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  • Albury-Wadonga (New South Wales-Victoria, Australia)
    urban centre comprising twin cities on opposite sides of the Murray River and the New South Wales–Victoria border, Australia. By rail the region is about 398 miles (640 km) southwest of Sydney and nearly 186 miles (299 km) northeast of Melbourne. In 1973 the Commonwealth and the two state governme...
  • Albury-Wodonga (New South Wales-Victoria, Australia)
    urban centre comprising twin cities on opposite sides of the Murray River and the New South Wales–Victoria border, Australia. By rail the region is about 398 miles (640 km) southwest of Sydney and nearly 186 miles (299 km) northeast of Melbourne. In 1973 the Commonwealth and the two state governme...
  • Alburz Mountains (mountain range, Iran)
    major mountain range in northern Iran, 560 miles (900 km) long. The range, most broadly defined, extends in an arc eastward from the frontier with Turkmenistan southwest of the Caspian Sea to the Khorāsān region of northeastern Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea, where the range merges into the Ālādāgh, the more southerly of the two principal r...
  • albus (Roman notice board)
    in ancient Rome, a whitened board on which public notices were inscribed in black. The annals compiled by the pontifex maximus (chief priest), the annual edicts of the praetor, the lists of senators and jurors, the Acta diurna (an account of daily events), and other notices were placed on albums. From this practice is derived the present English word album, meaning a bo...
  • Albyn, Glen (valley, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    valley in the Highland council area of north-central Scotland, extending about 60 miles (97 km) from the Moray Firth at Inverness to Loch Linnhe at Fort William. It includes Lochs Ness, Oich, and Lochy. The Caledonian Canal runs through the valley....
  • ALC
    Lutheran church in North America that in 1988 merged with two other Lutheran churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ALC had resulted from the merger of three Lutheran synods in 1960: the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (Danish), the American Lutheran Church (German), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Norwegian)....
  • Alca torda (bird)
    black and white seabird of the North Atlantic, bearing a sharp, heavy, compressed beak. About 40 cm (16 inches) long, it is the largest living member of the auk family, Alcidae (order Charadriiformes), and the nearest kin to the extinct great auk. Razor-billed auks are deep divers, feeding on fish (including shellfish). They breed along North Atlantic coasts; some migrate as far...
  • Alcáçovas, Treaty of (Portugal [1479])
    ...in the region of Zamora and Toro, where he was defeated in 1476. He then sailed to France in a failed attempt to enlist the support of Louis XI, and on his return he concluded with Castile the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479), abandoning the claims of his wife. Afonso never recovered from his reverse, and during his last years his son John administered the kingdom....
  • Alcae (bird suborder)
    ...slit. 3 species; irregularly distributed in tropical and temperate rivers, lakes, and seashores; length 37–51 cm (14.5–20 inches).Suborder AlcaeLarge supraorbital grooves with intervening space narrowed to ridge; basipterygoid processes absent in adults; occipital fontanelles present; haemapophy...
  • Alcaeus (Greek poet)
    Greek lyric poet whose work was highly esteemed in the ancient world. He lived at the same time and in the same city as the poet Sappho. A collection of Alcaeus’s surviving poems in 10 books (now lost) was made by scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 2nd century bc, and he was a favourite model of the Roman lyric poet Horace (1st century ...
  • alcaic (Greek poetry)
    classical Greek poetic stanza composed of four lines of varied metrical feet, with five long syllables in the first two lines, four in the third and fourth lines, and an unaccented syllable at the beginning of the first three lines (anacrusis)....
  • Alcalá, Calle de (street, Madrid, Spain)
    one of the main thoroughfares of Madrid. It originates at the eastern edge of the Puerta del Sol (the focal point and principal square of the city) and runs northeast approximately 4 mi (6 km) through the Plaza de la Independencia and the Puerta de Alcalá (a gateway originally built in 1599 and rebuilt in 1778). A broad, tree-lined avenue, it contains government offices and banks and is th...
  • Alcalá de Guadaira (Spain)
    city, Sevilla provincia (province), in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), southwestern Spain. It is just southeast of Sevilla city, on the Guadaira River. The town is popularly known as Alcalá de los Panadero...
  • Alcalá de Henares (Spain)
    city, Madrid provincia (province) and comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), central Spain. Known under the Romans as Complutum, the city was destroyed in ad 1000 and rebuilt in 1038 by the Moors, who called it Al-Qalʿah al-Nahr. It was reconquered i...
  • Alcalá de Henares, Ordinances of (Spain [1348])
    Alfonso XI promulgated important administrative and legal reforms in the ordinances of Alcalá de Henares in 1348. Alfonso was assiduously courted by both France and England, who wished for an alliance that would give them the support of his powerful fleet, but he avoided committing himself to either party....
  • Alcalá de Henares, Universidad de (university, Madrid, Spain)
    institution of higher learning founded in 1508 at Alcalá de Henares, in the province of Madrid, and moved in 1836 to the city of Madrid....
  • Alcalá de Henares, University of (university, Madrid, Spain)
    institution of higher learning founded in 1508 at Alcalá de Henares, in the province of Madrid, and moved in 1836 to the city of Madrid....
  • Alcalá de los Panaderos (Spain)
    city, Sevilla provincia (province), in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), southwestern Spain. It is just southeast of Sevilla city, on the Guadaira River. The town is popularly known as Alcalá de los Panadero...
  • Alcalá, Ordenamiento de (Spain [1348])
    Alfonso XI promulgated important administrative and legal reforms in the ordinances of Alcalá de Henares in 1348. Alfonso was assiduously courted by both France and England, who wished for an alliance that would give them the support of his powerful fleet, but he avoided committing himself to either party....
  • Alcalá, Puerta de (gateway, Madrid, Spain)
    ...It originates at the eastern edge of the Puerta del Sol (the focal point and principal square of the city) and runs northeast approximately 4 mi (6 km) through the Plaza de la Independencia and the Puerta de Alcalá (a gateway originally built in 1599 and rebuilt in 1778). A broad, tree-lined avenue, it contains government offices and banks and is the location of the Real Academia de......
  • Alcalá Zamora, Niceto (president of Spain)
    Spanish statesman, prime minister, and president of the Second Republic (1931–36), whose attempts to moderate the policies of the various factions led eventually to his deposition and exile....
  • alcalde (Spanish official)
    (from Arabic al-qāḍī, “judge”), the administrative and judicial head of a town or village in Spain or in areas under Spanish control or influence. The title was applied to local government officials whose functions were various but always included a judicial element. Types of alcaldes were differentiated according to the specialized nature of their judicia...
  • alcalde de Zalamea, El (play by Calderón)
    ...Both plays also implicitly criticize the accepted code of honour. Calderón’s rejection of the rigid assumptions of the code of honour is evident also in his tragedies. In the famous El alcalde de Zalamea, the secrecy and the vengeance demanded by the code are rejected. This play also presents a powerful contrast between the aristocracy and the people: the degeneration of th...
  • Alcaligenes eutrophus (bacteria)
    ...degree. Carbon monoxide (CO) is oxidized to carbon dioxide by Pseudomonas carboxydovorans, and hydrogen gas (H2) is oxidized by Alcaligenes eutrophus and, to a lesser degree, by many other bacteria....
  • Alcamenes (Greek sculptor)
    sculptor and younger contemporary of Phidias, noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite of the Gardens are noteworthy. A copy of the head of his Hermes Propylaeus at Pergamum has been identified by an inscription, and he is said by the Greek travele...
  • Alcamo (Italy)
    town, northwestern Sicily, Italy, 23 miles (37 km) west-southwest of Palermo. The name comes from that of the nearby Saracen fortress, Alqamah, on Mount Bonifato. The present town was founded by the emperor Frederick II in 1233. Notable churches include the 17th-century Assunta Church and the Church of San Tomaso with an elaborate 14th-century doorway. There i...
  • Alcan Aluminium Limited (Canadian company)
    Canadian multinational company incorporated in 1928 (as Aluminium Limited) and now the largest Canadian industrial enterprise, operating in more than 100 countries. It has mining and refining operations for bauxite; smelting plants for aluminum; hydroelectric plants; fabricating plants for a wide variety of aluminum products; transportation operations; facilities for production and sale of indust...
  • Alcan Highway (highway, North America)
    road (1,523 miles [2,451 km] long) through the Yukon, connecting Dawson Creek, B.C., with Fairbanks, Alaska. It was previously called the Alaskan International Highway, the Alaska Military Highway, and the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway. It was constructed by U.S. Army engineers (March-November 1942) at a cost of $135 million as an emergency war measure to provide an overland military supply rout...
  • Alcañices, Treaty of (1297)
    Despite Dinis’s attachment to the arts of peace, Portugal was involved in strife several times during his reign. In 1297 the Treaty of Alcañices with Castile confirmed Portugal’s possession of the Algarve and provided for an alliance between Portugal and Castile. The mother of Dinis’s son, the future Afonso IV (1325–57), was Isabel, daughter of Peter III of Arago...
  • Alcántara (Spain)
    town, Cáceres provincia (province), in the Extremadura comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), western Spain, on a rock above the southern bank of the Tagus (Tajo) River just east of the Portuguese frontier. The walled town was...
  • Alcántara Bridge (bridge, Toledo, Spain)
    ...Its rocky site is traversed by narrow, winding streets, with steep gradients and rough surfaces, centring on the Plaza del Zocodover. Two bridges cross the Tagus: in the northeast is the bridge of Alcántara, at the foot of the medieval castle of San Servando, parts of which date from Roman and Moorish times; in the northwest is the bridge of San Martín, dating from the late 13th.....
  • Alcántara, Order of (Christian military order)
    major military and religious order in Spain. It was founded in 1156 or 1166 by Don Suero Fernández Barrientos and was recognized in 1177 by Pope Alexander III in a special papal bull. Its purpose was to defend Christian Spain against the Moors. In 1218 King Alfonso IX of Leon gave to the order the town of Alcántara, and during the next two centur...
  • Alcântara, Osvaldo (Cape Verdean author)
    African poet, novelist, and short-story writer, who was instrumental in the shaping of modern Cape Verdean literature....
  • Alcantarine (religious order)
    ...followers came to be called the Colettine Poor Clares, or Poor Clares of St. Colette (P.C.C.), and today are located mostly in France. The Capuchin Sisters, originating in Naples in 1538, and the Alcantarines, of 1631, are also Poor Clares of the strict observance....
  • Alcaraz carpet
    floor covering handwoven in 15th- and 16th-century Spain at Alcaraz in Murcia. These carpets use the Spanish knot on one warp. A number of 15th-century examples imitate contemporary Turkish types but differ in border details and colouring....
  • Alcasar, L. (Catholic scholar)
    Scientific exegesis was pursued on the Catholic side by scholars such as F. de Ribera (1591) and L. Alcasar (1614), who showed the way to a more satisfactory understanding of the Revelation. On the Reformed side, the Annotationes in Libros Evangeliorum (1641–50) by the jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) were so objective that some criticized them for rationalism....
  • Alcatraz, Battle of (prison escape attempt, United States)
    Scientific exegesis was pursued on the Catholic side by scholars such as F. de Ribera (1591) and L. Alcasar (1614), who showed the way to a more satisfactory understanding of the Revelation. On the Reformed side, the Annotationes in Libros Evangeliorum (1641–50) by the jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) were so objective that some criticized them for rationalism.......
  • Alcatraz Island (island, California, United States)
    rocky island in San Francisco Bay, California, U.S. The island occupies an area of 22 acres (9 hectares) and is located 1.5 miles (2 km) offshore....
  • Alcayaga, Lucila Godoy (Chilean poet)
    Chilean poet, who in 1945 became the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature....
  • Alcazaba (fort, Guadix, Spain)
    ...city. The town originated as the Acci of the Romans; its present name was corrupted from the Arabic Wādī-Ash (“River of Life”). Outstanding landmarks include the Moorish Alcazaba (fortress); the 18th-century Renaissance and Baroque cathedral built on the site of an old mosque; and the Barrio de Santiago, an adjacent locality famous for its inhabited caves excavated.....
  • Alcázar (palace, Segovia, Spain)
    The Alcázar, mention of which was recorded as early as the 12th century, commands the city from the ledge above the river. It was the fortified palace of the kings of Castile; Isabella was crowned queen there in 1474. The original building was mostly destroyed by fire in 1862 but was subsequently extensively restored....
  • alcázar (Spanish fortress)
    any of a class of fortified structures built in the 14th and 15th centuries in Spain. (The term is derived from the Arabic word al-qaṣr, meaning “castle,” or “fortress.”) As the Spanish efforts to drive out the Moors became more strenuous, the dual need for fortification and an imposing edifice became incr...
  • Alcázar (fortress, Toledo, Spain)
    ...Dating from the early 16th century is the Hospital de Santa Cruz, designed by Enrique de Egas, restored and now used for the Provincial Museum of Archaeology and Fine Arts. Construction of the Alcázar (fortress), which dominates the city, began about 1531 to a design by Alonso de Covarrubias and with a fine patio by Francisco Villalpando; it houses the Army Museum. Its defense by......
  • alcazar (Spanish fortress)
    any of a class of fortified structures built in the 14th and 15th centuries in Spain. (The term is derived from the Arabic word al-qaṣr, meaning “castle,” or “fortress.”) As the Spanish efforts to drive out the Moors became more strenuous, the dual need for fortification and an imposing edifice became incr...
  • Alcázar de San Juan (Spain)
    town, Ciudad Real provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Castile-La Mancha, central Spain. It lies on the high southern Meseta Central at 2,135 feet (650 metres) above sea level. Known to the Romans as Alces, the town was...
  • Alcázar Palace (palace, Sevilla, Spain)
    The finest survival from the Moorish period is the Alcázar Palace, which lies near the cathedral. The Alcázar was begun in 1181 under the Almohads but was continued under the Christians; like the cathedral, it exhibits both Moorish and Gothic stylistic features. A decagonal brick tower, the Torre del Oro, once part of the Alcázar’s outer fortifications, remains a striki...
  • Alcazarquivir (Morocco)
    city, northern Morocco. It lies along the Loukkos River....
  • Alcedinidae (bird)
    any of about 90 species of birds in three families, noted for their spectacular dives into water. They are worldwide in distribution but are chiefly tropical. They have large heads, long and massive bills, and compact bodies and range in length from 10 to 42 cm (4 to 16.5 inches). Their feet are small, and with a few exceptions the tail is short or medium in length. Most species...
  • Alcelaphus (mammal)
    (genus Alcelaphus), either of two swift, slender antelopes, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), found in herds on open plains and scrublands of sub-Saharan Africa. They often mingle with herds of zebras or of other antelope. Hartebeests stand about 1.2 m (4 feet) at the shoulder. Their backs slope downward from heavy forequarters to narrow hindquarters, and their long faces are accentuated...
  • Alcelaphus buselaphus (mammal)
    In one system of classification, the red hartebeest (A. buselaphus) includes such subspecies as the bubal, lelwel, tora, and Cape hartebeest. It is pale reddish brown with a lighter rump and sometimes has black on the head and legs. Lichtenstein’s hartebeest (A. lichtensteini) is pale brownish with a bright reddish brown back. Swayne’s hartebeest (A. buselaphus......
  • Alcelaphus buselaphus swaynei (mammal)
    ...It is pale reddish brown with a lighter rump and sometimes has black on the head and legs. Lichtenstein’s hartebeest (A. lichtensteini) is pale brownish with a bright reddish brown back. Swayne’s hartebeest (A. buselaphus swaynei) and the tora (A. b. tora) are listed in the Red Data Book as endangered animals....
  • Alcelaphus buselaphus tora (mammal)
    ...has black on the head and legs. Lichtenstein’s hartebeest (A. lichtensteini) is pale brownish with a bright reddish brown back. Swayne’s hartebeest (A. buselaphus swaynei) and the tora (A. b. tora) are listed in the Red Data Book as endangered animals....
  • Alcelaphus lichtensteini (mammal)
    ...hartebeest (A. buselaphus) includes such subspecies as the bubal, lelwel, tora, and Cape hartebeest. It is pale reddish brown with a lighter rump and sometimes has black on the head and legs. Lichtenstein’s hartebeest (A. lichtensteini) is pale brownish with a bright reddish brown back. Swayne’s hartebeest (A. buselaphus swaynei) and the tora (A. b. tora...
  • Alces (Spain)
    town, Ciudad Real provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Castile-La Mancha, central Spain. It lies on the high southern Meseta Central at 2,135 feet (650 metres) above sea level. Known to the Romans as Alces, the town was...
  • Alces alces (mammal)
    (Alces alces), largest member of the deer family, Cervidae (order Artiodactyla). The name moose is common in North America; the same animal is generally called elk in Europe. Moose are heavy, long-legged, short-necked ruminants, standing 1.5–2 m (5–6.5 feet) tall at the shoulder and weighing to approximately 820 kg (1,800 pounds). The back slopes downward to the hips, the tai...
  • Alces americana (mammal)
    (Alces alces), largest member of the deer family, Cervidae (order Artiodactyla). The name moose is common in North America; the same animal is generally called elk in Europe. Moose are heavy, long-legged, short-necked ruminants, standing 1.5–2 m (5–6.5 feet) tall at the shoulder and weighing to approximately 820 kg (1,800 pounds). The back slopes downward to the hips, the tai...
  • Alceste (opera by Gluck)
    ...and Iphigénie (both 1765). More significantly, during this period Gluck wrote the three Italian “reform operas” with Calzabigi, Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), Alceste (1767), and Paride ed Elena (1770)....
  • Alcestis (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, son of Pheres, king of Pherae in Thessaly. Having sued for the hand of Alcestis, the most beautiful of the daughters of Pelias, king of Iolcos in Thessaly, Admetus was first required to harness a lion and a boar to a chariot. Apollo, who, for having killed the Cyclopes, was temporarily condemned to be a slave to Admetus, befriended him and yoked the animals for Admetus, who......
  • Alcestis (play by Euripides)
    Though tragic in form, Alcestis (438 bc; Greek Alkēstis) ends happily and took the place of the satyr play that normally followed the three tragedies. King Admetus is doomed to die shortly, but he will be allowed a second life if he can find someone willing to die in his place. His wife, Alcestis, voluntarily dies in place of her husband, who sees too late that t...
  • Alchemilla (plant genus)
    any of several herbaceous perennials of the genus Alchemilla, particularly A. vulgaris, within the rose family (Rosaceae). A. vulgaris is widely distributed in Eurasia and has been introduced into North America. It grows up to 60 cm (2 feet) tall on grasslands and rocky soils. The broad leaves are borne on long stalks, have shallow, rounded lobes and toothed edges, and are abo...
  • Alchemilla vulgaris (plant species)
    any of several herbaceous perennials of the genus Alchemilla, particularly A. vulgaris, within the rose family (Rosaceae). A. vulgaris is widely distributed in Eurasia and has been introduced into North America. It grows up to 60 cm (2 feet) tall on grasslands and rocky soils. The broad leaves are borne on long stalks, have shallow, rounded lobes and toothed edges, and are......
  • Alchemist, The (play by Jonson)
    ...of the clever young gentleman who gains his uncle’s inheritance in Epicœne or the one who gains the rich Puritan widow for his wife in Bartholomew Fair. In Volpone and The Alchemist, the schemes eventually fail, but this is the fault of the manipulators, who will never stop when they are ahead, and not at all due to any insight on the part of the victim...
  • alchemy (pseudoscience)
    a form of speculative thought that, among other aims, tried to transform base metals such as lead or copper into silver or gold and to discover a cure for disease and a way of extending life....
  • Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion in China of A.D. 320, The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung (translation by Ware)
    ...relations and who severely criticizes the hedonism that characterized the Taoist individualists of his day. A partial English translation of Ko’s writings appeared in 1967 in James R. Ware’s Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion in China of A.D. 320, The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung. ...
  • Alchemy of Happiness, The (work by al-Ghazālī)
    ...versions of more sophisticated works in Arabic, but this does not always mean that the former are of lesser interest. The Kīmiya-yi saʿādat (after 1096; The Alchemy of Happiness) by the theologian and mystic al-Ghazālī, for instance, is one such work: it is a condensed version of the author’s own work in Arabic on Islamic ethic...
  • alcheringa (Australian Aboriginal mythology)
    mythological period of time that had a beginning but no foreseeable end, during which the natural environment was shaped and humanized by the actions of mythic beings. Many of these beings took the form of human beings or of animals (“totemic”); some changed their forms. They were credited with having established the local social order and its “laws.” Some, especially t...
  • Alchevsk (Ukraine)
    city, eastern Ukraine. It lies along the railway from Luhansk to Debaltseve. Alchevsk was founded in 1895 with the establishment of the Donetsko-Yuryevsky ironworks. The plant developed into a large, integrated ironworks and steelworks, which was expanded greatly in the 1950s and ’60s. The city has been a major bituminous-coal mining centre, with coke-chemical and metalwo...
  • Alchian, Armen A. (American economist)
    American economist whose teachings countered some of the popular economic theories of the late 20th century, such as those regarding labour costs or the implications of property ownership....
  • Alchian, Armen Albert (American economist)
    American economist whose teachings countered some of the popular economic theories of the late 20th century, such as those regarding labour costs or the implications of property ownership....
  • Alchymia (work by Libavius)
    Of his numerous works, all of which were noted for clear, unambiguous writing, the most important was Alchymia (1606; “Alchemy”), a work that established the tradition for 17th-century French chemistry textbooks. Although he was a firm believer in the transmutation of base metals into gold, Libavius was renowned for his vitriolic attacks against the mysticism and......
  • Alciato, Andrea (Italian lawyer and humanist)
    The father of emblem literature was the 16th-century Italian lawyer and humanist Andrea Alciato, with the Emblemata (Latin; 1531), which appeared in translation and in more than 150 editions. The Plantin press specialized in emblem literature, publishing at Antwerp in 1564 the Emblemata of the Hungarian physician and historian Johannes Sambucus; in 1565, that of the Dutch......
  • Alcibiades (Athenian politician and general)
    brilliant but unscrupulous Athenian politician and military commander who provoked the sharp political antagonisms at Athens that were the main causes of Athens’ defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 bc)....
  • Alcibiades (fictional character)
    ...with Timon’s plight, but to no avail; Timon has turned his back on ungrateful humankind. While digging for roots to eat, Timon uncovers gold, most of which he gives to Alcibiades’ mistresses and to Alcibiades himself for his war against Athens. Word of his fortune reaches Athens, and, as a variety of Athenians importune Timon again, he curses them and dies....
  • alcid (bird family)
    bird family, order Charadriiformes, which includes the birds known as auk, auklet, dovekie, guillemot, murre, murrelet, and puffin....
  • Alcidae (bird family)
    bird family, order Charadriiformes, which includes the birds known as auk, auklet, dovekie, guillemot, murre, murrelet, and puffin....
  • Alcidamas (Greek writer)
    prominent Sophist and rhetorician who taught in Athens. He was a pupil of Gorgias and a rival of Isocrates. His only extant work, Peri sōphiston (“Concerning Sophists”), stresses the superiority of extempore (though prepared) speeches over written ones. The oration attributed to him entitled Odysseus is spurious. Only fragments of his other works survive. Aristot...
  • Alcindor, Ferdinand Lewis, Jr. (American athlete)
    collegiate and professional basketball player, who as a 7-ft-1.75-in centre dominated the game throughout the 1970s and early ’80s....
  • Alcindor, Lew (American athlete)
    collegiate and professional basketball player, who as a 7-ft-1.75-in centre dominated the game throughout the 1970s and early ’80s....
  • Alcinous (Greek mythology)
    in Greek mythology, king of the Phaeacians (on the legendary island of Scheria), son of Nausithoüs, and grandson of the god Poseidon. In the Odyssey (Books VI–XIII) he entertained Odysseus, who had been cast by a storm onto the shore of the island. Scheria was identified in very early times with Corcyra, where Alcinous was revered as a...
  • Alcipe (Portuguese poet)
    Portuguese poet whose work forms a bridge between the literary periods of Arcádia and Romanticism in Portugal; her style leans toward the Romantic, but she favoured such classical forms as the ode and epithet and made many allusions to mythology and the classics. Her influential verse, translations, and letters are collected in the si...
  • Alciphron (Greek rhetorician)
    rhetorician who wrote a collection of fictitious letters, a form of literature popular in his day. About 120 letters have survived. The background of them all is Athens in the 4th century bc, and the imaginary writers are farmers, fishermen, parasites (stock comic figures known for living off others), and hetairai (highly cultivated courtesans). The material of the letters is largely...
  • Alciphron; or, The Minute Philosopher (work by Berkeley)
    Alciphron; or, The Minute Philosopher (1732) was written at Newport, and the setting of the dialogues reflects local scenes and scenery. It is a massive defense of theism and Christianity with attacks on deists and freethinkers and discussions of visual language and analogical knowledge and of the functions of words in religious argument....
  • Alcippe (Greek mythology)
    Aglauros had a daughter named Alcippe by the god of war, Ares. Alcippe was raped by Halirrhothius, a son of the god of the sea, Poseidon. Ares avenged the act and was tried before the gods on the Athens hill that later was named after him, the Areopagus. That place became the site of Athens’s criminal trials....
  • Alcippe (Portuguese poet)
    Portuguese poet whose work forms a bridge between the literary periods of Arcádia and Romanticism in Portugal; her style leans toward the Romantic, but she favoured such classical forms as the ode and epithet and made many allusions to mythology and the classics. Her influential verse, translations, and letters are collected in the si...
  • Alcira (Spain)
    city, Valencia provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Valencia, eastern Spain. It lies in the Ribera district, south of the city of Valencia. It originated as the Iberian settlement of Algezira Sucro (“Island of Sucro”), so...
  • Alcithoë (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, the daughter of Minyas of Orchomenus, in Boeotia. She and her sisters once refused to participate in Dionysiac festivities, remaining at home spinning and weaving. Late in the day Dionysiac music clanged about them, the house was filled with fire and smoke, and the sisters were metamorphosed into bats and birds. According to Plutarch, the sisters, driven mad for their impiety, cas...
  • alclad (metallurgy)
    laminated metal produced in sheets composed of a Duralumin core and outer layers of aluminum....
  • ALCM
    ...guided by an inertial navigation system that was updated during flight by a technique called Tercom (terrain contour matching), using contour maps stored in the system’s computerized memory. The air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) had a length of 6.3 m (20.7 feet); it attained a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles). It was designed for deployment on the B-52 bomber. The Tomahawk sea-launched.....
  • Alcmaeon (Greek philosopher and physiologist)
    Greek philosopher and physiologist of the academy at Croton (now Crotone, southern Italy), the first person recorded to have practiced dissection of human bodies for research purposes. He may also have been the first to attempt vivisection. Alcmaeon inferred that the brain was the centre of intelligence and that the soul was the source of life. Applying the Pythagorean principle of cosmic harmony ...
  • Alcmaeon (Greek poet)
    Greek poet who wrote choral lyrics in a type of Doric related to the Laconian vernacular, used in the region that included Sparta....
  • Alcmaeon (Athenian exile)
    ...was grandson to that Megacles who directed the slaughter of Cylon and his supporters on the Acropolis (612 bc). That bloody act resulted in the banishment of his family. The elder Megacles’ son Alcmaeon may have taken refuge at this time in Sicyon under Cleisthenes’ protection. That tyrant’s daughter Agariste was married to Alcmaeon’s son Megacles, who ...
  • Alcmaeon (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, the son of the seer Amphiaraus and his wife Eriphyle. When Amphiaraus set out with the expedition of the Seven Against Thebes, which he knew would be fatal to him, he commanded his sons to avenge his death by slaying Eriphyle (who had been bribed by Polyneices with the necklace of Harmonia to persuade her husband to fight) and by undertaking a second expedition ...
  • Alcmaeonid family (ancient Greek dynasty)
    a powerful Athenian family, claiming descent from the legendary Alcmaeon, that was important in 5th- and 6th-century-bc politics. During the archonship of one of its members, Megacles (632? bc), a certain Cylon failed in an attempt to make himself tyrant, and his followers were slain at an altar sanctuary. Accused of sacrilege and murder, the Alcmaeon...
  • Alcman (Greek poet)
    Greek poet who wrote choral lyrics in a type of Doric related to the Laconian vernacular, used in the region that included Sparta....
  • Alcmene (Greek mythology)
    in Greek mythology, a friend (or servant) of Alcmene, the mother of Zeus’s son Heracles (Hercules). When Alcmene was in labour, Zeus’s jealous wife, Hera, sent her daughter Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to sit outside Alcmene’s bedroom with her legs crossed and held together by both hands with intertwined fingers—thus by magic delaying the delivery in order to ...
  • Alcmeon (Greek philosopher and physiologist)
    Greek philosopher and physiologist of the academy at Croton (now Crotone, southern Italy), the first person recorded to have practiced dissection of human bodies for research purposes. He may also have been the first to attempt vivisection. Alcmaeon inferred that the brain was the centre of intelligence and that the soul was the source of life. Applying the Pythagorean principle of cosmic harmony ...
  • Alcmeon (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, the son of the seer Amphiaraus and his wife Eriphyle. When Amphiaraus set out with the expedition of the Seven Against Thebes, which he knew would be fatal to him, he commanded his sons to avenge his death by slaying Eriphyle (who had been bribed by Polyneices with the necklace of Harmonia to persuade her husband to fight) and by undertaking a second expedition ...
  • Alcoa (Tennessee, United States)
    city, Blount county, eastern Tennessee, U.S., about 15 miles (25 km) south of Knoxville and adjacent to Maryville. The city is a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which lies to the southeast. It was founded in 1913 by the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) on a tract of land known as North Maryville. In 1910...
  • Alcoa (American company)
    (Alcoa), American corporation founded in 1888 (as the Pittsburgh Reduction Company) and now a leading producer of aluminum. Its operations range from mining bauxite and other ores to smelting and processing aluminum, fabricating aluminum products, and marketing and shipping. It has majority ownership of Alcoa of Australia Limited, a leading producer of aluminum oxide (alumina). It has foreign ope...
  • Alcoa case (United States [1945])
    Because several Supreme Court justices disqualified themselves, Hand’s court rendered the final decision (1945) in a major antitrust suit against the Aluminum Company of America (usually called the Alcoa case). After a trial lasting four years, Hand wrote for the court an opinion rejecting the “rule of reason” that the Supreme Court had applied in antitrust cases since 1911. H...
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