Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Shop

0-9

carpal bone ... Carroll, John

carpal bone: any of several small angular bones that in humans make up the wrist (carpus), and in horses, cows, and other quadrupeds the "knee" of the foreleg. They correspond to the ...
carpal tunnel syndrome: a painful condition caused by repetitive flexing or stressing of the wrist over a lengthy period of time. CTS is caused by pressure on the median nerve, which carries nervous ...
Carpathian Mountains: a geologically young European mountain chain forming the eastward continuation of the Alps. From the Danube Gap, near Bratislava, Slovakia, they swing in a wide crescent-shaped arc some 900 miles ...
carpe diem: phrase used by the Roman poet Horace to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can. The sentiment has been expressed in many literatures, especially in 16th- ...
Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste: the leading French sculptor of his time. His works, expressing a rhythm and variety that were in opposition to contemporary French academic sculpture, form a prelude to the sculpture of ...
Carpentaria, Gulf of: shallow, rectangular inlet of the Arafura Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean), indenting the northern coast of Australia. Neglected for centuries, the gulf became internationally significant in the late 20th ...
carpenter bee: any of the insects of the family Xylocopidae (order Hymenoptera) found in most parts of the world. The small carpenter, Ceratina, is about six millimetres long and of metallic coloration. ...
Carpenter Gothic: style of architecture that utilized Gothic forms in domestic U.S. architecture in the mid-19th century. The houses executed in this phase of the Gothic Revival style show little awareness of ...
carpenter moth: any member of the small cosmopolitan insect family Cossidae (order Lepidoptera). Adults have vestigial mouthparts, long, thick bodies and gray to brown wings that are frequently mottled or spotted. The ...
Carpenter, Edward: English writer identified with social reform and the late 19th-century anti-industrial Arts and Crafts Movement.
Carpenter, John Alden: American composer who was prominent in the 1920s and was one of the earliest to use jazz rhythms in orchestral music.
Carpenter, M. Scott: second U.S. astronaut to make an orbital spaceflight. In Aurora 7 he made the fourth Mercury flight, circling the Earth three times on May 24, 1962. He directed part of ...
Carpenter, Mary: British philanthropist, social reformer, and founder of free schools for poor children, the "ragged schools."
Carpentier, Alejo: a leading Latin American literary figure, considered one of the best novelists of the 20th century. He was also a musicologist, an essayist, and a playwright. Among the first practitioners ...
Carpentier, Georges: French boxer who was world light-heavyweight champion (1920-22) and a European champion at four weight classes.
carpentry: the art and trade of cutting, working, and joining timber. The term includes both structural timberwork in framing and items such as doors, windows, and staircases.
carpet grass: (Axonopus affinis), mat-forming perennial grass of the family Poaceae, native to sandy soils in southeastern North America. Carpet grass reaches a height of 20-50 cm (8-20 inches). It is occasionally ...
carpet moss: any of the plants of the genus Hypnum (subclass Bryidae), which form dense green mats in many habitats throughout the world, especially on decaying wood in moist areas. A few ...
carpet moth: any of several species of small, delicate moths belonging to the insect family Geometridae (order Lepidoptera). Together with the so-called pugs and waves, the carpet moths number about 12,000 species ...
carpet shark: any of the approximately 25 species of sharks constituting the family Orectolobidae. They are found in all oceans but are concentrated in the Indo-Pacific and Australian regions. Many species are ...
carpetbagger: during the Reconstruction period (1865-77) following the American Civil War, any Northern politician or financial adventurer accused of going South to use the newly enfranchised freedmen as a means of ...
Carpi: town, Modena province, Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, north of Modena city. Carpi is distinguished by its great piazza, the largest in the region. Notable landmarks include the Renaissance town ...
Carpi, Ugo da: painter and printmaker, the first Italian practitioner of the art of the chiaroscuro woodcut, a technique involving the use of several wood blocks to make one print, each block cut ...
Carpocratian: follower of Carpocrates, a 2nd-century Christian Gnostic, i.e., a religious dualist who believed that matter was evil and the spirit good and that salvation was gained through esoteric knowledge, or ...
carpoid: member of an extinct group of unusual echinoderms (modern echinoderms include starfish, sea urchins, and sea lilies), known as fossils from rocks of Middle Cambrian to Early Devonian age (the ...
Carr, E H: British political scientist and historian specializing in modern Russian history.
Carr, Emily: painter and writer, regarded as a major Canadian artist for her paintings of western coast Indians and landscape.
Carr, John Dickson: U.S. writer of detective fiction whose work, both intellectual and macabre, is considered among the best in the genre.
Carr, Leroy: influential African-American blues singer, pianist, and composer of songs noted for their personal, original lyrics; several became long-time standards.
Carr-Saunders, Sir Alexander: sociologist, demographer, and educational administrator who, as vice chancellor of the University of London, was largely responsible for establishing several overseas university colleges, some of which became independent universities. Among ...
Carra, Carlo: one of the most influential Italian painters of the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his still lifes in the style of Metaphysical painting.
Carracci, Agostino: Italian painter and printmaker.
Carracci, Annibale: Italian painter who was influential in recovering the classicizing tradition of the High Renaissance from the affectations of Mannerism. He was the most talented of the three painters of the ...
Carracci, Lodovico: Italian painter and printmaker noted for his religious compositions and for the art academy he helped found in Bologna about 1585, which helped renew Italian art in the wake of ...
carrack porcelain: Chinese blue-and-white export pieces from the reign of the emperor Wan-li (1573-1620) during the Ming period.
Carradine, John: American actor with gaunt features and a stentorian voice who appeared in more than 200 films, often portraying villains.
Carranza, Bartolome de: Dominican theologian and archbishop of Toledo who was imprisoned for nearly 17 years by the Spanish Inquisition.
Carranza, Venustiano: a leader in the Mexican civil war following the overthrow of the dictator Porfirio Diaz. He became the first president of the new Mexican Republic. A moderate who was tainted ...
Carrara: city, Massa-Carrara provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, in north-central Italy. It lies along the Carrione River in the foothills of the Apuan Alps, just northwest of Massa and east of La ...
Carrara Family: a medieval Italian family who ruled first as feudal lords about the village of Carrara in the countryside of Padua and then as despots in the city of Padua.
Carrasquilla, Tomas: Colombian novelist and short-story writer who is best remembered for his realistic depiction of the people of his native Antioquia. His portrayal of the daily life and customs of the ...
carrel: cubicle or study for reading and literary work; the word is derived from the Middle English carole, "round dance," or "carol." The term originally referred to carrels in the north ...
Carrel, Alexis: French surgeon who received the 1912 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for developing a method of suturing blood vessels.
Carreno de Miranda, Juan: painter, considered the most important Spanish court painter of the Baroque period after Velazquez. Influenced and overshadowed both by Velazquez and Van Dyck, he was nonetheless a highly original and ...
Carreno, Teresa: celebrated Venezuelan pianist who was a player of great power and spirit, known to her public as the "Valkyrie of the piano."
Carrera, Jose Miguel: aristocratic leader in the early struggle for the independence of Chile and first president of that country.
Carrera, Rafael: dictator of Guatemala and one of the most powerful figures of 19th-century Central America.
Carrhae, Battle of: (53 BC), battle that stopped the Roman invasion of Parthian Mesopotamia by the triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus. War was precipitated by Crassus, who wanted a military reputation to balance that ...
carriage: four-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle, the final refinement of the horse-drawn passenger conveyance. Wagons were also used for this purpose, as were chariots. By the 13th century the chariot had evolved into ...
carriage of goods: in law, the transportation of goods by land, sea, or air. The relevant law governs the rights, responsibilities, liabilities, and immunities of the carrier and of the persons employing the ...
Carrick: district, administrative and historic county of Cornwall, England, encompassing a band 15 miles (24-km) wide, from the north to the south coast, across the centre of the Cornish peninsula. Dominated ...
Carrick on Suir: town, County Tipperary, Ireland, on the River Suir. Located beside the foothills of the Comeraghs and having steep, narrow streets, it is connected with its southern suburb Carrickbeg, in County ...
Carrickfergus: town and district (established 1973), formerly in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on the northern shore of Belfast Lough (inlet of the sea). The name, meaning "rock of Fergus," commemorates King ...
Carrickmacross: lace produced at Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, Ire., from 1820, with interruptions, to the end of the century. There are two varieties, applique and guipure. The former is made by drawing ...
Carrier: Athabascan-speaking Indian tribe centred in the upper branches of the Fraser River between the Coast and Rocky mountains in what is now central British Columbia. Their name derives from the ...
carrier wave: in electronics, the unmodulated single-frequency electromagnetic wave that carries the desired information-i.e., is modulated by the information. See modulation (electronics).
Carrier, Jean-Baptiste: radical democrat of the French Revolution who gained notoriety for the atrocities he committed against counterrevolutionaries at Nantes.
Carrier, Willis Haviland: American inventor and industrialist who formulated the basic theories of air conditioning. In 1902, while an engineer with the Buffalo Forge Company, Carrier designed the first system to control temperature ...
Carrier-Belleuse, Albert: notable French sculptor who in his time was Auguste Rodin's greatest rival. He produced works noted for their grace and form rather than their inventiveness, including "L'Amour et l'Amitie" (1857), ...
Carriera, Rosalba: portrait painter and miniaturist, an originator of the Rococo style in France and Italy. She is best known for her work in pastels.
Carriere, Eugene: French painter, lithographer, and sculptor known for his scenes of domestic intimacy and for his portraits of distinguished literary and artistic personalities, including his friends Alphonse Daudet, Anatole France, and ...
Carrillo y Sotomayor, Luis: Spanish poet known as the chief exponent of culteranismo, which developed from the highly ornate and rhetorical style gongorismo, originated by the poet Luis de Gongora. In Carrillo's treatise on ...
Carrillo, Julian: Mexican composer, a leading 20th-century exponent of microtonal music (i.e., music using intervals smaller than a halftone, or half step).
Carrillo, Santiago: secretary-general of the Communist Party of Spain from 1960 to 1982. He received wide publicity from his book Eurocommunismo y Estado (1977; Eurocommunism and the State), which espoused the freedom ...
Carrington, Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron, Baron Carrington Of Bulcot Lodge: secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from 1984 to 1988.
Carrington, Richard Christopher: English astronomer who, by observing the motions of sunspots, discovered the equatorial acceleration of the Sun; i.e., that it rotates faster at the equator than near the poles. He also ...
Carrio de Lavandera, Alonso: Spanish colonial administrator whose accounts of his travels from Buenos Aires to Lima are considered to be a precursor of the Spanish American novel.
carrion beetle: any of the approximately 175 species of the insect family Silphidae (order Coleoptera). The majority of these beetles feed on the bodies of dead and decaying animals, transforming them into ...
carrion flower: any of about 75 species of succulent plants of the genus Stapelia of the milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae), native to tropical areas of southern Africa. They are named for the unpleasant ...
Carrizo Mountains: segment of the Colorado Plateau, in extreme northeastern Arizona, U.S. The highest point of this extinct volcanic range is Pastora Peak (9,412 ft [2,869 m]). The arid mountains are within ...
Carroll: county, eastern New Hampshire, U.S., bordered by Lake Winnipesaukee to the southwest, the White Mountains to the northwest, and Maine to the east. Mountain ranges include the Squam and Ossipee ...
Carroll: county, northern Maryland, U.S. It consists of a piedmont region bounded by Pennsylvania to the north, the Patapsco River (north branch) and Liberty Reservoir to the southeast, the Patapsco River ...
Carroll, Anna Ella: political pamphleteer and constitutional theorist who claimed to have played a role in determining Union strategy during the American Civil War (1861-65).
Carroll, Charles: American patriot leader, longest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the only Roman Catholic to sign that document.
Carroll, Earl: American showman, theatrical producer, and director, best known for his Earl Carroll's Vanities (1922-48), which were popular revues of songs, dances, and flamboyantly costumed ladies. Over the doors of his ...
Carroll, John: first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States and the first archbishop of Baltimore. Under his leadership the Roman Catholic church became firmly established in the United States.