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fantasy: imaginative fiction dependent for effect on strangeness of setting (such as other worlds or times) and of characters (such as supernatural or unnatural beings). Examples include William Shakespeare's A Midsummer ...
Fante: people of the southern coast of Ghana between Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi. They speak a dialect of Akan, a language of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Oral tradition ...
Fante confederacy: historical group of states in what is now southern Ghana. It originated in the late 17th century when Fante people from overpopulated Mankessim, northeast of Cape Coast, settled vacant areas ...
Fanti, Manfredo: one of the most capable patriot generals during the mid-19th-century wars of Italian independence; he helped the northern Italian house of Sardinia-Piedmont consolidate Italy under its leadership.
Fantin-Latour, Henri: French painter, printmaker, and illustrator noted for his still lifes with flowers and his portraits, especially group compositions, of contemporary French celebrities in the arts.
fanwort: any of about seven species of aquatic flowering plants constituting the genus Cabomba, of the fanwort or water-shield family (Cabombaceae), native to the New World tropics and subtropics. Water shield ...
Far Eastern Economic Review: former weekly news magazine covering general, political, and business and financial news of East and Southeast Asia. It was published in Hong Kong, where it was established in 1946. The ...
Far Eastern Republic: nominally independent state formed by Soviet Russia in eastern Siberia in 1920 and absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1922. At the time of the Far Eastern Republic's creation, the ...
Far'ah, Tall al-: ancient site in southwestern Palestine, located on the Wadi Ghazzah near Tall al-'Ajjul, in modern Israel. The site was excavated between 1928 and 1930 by British archaeologists in Egypt under ...
Farabi, al-: Muslim philosopher, one of the preeminent thinkers of medieval Islam. He was regarded in the Arab world as the greatest philosophical authority after Aristotle.
farad: unit of electrical capacitance (ability to hold an electric charge), in the metre-kilogram-second system of physical units, named in honour of the English scientist Michael Faraday. The capacitance of a ...
faraday: unit of electricity, used in the study of electrochemical reactions and equal to the amount of electric charge that liberates one gram equivalent of any ion from an electrolytic solution. ...
Faraday effect: in physics, the rotation of the plane of polarization (plane of vibration) of a light beam by a magnetic field. Michael Faraday, an English scientist, first observed the effect in ...
Faraday's law of induction: in physics, a quantitative relationship between a changing magnetic field and the electric field created by the change, developed on the basis of experimental observations made in 1831 by the ...
Faraday's laws of electrolysis: in chemistry, quantitative laws used to express magnitudes of electrolytic effects, first described by the English scientist Michael Faraday in 1833. The laws state that (1) the amount of chemical ...
Faraday, Michael: English physicist and chemist whose many experiments contributed greatly to the understanding of electromagnetism.
Farah: town, southwestern Afghanistan, on the Farah River. Usually identified with the ancient town of Phrada, it was once a centre of agriculture and commerce until destroyed by the Mongols in ...
Farah River: river in western Afghanistan, rising on the southern slopes of the Band-e Bayan Range, flowing southwest past the town of Farah, and emptying into the Helmand (Sistan) swamps on the ...
Farah, Nuruddin: Somali writer whose rich imagination and refreshing and often fortuitous use of his adopted language made him the most significant Somali writer in any European language.
Faraj: 26th Mamluk ruler of Egypt and Syria; his reign was marked by a loss of internal control of the Mamluk kingdom, whose rulers were descendants of slaves. Faraj was the ...
Faranah: town, central Guinea, western Africa. The town is located on the Niger River and was founded in the 1890s as a French outpost in the campaign against Samory Toure, the ...
farandole: lively and popular chain dance of Provence and Catalonia. It was mentioned as early as the 14th century and, according to tradition, was taken to Marseille from Greece by Phoenician ...
Farazdaq, al-: Arab poet famous for his satires in a period when poetry was still a political instrument. With his rival Jarir, he represents the transitional period between Bedouin traditional culture and ...
FARC: Marxist guerilla organization in Colombia. Formed in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, the FARC is the largest of Colombia's rebel groups, estimated to possess some ...
farce: a comic dramatic piece that uses highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant exaggeration, and violent horseplay. The term also refers to the class or form of drama made up of ...
Fard, Wallace D.: Mecca-born founder of the Nation of Islam (sometimes called Black Muslim) movement in the United States.
Fardd, Eben: Welsh-language poet, the last of the 19th-century bards to contribute works of genuine poetic distinction to the eisteddfods (poetic competitions).
Fareham: town and borough (district), county of Hampshire, England, at the head of a creek opening into the northwestern corner of Portsmouth Harbour. The district embraces the market town of Fareham ...
Farel, Guillaume: Reformer and preacher primarily responsible for introducing the Reformation to French-speaking Switzerland, where his efforts led to John Calvin's establishment of the Reformed church in Geneva.
Fares, Nabile: Kabylian novelist and poet known for his abstruse, poetic, and dreamlike style. Rebellion against the established religious traditions and the newly formed conventions of Algeria since independence is central to ...
Fargo: city, seat (1873) of Cass county, southeastern North Dakota, U.S. It lies on the Red River of the North, opposite Moorhead, Minnesota, and is North Dakota's largest city. Founded in ...
Fargo, William George: pioneer American businessman, one of the founders of Wells, Fargo & Company.
Fargue, Leon-Paul: French poet and essayist whose work spanned numerous literary movements.
Fari'ah, Tall al-: ancient site in northern Palestine, located near the head of the Wadi al-Fari'ah northeast of Nabulus in Israeli-occupied Jordan. Excavations at the site, spon sored since 1946 by the Dominican ...
Faribault: city, seat of Rice county, southeastern Minnesota, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Cannon and Straight rivers, in a mixed-farming and lake area, about 50 miles (80 km) ...
Faridabad: town, southeastern Haryana state, northwestern India, connected by road with Delhi (north) and Mathura (southeast). It is a local market for wheat, sugarcane, and cotton. Founded in 1607 by Shaikh ...
Faridkot: town, southwestern Punjab state, northwestern India, 70 miles (116 km) southwest of Ludhiana town. It was founded by Bhallan of the Burai Jat (a warrior community of northern India) during ...
Faridpur: city, central Bangladesh, on the west bank of the Mara (Dead) Padma stream, a tributary of the Padma. It serves as a rail terminus for the branch line connecting Goalundo ...
Farim: town, north central Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, on the Rio Cacheu. It is a market centre for the agricultural products of the interior; peanut (groundnut) cultivation, concentrated around the town, is ...
Farina, Giuseppe: Italian automobile racing driver who was the first to win the world driving championship according to the modern point system.
Farina, Richard; and Farina, Mimi: American husband-and-wife folksinging duo who were significant figures in the folk music revival of the 1960s. Richard, also a novelist, was killed in a motorcycle accident just after the publication ...
Farinacci, Prospero: Italian jurist whose Praxis et Theorica Criminalis (1616) was the strongest influence on penology in Roman-law countries until the reforms of the criminologist-economist Cesare Beccaria (1738-94). The ...
Farinacci, Roberto: radical Italian politician and Fascist ras, or local party boss, who helped Benito Mussolini rise to power in 1922 and who became an important figure in the Fascist regime.
Farinati, Paolo: Italian painter, engraver, and architect, one of the leading 16th-century painters at Verona.
Farinelli: celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. He adopted the surname of his benefactors, the brothers Farina.
Farini, Luigi Carlo: Italian, physician, historian, and statesman of the Risorgimento who did much to bring central Italy into union with the north.
Farjeon, Eleanor: English writer for children whose magical but unsentimental tales, which often mock the behaviour of adults, earned her a revered place in many British nurseries.
Farley, Harriet: American writer and editor, remembered largely for her stewardship of the Lowell Offering, a literary magazine published by women at the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Farley, James A: U.S. politician who engineered electoral triumphs for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Farley served as postmaster general until breaking with Roosevelt in 1940 to make his own bid for the presidency.
Farlovian Stage: division of the Old Red Sandstone of the Devonian Period of western Europe (the Devonian Period began about 395,000,000 years ago and lasted about 50,000,000 years); the Farlovian Stage follows ...
Farlow, William Gilson: mycologist and plant pathologist who pioneered investigations in plant pathology; his course in this subject was the first taught in the United States.
farm building: any of the structures used in farming operations, which may include buildings to house families and workers, as well as livestock, machinery, and crops.
farm machinery: mechanical devices, including tractors and implements, used in farming to save labour. Farm machines include a great variety of devices with a wide range of complexity: from simple hand-held implements ...
farm management: making and implementing of the decisions involved in organizing and operating a farm for maximum production and profit. Farm management draws on agricultural economics for information on prices, markets, agricultural ...
Farman, Henri: French aviator and aircraft constructor who developed ailerons for lateral control, an innovation that subsequently came into general use on all planes.
Farman, Maurice: French aircraft designer and manufacturer who contributed greatly to early aviation.
Farmer's Almanac: American annual journal containing weather prognostications, planting schedules, astronomical tables, astrological lore, recipes, anecdotes, and sundry pleasantries of rural interest, first published by Robert B. Thomas in 1792 for the ...
Farmer's Law: Byzantine legal code drawn up in the 8th century AD, probably during the reign of Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741), which focused largely on matters concerning the peasantry and ...
farmer's lung: a pulmonary disorder that results from the development of hypersensitivity to inhaled dust from moldy hay or other fodder. Its symptoms include a sudden onset of breathlessness, fever, a rapid ...
Farmer, Fannie Merritt: American cookery expert, originator of what is today the renowned Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
Farmer, James: American civil rights activist who, as a leader of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), helped shape the civil rights movement through his nonviolent activism and organizing of sit-ins and ...
Farmer-Labor Party: in U.S. history (1918-44), a minor political party of Minnesotan small farmers and urban workers, which supported Robert M. La Follette in the 1924 presidential election and Franklin D. Roosevelt ...
farming: the practice of agriculture (q.v.). See also agricultural economics.
Farmington: town, seat (1838) of Franklin county, west-central Maine, U.S. It lies along the Sandy River 38 miles (61 km) northwest of Augusta. The town includes the communities of Farmington, Farmington ...
Farmington: town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S., on the Farmington River. Early settlement centred on the plantation of Tunxis (Tunxes; settled 1640), which was renamed for Farmington, England, and incorporated ...
Farmington: city, San Juan county, northwestern New Mexico, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the San Juan, Animas, and La Plata rivers. Settled in 1876, when Indian lands were opened ...
Farmington River: river, western Liberia. It is Liberia's only river of commercial importance. It rises in the Bong Range and flows south-southwest for 75 miles (120 km) to the Atlantic coast at ...
Farnaby, Giles: English composer of virginal music and madrigals who ranks with the greatest keyboard composers of his day.
Farne Islands: group of islets and reefs lying 1.5 to 6 miles (2.5 to 10 km) off the North Sea coast of Great Britain in the administrative and historic county of Northumberland, ...
Farnese Family: an Italian family that ruled the duchy of Parma and Piacenza from 1545 to 1731. Originating in upper Lazio, the family soon became noted through its statesmen and its soldiers, ...
Farnese, Alessandro, Duke di Parma e Piacenza: regent of the Netherlands (1578-92) for Philip II, the Habsburg king of Spain. He was primarily responsible for maintaining Spanish control there and for perpetuating Roman Catholicism in the southern ...
Farnese, Palazzo: Rome, important example of High Renaissance architecture designed by Antonio da Sangallo and built between 1517 and 1589. In 1546, when Sangallo died, leaving the building of the palace unfinished, ...
Farnese, Teatro: Italian Baroque theatre at Parma, Italy, the prototype of the modern playhouse and the first surviving theatre with a permanent proscenium arch. Construction on the Teatro Farnese was begun in ...
Farnham, Eliza Wood Burhans: American reformer and writer, an early advocate of the importance of rehabilitation as a focus of prison internment.
Farnsworth, Philo Taylor: American pioneer in the development of television.
Faro: southernmost city of Portugal, lying on the Atlantic coast near Cape Santa Maria. Held by the Moors from early in the 8th century until 1249, when it was recaptured by ...