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escapement ... Essequibo River

escapement: in mechanics, ratchet device that permits motion in steps in one direction only; also the mechanism that causes a piano hammer to rebound after striking. In a watch or clock ...
Esch-sur-Alzette: town, southern Luxembourg, on the upper Alzette River, southwest of Luxembourg city, near the French border. A small village until 1870, it has become the second largest town in Luxembourg, ...
eschatology: the doctrine of the last things. It was originally a Western term, referring to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs about the end of history, the resurrection of the dead, the ...
escheat: in feudal English land law, the return or forfeiture to the lord of land held by his tenant. There were generally two conditions by which land would escheat: the death ...
Escher, Alfred: dominant figure in 19th-century Zurich politics and legislator of national prominence who, as a railway magnate, became a leading opponent of railway nationalization.
Escher, Hans Conrad: Swiss scientist and politician who was president of the Great Council of the Helvetic Republic (1798-99) and who was an outspoken opponent of federalism. He directed the canalization of the ...
Escher, M.C.: Dutch graphic artist who is known for his realistic, detailed prints that achieve bizarre optical and conceptual effects.
Escher, Rudolf: Dutch composer and music theoretician especially noted for his chamber works.
Eschweiler: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany, on the edge of the Eifel Mountains. First mentioned in the 9th century, it belonged to the duchy of Julich until the French ...
Escobar y Mendoza, Antonio: Spanish Jesuit preacher and moral theologian who was derided for his support of probabilism, the theory according to which when the rightness or wrongness of a course of action is ...
Escobedo, Juan de: Spanish politician, secretary to Don Juan of Austria.
Escoffier, Auguste: French culinary artist known as "the king of chefs and the chef of kings," who earned a worldwide reputation as director of the kitchens at the Savoy Hotel (1890-99) and ...
Escola Velha: (Portuguese: "Old School"), Spanish dramatists in the early 16th century who were influenced by the Portuguese dramatist Gil Vicente.
Escondido: city, San Diego county, southern California, U.S. It is situated about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of San Diego and 18 miles (29 km) inland. The area was the site ...
Escravos River: distributary of the Niger River in the western Niger delta, southern Nigeria. Its 35-mile (56-kilometre) westerly course traverses zones of mangrove swamps and coastal sand ridges before entering the Bight ...
Escriva de Balaguer, Josemaria, Saint: Spanish prelate of the Roman Catholic church, founder in 1928 of Opus Dei, a Catholic organization of laymen and priests claiming to strive to live Christian lives in their chosen ...
escrow: in Anglo-American law, an agreement, usually a written instrument, concerning an obligation between two or more parties, that gives a third party instructions that concern property put in his control ...
Escudero, Vicente: Gypsy dancer widely respected for his mastery of flamenco dance and for his adherence throughout his public career to an authentic style rarely distorted or commercialized.
Escuintla: city, southwestern Guatemala. It lies near the Guacalate River, on the southern flanks of the central highlands, at 1,109 feet (338 m) above sea level. It is located 28 miles ...
escutcheon: in furniture design, an armorial shield sometimes applied to the centre of pediments on pieces of fine furniture and, also, the metal plate that surrounds a keyhole or the pivoting ...
Esdraelon, Plain of: lowland in northern Israel, dividing the hilly areas of Galilee in the north and Samaria (in the Israeli-occupied West Bank) in the south. Esdraelon is the Greek derivation of the ...
Esdras, First Book of: apocryphal work that was included in the canon of the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible) but is not part of any modern biblical canon; it is called ...
Esdras, Second Book of: apocryphal work printed in the Vulgate and many later Roman Catholic bibles as an appendix to the New Testament. The central portion of the work (chapters 3-14), consisting of seven ...
Esen Taiji: Mongol chief who succeeded in temporarily reviving Mongol power in Central Asia by descending on China and capturing the Emperor.
Esfahan: major city of western Iran. Situated on the north bank of the Zayandeh River at an elevation of about 5,200 feet (1,600 metres), Esfahan is roughly 210 miles (340 km) ...
Esfahan carpet: floor covering handwoven in Esfahan (Isfahan), a city of central Iran that became the capital under Shah 'Abbas I at the end of the 16th century. Although accounts of European ...
Esfahan school: last great school of Persian miniature painting, at its height in the early 17th century under the patronage of the Safavid ruler Shah 'Abbas I (d. 1629). The Esfahan school's ...
Esfahan, Great Mosque of: ' ("Universal Mosque"), a complex of buildings in Esfahan, Iran, that centres on the 11th-century domed sanctuary and includes a second smaller domed chamber, built in 1088, known for its ...
Eshkol, Levi: prime minister of Israel from 1963 until his death.
Eshnunna: ancient city in the Diyala River valley lying about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Baghdad in east-central Iraq. The excavations carried out by the Oriental Institute of the University ...
Esipova, Anna: Russian pianist celebrated for her singing tone, grace, and finesse. Critics liked to contrast her playing with that of her great contemporary, the fiery Teresa Carreno.
esker: a long, narrow, winding ridge composed of stratified sand and gravel deposited by a subglacial or englacial meltwater stream. Eskers may range from 16 to 160 feet (5 to 50 ...
Eskil: archbishop who restored the unity of the Danish church and championed its independence.
Eskilstuna: town, lan (county) of Sodermanland, southeastern Sweden, on the Eskilstuna River, west of Stockholm. Although it was a trade centre as early as the 12th century, it did not receive ...
Eskimo: any member of a group of peoples who, with the closely related Aleut, constitute the chief element in the native population of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Greenland, Alaska, ...
Eskimo dog: breed of sled and hunting dog found near the Arctic Circle. It is believed by some authorities to be representative of a pure breed 25,000 to 50,000 years old and ...
Eskimo-Aleut languages: family of languages spoken in Greenland, Canada, Alaska (United States), and eastern Siberia (Russia), by the Eskimo and Aleut peoples. Aleut is a single language with two surviving dialects. Eskimo ...
Eskisehir: city, west-central Turkey. It lies along the Porsuk River, a tributary of the Sakarya River, at a point about 125 miles (200 km) west of Ankara. Lying near the site ...
Esmarch, Friedrich von: German surgeon who is best known for his contributions to military surgery, including his introduction of the use of the first-aid bandage on the battlefield.
Esmeraldas: city, major seaport of northwestern Ecuador. It lies on the Pacific coast at the mouth of the Esmeraldas River. The city is the chief trading centre for the region's agricultural ...
Esnault-Pelterie, Robert: French aviation pioneer who made important contributions to the beginnings of heavier-than-air flight in Europe.
esophageal cancer: disease characterized by the abnormal growth of cells in the esophagus, the muscular tube connecting the oral cavity with the stomach. Most esophageal cancers develop from epithelial cells lining the ...
esophagus: relatively straight muscular tube through which food passes from the pharynx to the stomach. The esophagus can contract or expand to allow for the passage of food. Anatomically, it lies ...
Esox: fish genus that includes the popular game fishes known as pike, pickerel, and muskellunge (qq.v.).
espalier: tree or other plant that is trained to grow flat against a support (such as a trellis or wall). The term also denotes the trellis or other support on which ...
Espanola Island: southernmost of the major Galapagos Islands, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 600 miles (965 km) west of Ecuador. Large seal and albatross colonies live on the island, which has ...
Espartero, Baldomero, principe de Vergara: Spanish general and statesman, victor in the First Carlist War, and regent.
esparto: either of two species of gray-green needlegrasses (Stipa tenacissima and Lygeum spartum) that are indigenous to southern Spain and northern Africa; the term also denotes the fibre produced by esparto.
Esperanto: artificial language constructed in 1887 by L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish oculist, and intended for use as an international second language. Zamenhof's Fundamento de Esperanto, published in 1905, lays down the ...
Espinel, Vicente: Spanish writer and musician remembered chiefly for his picaresque novel La vida del Escudero Marcos de Obregon (1618; "Life of Squire Marcos of Obregon"), upon which the French novelist Alain-Rene ...
Espinhaco Mountains: mountain range of Minas Gerais and Bahia states, eastern Brazil. Their peaks reach between 3,600 and 6,500 feet (1,100 and 2,000 m). With the Diamantina Upland of Bahia state; they ...
Espino, Hector: professional baseball player with the Mexican League (an affiliate with U.S. Minor League Baseball). Although virtually unknown in the United States, Espino is considered by many in Mexico to be ...
Espinosa, Pedro de: Spanish poet and editor of the anthology Flores de poetas ilustres de Espana (1605; "Flowers from the Illustrious Poets of Spain"), in which most of the important poets of Spain's ...
espionage: process of obtaining military, political, commercial, or other secret information by means of spies, secret agents, or illegal monitoring devices. Espionage is sometimes distinguished from the broader category of intelligence ...
Espiritu Santo: largest (1,420 sq mi [3,677 sq km]) and westernmost island of Vanuatu, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Volcanic in origin, it has a mountain range running along its west coast; ...
ESPN: cable television sports-broadcasting network based in Bristol, Conn., U.S. Founded in 1978, it became the country's largest cable network, carried to over 68 million homes by early 1996. Its success ...
Espoo: town, Uudenmaan laani (Uusimaa province), southern Finland, just west of Helsinki, in a region of broad, flat valleys covered with low clay hills. It is located in an area that ...
Esposito, Phil: Canadian-born U.S. professional ice hockey centre (1963-81) in the National Hockey League (NHL), who was a leading scorer in his day.
Espoz y Mina, Francisco: outstanding guerrilla leader during the Peninsular War, or Spanish War of Independence (1808-14), against the French; he later embraced the Liberal cause and played a role in various uprisings and ...
Esprito Santo: estado (state) on the east coast of Brazil. It is bounded to the north by the state of Bahia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to ...
Espronceda y Delgado, Jose de: Romantic poet and revolutionary, often called the Spanish Lord Byron.
Espy, James Pollard: American meteorologist who apparently gave the first essentially correct explanation of the thermodynamics of cloud formation and growth. He was also one of the first to use the telegraph for ...
Esquimalt: district municipality and western suburb of metropolitan Victoria, southwestern British Columbia, Canada, at the southeastern end of Vancouver Island, on Juan de Fuca Strait. The name means "place of gradually ...
Esquipulas: town, southeastern Guatemala, in the central highlands near the borders of Honduras and El Salvador at an elevation of 3,018 feet (920 m). The town itself is not large; it ...
esquire: originally, a knight's shield bearer, who would probably himself in due course be dubbed a knight; the word is derived from the Old French esquier and earlier from the Latin ...
Esquire: American monthly magazine, founded in 1933 by Arnold Gingrich. It began production as an oversized magazine for men that featured a slick, sophisticated style and drawings of scantily clad young ...
Esquirol, Jean-Etienne-Dominique: early French psychiatrist who was the first to combine precise clinical descriptions with the statistical analysis of mental illnesses.
Esref Dynasty: Turkmen dynasty (c. 1290-c. 1326) that ruled in Beysehir, west of Konya in central Anatolia.
Essad Pasa: political leader who played a prominent but often disruptive role in Albania's affairs during the early years of the 20th century.
Essaouira: Atlantic port city, western Morocco, midway between Safi and Agadir. The site was occupied by Phoenicians and then Carthaginians and was mentioned in the chronicles of the Carthaginian explorer Hanno ...
essay: an analytic, interpretative, or critical literary composition usually much shorter and less systematic and formal than a dissertation or thesis and usually dealing with its subject from a limited and ...
Essen: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. It is situated between the Rhine-Herne Canal and the Ruhr River. Essen was originally the seat of an aristocratic convent ...
Essen, Louis: English physicist who invented the quartz crystal ring clock and the first practical atomic clock. These devices were capable of measuring time more accurately than any previous clocks.
Essene: member of a religious sect or brotherhood that flourished in Palestine from about the 2nd century BC to the end of the 1st century AD. The New Testament does not ...
essential oil: highly volatile substance isolated by a physical process from an odoriferous plant of a single botanical species. The oil bears the name of the plant from which it is derived; ...
Essequibo River: river in east central Guyana, the largest river between the Amazon and the Orinoco. It rises in the Acarai Mountains on the Brazilian border and flows northward for approximately 630 ...