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Cacops ... Cahors

Cacops: extinct amphibian genus found as fossils in Early Permian rocks in North America (the Early Permian Epoch lasted from 286 to 258 million years ago). Cacops reached a length of ...
cactus: dicotyledonous (characterized by two seed leaves) flowering plants belonging to the family Cactaceae, of the order Caryophyllales. (Some authorities place the cacti in a separate order, Cactales, with a single ...
Cacus and Caca: in Roman religion, brother and sister, respectively, originally fire deities of the early Roman settlement on the Palatine Hill, where "Cacus' stairs" were later situated. The Roman poet Virgil described ...
Cadalso y Vazquez, Jose de: Spanish writer famous for his Cartas marruecas (1793; "Moroccan Letters"), in which a Moorish traveler in Spain makes penetrating criticisms of Spanish life. Educated in Madrid, Cadalso traveled widely and, ...
Cadbury, George: English businessman and social reformer who, with his elder brother, Richard, took over their father's failing enterprise (April 1861) and built it into the highly prosperous Cadbury Brothers cocoa- and ...
caddisfly: any of the mothlike aquatic insects that constitute the order Trichoptera. The adult, attracted to light at night, often lives near lakes or rivers. Because fish feed on immature, aquatic ...
Caddo: one of a confederacy of tribes of North American Indians that composed the Caddoan linguistic family. The Caddo proper originally occupied the lower Red River area in what are now ...
caddy: container for tea. A corrupt form of the Malay kati, a weight of a little more than a pound (or about half a kilogram), the word was ...
Cade, Jack: leader of a major rebellion (1450) against the government of King Henry VI of England; although the uprising was suppressed, it contributed to the breakdown of royal authority that led ...
cadence: in music, formula signifying the end of a phrase or half-phrase, section, or entire composition. The concept of cadence implies broadly acknowledged conventions, especially of a harmonic nature, conveying a ...
cadenza: (Italian: "cadence"), unaccompanied bravura passage introduced at or near the close of a movement of a composition and serving as a brilliant climax, particularly in solo concerti of a virtuoso ...
Cadillac: city, seat (1869) of Wexford county, northwestern lower Michigan, U.S., on the shores of Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell (linked by a canal), 97 miles (156 km) north of Grand Rapids. ...
Cadillac, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe: French soldier, explorer, and administrator in French North America, founder of the city of Detroit (1701), and governor of Louisiana (1710 to 1716 or 1717). Going to Canada in 1683, ...
Cadiz: provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Andalusia, southwestern Spain, fronting the Mediterranean Sea (southeast) and the Atlantic Ocean (west). It was formed in 1833 from districts taken from ...
Cadiz: city, capital and principal seaport of Cadiz provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Andalusia (Spanish: Andalucia), southwestern Spain. The city is situated on a long narrow peninsula extending ...
Cadiz: chartered city and port, northern Negros Island, Philippines. It is one of five chartered cities and one of the principal ports on the island where most of the country's sugar ...
Cadiz, Bay of: small inlet of the Gulf of Cadiz on the North Atlantic Ocean. It is 7 miles (11 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) wide, indenting the coast ...
Cadiz, Gulf of: wide embayment of the Atlantic Ocean along the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, stretching about 200 miles (320 km) from Cape Saint Vincent (Portugal) to Gibraltar. At the Portuguese end-the south-facing area ...
Cadman, Charles Wakefield: one of the first American composers to become interested in the music and folklore of the American Indian.
cadmium: chemical element, metal of Group IIb, or the zinc group, of the periodic table.
cadmium poisoning: toxic effects of cadmium or its compounds on body tissues and functions. Poisoning may result from the ingestion of an acid food or drink prepared in a cadmium-lined vessel (e.g., ...
Cadmus: in Greek mythology, the son of Phoenix or Agenor (king of Phoenicia) and brother of Europa. Europa was carried off by Zeus, king of the gods, and Cadmus was sent ...
Cadogan, William Cadogan, 1st Earl: British soldier, an outstanding staff officer who was the friend and trusted colleague of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.
Cadorna, Luigi: general who completely reorganized Italy's ill-prepared army on the eve of World War I and who was chief of staff during the first 30 months of that conflict.
caduceus: staff carried by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, as a symbol of peace. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans it became the badge of heralds and ambassadors, signifying their ...
Cadwallon: British king of Gwynedd (in present north Wales) who, with the Mercian king Penda, invaded Northumbria in 632, killed the Northumbrian king Edwin in battle, and devastated the region. A ...
caecilian: any of the 155 species of the amphibian order Apodar, or Gymnophiona.
Caecilius Of Calacte: Greek rhetorician who was one of the most important critics and rhetoricians of the Augustan age.
Caecilius, Statius: Roman comic poet ranked by the literary critic Volcatius Sedigitus at the head of all Roman writers of comedy.
Caecina Alienus, Aulus: Roman general who, during the civil wars of 69, played a decisive role in making first Aulus Vitellius and then Vespasian rulers of the empire.
Caedmon: first Old English Christian poet, whose fragmentary hymn to the creation remains a symbol of the adaptation of the aristocratic-heroic Anglo-Saxon verse tradition to the expression of Christian themes. His ...
Caedmon manuscript: Old English scriptural paraphrases copied about 1000, given in 1651 to the scholar Franciscus Junius by Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh and now in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. ...
Caedwalla: king of the West Saxons, or Wessex (from 685), great-grandson of King Ceawlin. In his youth he was driven from Wessex and led the life of an outlaw and, in ...
Caelius Aurelianus: the last of the medical writers of the Western Roman Empire, usually considered the greatest Greco-Roman physician after Galen. Caelius probably practiced and taught in Rome and is now thought ...
Caelius Rufus, Marcus: politician and close friend of Cicero. He is possibly also the Rufus whom the poet Catullus accused of stealing his mistress Clodia. At her instigation Caelius, who had deserted her, ...
Caen: city, capital of Calvados departement, Basse-Normandie region, northwestern France, on the Orne River, 9 miles (14 km) from the English Channel, southwest of Le Havre. It first became important under ...
Caeneus: in Greek mythology, the son of Elatus, a Lapith. At the marriage of Pirithous, king of the Lapiths, the Centaurs (creatures part man and part horse), who were guests, attacked ...
Caere: ancient city of Etruria, about 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Rome. The English word ceremony comes from the Latin caeremonium, meaning "that which has to do ...
Caerleon: town, archaeological site, and residential suburb of Newport, Newport county borough, historic county of Monmouthshire (Sir Fynwy), Wales, on the River Usk. It was important as the Roman fortress of ...
Caernarfon: town, Gwynedd county, historic county of Caernarvonshire (Sir Gaernarfon), Wales, near the west end of the Menai Strait separating the mainland from Anglesey. A Roman fort, Segontium, was built about ...
Caernarvonshire: historic county of northwestern Wales, bordered on the north by the Irish Sea, on the east by Denbighshire, on the south by the county of Merioneth and Cardigan Bay, and ...
Caerphilly: castle town, Caerphilly county borough, historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), Wales. The town grew up outside a 13th-century castle. The still-incomplete structure was destroyed in 1270 by the Welsh prince ...
Caerphilly: county borough, southeastern Wales. The area west of the River Rhymney forms part of the historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), and the area east of the river belongs to the ...
Caesalpiniaceae: family of trees, shrubs, and rarely herbs, of the pea order (Fabales), comprising many tropical species. The largest genus within the family, Cassia, especially abundant in the Western Hemisphere, contains ...
Caesar, Gaius: grandson of the Roman emperor Augustus (reigned 27 BC-AD 14), who would probably, had he survived Augustus, have succeeded to the imperial throne.
Caesar, Julius: celebrated Roman general and statesman, the conqueror of Gaul (58-50 BC), victor in the Civil War of 49-45 BC, and dictator (46-44 BC), who was launching a series of political ...
Caesarea: ("Ruins of Caesarea"), ancient port and administrative city of Palestine, on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Israel south of Haifa. It is often referred to as Caesarea Palaestinae, or Caesarea ...
Caesarius of Arles, Saint: leading prelate of Gaul and a celebrated preacher whose opposition to the heresy of Semi-Pelagianism (q.v.) was one of the chief influences on its decline in the 6th century.
Caesarius Of Heisterbach: preacher whose ecclesiastical histories and ascetical writings made him one of the most popular authors of 13th-century Germany.
caesaropapism: political system in which the head of the state is also the head of the church and supreme judge in religious matters. The term is most frequently associated with the ...
caesura: in modern prosody, a pause within a poetic line that breaks the regularity of the metrical pattern. It is represented in scansion by the sign &dblvert;. The caesura sometimes is ...
Caetani Family: noble family of medieval origin, the so-called Anagni branch of which won political power and financial success with the election of Benedetto Caetani (c. 1235-1303) as Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303; ...
Caetano, Marcelo Jose das Neves Alves: premier of Portugal from September 1968, when he succeeded Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, until the revolution of April 1974.
Cafaggiolo majolica: Italian tin-glazed earthenware produced during the early 16th century under Medici patronage in the castle of Cafaggiolo, in Tuscany. The decoration of Cafaggiolo ware is mostly derived from other leading ...
cafe: small eating and drinking establishment, historically a coffeehouse, usually featuring a limited menu; originally these establishments served only coffee. The English term cafe, borrowed from the French, derives ultimately from ...
cafeteria: self-service restaurant in which customers select various dishes from an open-counter display. The food is usually placed on a tray, paid for at a cashier's station, and carried to a ...
Caffaro Di Caschifellone: Genoese soldier, statesman, diplomat, and crusader who wrote chronicles that are important sources for the history of the First Crusade and of 12th-century Genoa.
caffeine: nitrogenous organic compound of the alkaloid group, substances that have marked physiological effects. Caffeine occurs in tea, coffee, guarana, mate, kola nuts, and cacao.
Caffieri Family: family of French sculptors and metalworkers known for their vigorous and original works in the Rococo style.
Caffre cat: small, tabbylike cat (family Felidae) found in open and forested regions of Africa, Asia, and southern Europe. Possibly the first cat to be domesticated, the Caffre cat is somewhat larger ...
caftan: man's full-length garment of ancient Mesopotamian origin, worn throughout the Middle East. It is usually made of cotton or silk or a combination of the two.
Cagayan de Oro: city, northern Mindanao, southern Philippines. It lies along the Cagayan River near the head of Macajalar Bay. After its establishment as a mission station in the 17th century, it was ...
Cagayan River: longest stream in Luzon, Philippines. It begins its 220-mile (350-kilometre) course in a twisting pattern in the Sierra Madre in northeastern Luzon. It then flows north into a 50-mile- (80-kilometre-) ...
Cagayan Sulu: island, southwestern Sulu Sea, Philippines. With an area of 26 square miles (67 square km), it is low-lying and surrounded by 13 small islets and coral reefs. A centre of ...
Cage, John: American avant-garde composer whose inventive compositions and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced mid-20th-century music.
Cagliari: city, capital of Cagliari provincia and of the island regione of Sardinia, Italy. It lies at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Cagliari, on the south coast of the ...
Cagliostro, Alessandro, Count di: charlatan, magician, and adventurer who enjoyed enormous success in Parisian high society in the years preceding the French Revolution.
Cagney, James: American actor noted for his versatility in musicals, comedies, and crime dramas.
Caguas: town, east-central Puerto Rico. Caguas lies in the fertile Caguas valley, the largest interior valley of the island. It is linked to San Juan, the capital, by a divided highway. ...
Cahaba: historic village, Dallas county, southwest-central Alabama, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Cahaba and Alabama rivers, 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Selma. Founded in 1819 as the ...
Cahan, Abraham: journalist, reformer, and novelist who for more than 40 years served as editor of the New York Yiddish-language daily newspaper the Jewish Daily Forward (Yiddish title Forverts), which helped newly ...
Cahita: group of North American Indian tribes that inhabited the northwest coast of Mexico along the lower courses of the Sinaloa, Fuerte, Mayo, and Yaqui rivers. They spoke about 18 closely ...
Cahn, Sammy: American lyricist who, in collaboration with such composers as Saul Chaplin, Jule Styne, and Jimmy Van Heusen, wrote songs that won four Academy Awards and became number one hits for ...
Cahokia: village, St. Clair county, southwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River, opposite St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1699 by Quebec missionaries and named for a tribe of Illinois ...
Cahora Bassa: arch dam and hydroelectric facility on the Zambezi River in western Mozambique. The dam, located about 80 miles (125 km) northwest of Tete, is 560 feet (171 m) high and ...
Cahors: town, capital of Lot departement, Midi-Pyrenees region, formerly capital of Quercy province, southern France. It is situated on a rocky peninsula surrounded by the ...