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excess profits tax

(Encyclopedia)excess profits tax, levy on any profit above a standard level. Chiefly a wartime phenomenon, it is intended to increase revenue during periods of distress and to prevent businessmen from taking unfair...

Innocent V

(Encyclopedia)Innocent V, d. 1276, pope (1276), a Savoyard named Peter of Tarentaise; successor of Gregory X. He was a Dominican and studied at Paris under St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albertus Magnus. He became an e...

index number

(Encyclopedia)index number, in econometrics, a figure reflecting a change in value or quantity as compared with a standard or base. The base usually equals 100 and the index number is usually expressed as a percent...

Heister, Lorenz

(Encyclopedia)Heister, Lorenz lōˈrĕnts hīˈshtər [key], 1683–1758, German surgeon. Having studied anatomy under the famous Dutch master Frederik Ruysch (1638–1731), Heister served as an army surgeon in sev...

norm

(Encyclopedia)norm, authoritative rule or standard by which something is judged and on that basis approved or disapproved. Examples of norms include standards of right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, and truth and ...

Marsden, Gerry

(Encyclopedia)Marsden, Gerry, 1942-2021, British pop singer and bandleader, b. Liverpool, England. Marsden was the leader of ‘60s British Invasion group Gerry and t...

Lasker, Albert Davis

(Encyclopedia)Lasker, Albert Davis, 1880–1952, American advertising executive, sometimes called the founder of modern advertising, b. Freiburg, Germany. He came to the United States as an infant and entered adver...

koto

(Encyclopedia)koto kōˈtō [key], a Japanese string instrument related in structure to the zither. It consists of an elongated rectangular wooden body, strung lengthwise with 7 to 13 silk strings. The uniformly lo...

Kochanowski, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Kochanowski, Jan yän kôkhänôfˈskē [key], 1530–84, esteemed as the greatest poet of the Polish Renaissance. Kochanowski assimilated the poetic traditions of Italy and France and created new rhy...

Wood, John

(Encyclopedia)Wood, John, 1704–1754, English architect, called Wood of Bath. When he went (1727) to Bath from Yorkshire to begin his career as a road surveyor, the city was at its height as a center of fashion. W...