia)biogenetic law, in biology, a law stating that the earlier stages of embryos of species advanced in the evolutionary process, such as humans, resemble the embryos of ancestral species, such as fish. T...

Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich

(Encyclopedia)Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich tŏlˈstoi, Rus. əlyĭksyāˈ kənstəntyēˈnəvĭch təlstoiˈ [key], 1817–75, Russian poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was a distant cousin of Leo Tolstoy. Toge...

Yourcenar, Marguerite

(Encyclopedia)Yourcenar, Marguerite märgərētˈ yo͞orsənärˈ [key], 1903–87, French writer, b. Belgium as Marguerite de Crayencour. The first woman elected (1980) to the prestigious French Academy, Yourcenar...