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gaur: (Bos gaurus), one of several species of wild cattle, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla). The gaur lives in small herds in the mountain forests of India, Southeast Asia, and the Malay ...
gauss: unit of magnetic induction in the centimetre-gram-second system of physical units. One gauss corresponds to the magnetic flux density that will induce an electromotive force of one abvolt (10^-8 volt) ...
Gauss elimination: in linear and multilinear algebra, a process for finding the solutions of a system of simultaneous linear equations by first solving one of the equations for one variable (in terms ...
Gauss's law: either of two statements describing electric and magnetic fluxes. Gauss's law for electricity states that the electric flux across any closed surface is proportional to the net electric charge enclosed ...
Gauss, Carl Friedrich: German mathematician, generally regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time for his contributions to number theory, geometry, probability theory, geodesy, planetary astronomy, the theory of functions, and ...
Gauteng: province, northeastern South Africa. It consists of the cities of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Germiston, and Vereeniging and their surrounding metropolitan areas in the eastern part of the Witwatersrand region. Gauteng is ...
Gauthey, Emiland-Marie: French engineer, best known for his construction of the Charolais Canal, or Canal du Centre, which united the Loire and Saone rivers in France, thus providing a water route from ...
Gautier D'arras: author of early French romances. He lacked the skill and profundity of his contemporary, Chretien de Troyes, but his work, emphasizing human action and its psychological foundations, exercized an important ...
Gautier De Metz: also known as Gauthier De Mes En Loherains French poet and priest who is usually credited with the authorship of a treatise about the universe, L'Image du monde (c. 1246; ...
Gautier, Hubert: French engineer and scientist, author of the first book on bridge building.
Gautier, Leon: literary historian who revived an interest in early French literature with his translation and critical discussion of the Chanson de Roland (1872) and with his research on the chansons de ...
Gautier, Theophile: poet, novelist, critic, and journalist whose influence was strongly felt in the period of changing sensibilities in French literature-from the early Romantic period to the aestheticism and naturalism of the ...
Gautsch von Frankenthurn, Paul, Baron: statesman who served three times as Austrian prime minister.
gauze: light, open-weave fabric made of cotton when used for surgical dressings and of silk and other fibres when used for dress trimming. The name is derived from that of the ...
Gavarni, Paul: French lithographer and painter whose work is enjoyable for its polished wit, cultured observation, and the panorama it presents of the life of his time. However, his work lacks the ...
Gavarnie: mountain village and valley on the approach to the natural amphitheatre known as the Cirque de Gavarnie, in Hautes-Pyrenees departement, Midi-Pyrenees region, southwestern France. Gavarnie lies in the central Pyrenees, ...
Gavazzi, Alessandro: reformer in church and politics during the Risorgimento (Italian unification) who inveighed against the neglect of social problems and Italian unity by the papacy.
Gaveston, Piers, Earl of Cornwall: favourite of the English king Edward II. The king's inordinate love for him made him rapacious and arrogant and led to his murder by jealous barons.
gavial: (Gavialis gangeticus), long-snouted reptile that is related to alligators and crocodiles but classified as the sole species in the separate family Gavialidae (order Crocodilia). The gavial inhabits the rivers of ...
Gavin, James Maurice: U.S. Army commander known as "the jumping general" because he parachuted with combat troops during World War II.
Gavle: town and port, capital of Gavleborg lan (county), east-central Sweden, on an inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia, northwest of Stockholm. Although first mentioned in documents in the 8th century, ...
Gavleborg: lan (county), east-central Sweden, on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. It is composed of the traditional landskap (province) of Gastrikland, most of ...
gavotte: lively peasants' kissing dance that became fashionable at the 17th- and 18th-century courts of France and England. Supposedly originated by the natives of Gap (Gavots) in the southeastern French province ...
Gavrilo: original name Gavrilo Dozic, or Dozitch patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (1938-50), noted for his anti-Nazi stand and, later, for his limited accommodations with the Communists.
Gawain: hero of Arthurian legend and romance. A nephew and loyal supporter of King Arthur, Gawain appeared in the earliest Arthurian literature as a model of knightly perfection, against whom all ...
Gawler: town, South Australia, northeast of Adelaide. It lies at the confluence of the North and South Para rivers (which there form the Gawler River), at the western foot of the ...
Gawler Ranges: mountains and hills in South Australia, extending 100 mi (160 km) east-west across the northern part of Eyre Peninsula, south of Lake Gardner; in altitude they rise in the west ...
gay rights movement: civil-rights movement that advocates equal rights for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals; seeks to eliminate sodomy laws barring homosexual acts between consenting adults; and calls for an end to ...
Gay, John: English poet and dramatist, chiefly remembered as the author of The Beggar's Opera, a work distinguished by good-humoured satire and technical assurance.
Gay, Sophie: in full Marie-francoise-sophie Nichault De Lavalette Gay French writer and grande dame who wrote romantic novels and plays about upper-class French society during the early 19th century.
Gay-Lussac, Joseph-Louis: French chemist and physicist who pioneered investigations into the behaviour of gases, established new techniques for analysis, and made notable advances in applied chemistry.
Gaya: city, south-central Bihar state, northeastern India. It lies along the Phalgu River, a tributary of the Ganges. With major rail, road, and air connections, Gaya is a major centre of ...
gayal: (Bos frontalis), one of the species of true cattle, belonging to the subfamily Bovinae (order Artiodactyla) and found in northeastern India and Myanmar (Burma). Considered a domestic form of the ...
Gaye, Marvin: American soul singer-songwriter-producer who, to a large extent, ushered in the era of artist-controlled popular music of the 1970s. Gaye's father was a storefront preacher; his mother was a domestic ...
Gaylani, Rashid 'Ali al-: Iraqi lawyer and politician who was prime minister of Iraq (1933, 1940-41, 1941) and one of the most celebrated political leaders of the Arab world during his time.
Gayley, James: American metallurgist who invented a device to ensure uniform humidity in the air stream going into blast furnaces.
gaylussite: a carbonate mineral, hydrated sodium and calcium carbonate [formulated Na₂Ca(CO₃)₂·5H₂O], that precipitates from soda lakes. It has been identified in deposits at Lagunillas, Venezuela; in the eastern Gobi (desert), Mongolia; ...
Gayomart: in later Zoroastrian creation literature, the first man, and the progenitor of mankind. Gayomart's spirit, with that of the primeval ox, lived for 3,000 years during the period in which ...
Gaza: city and principal urban centre of the Gaza Strip, southwestern Palestine. Formerly the administrative headquarters for the Israeli military forces that occupied the Gaza Strip, the city came under Palestinian ...
Gaza: kingdom established in the highlands of the middle Sabi River in Mozambique in the 1830s by Soshangane, the Ndwandwe general who fled from Zululand after his defeat at the hands ...
Gaza Strip: territory occupying 140 square miles (363 square km) along the Mediterranean Sea just northeast of the Sinai Peninsula. The Gaza Strip is unusual in being a densely settled area not ...
Gazankulu: former nonindependent black state, northeastern Transvaal, South Africa, designated for the Shangaan and Tsonga people. It was made up of four detached portions of low veld, two of which adjoined ...
gazebo: lookout or belvedere in the form of a turret, cupola, or garden house set on a height to give an extensive view. The name is an 18th-century joke word combining ...
gazelle: any of the numerous antelopes of the genus Gazella, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla). Graceful in build and small to medium in size, gazelles range in herds that usually contain about ...
Gazelle Peninsula: peninsula extending northeast from the island of New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, southwestern Pacific. It is about 50 miles (80 km) wide but tapers to 20 miles (32 ...
gazette: originally, a newssheet containing an abstract of current events, the forerunner of the modern newspaper. The word is derived from the Italian gazzetta, a name given to ...
Gaziantep: city, south-central Turkey. It is situated near the Sacirsuyu, a tributary of the Euphrates River, in limestone hills north of Aleppo, Syria.
gazpacho: cold soup of Spanish cuisine, especially that of Andalusia. It is an ancient dish mentioned in Greek and Roman literature, although two of the main ingredients of the modern version, ...
Gbarnga: city, north-central Liberia, West Africa, at the intersection of roads from Monrovia and northern Sierra Leone. A rural administrative and local trade centre, it has government and church secondary schools, ...
Gbaya: a people of southwestern Central African Republic, east-central Cameroon, northern Congo (Brazzaville), and northwestern Congo (Kinshasa). Numbering about 970,000 at the end of the 20th century, they speak a language ...
gcod: esoteric Tibetan Buddhist rite that aims at "cutting off" the human ego and thus destroying the illusion of duality between samsara (the world of appearances and of death and rebirth) ...
Gdansk: city, capital of Pomorskie wojewodztwo (province), north-central Poland, situated at the mouth of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea.
Gdansk, Gulf of: southern inlet of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Poland on the west, south, and southeast and by Kaliningrad oblast (province) of Russia on the east. The gulf extends 40 miles ...
gdei: son and successor of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (d. 1227), who greatly expanded the Mongol Empire.
Gdynia: city, Pomorskie wojewodztwo (province), north-central Poland. It lies along the Gulf of Gdansk, just northwest of Gdansk city.
Ge: South American Indian peoples who speak languages of the Macro-Ge group. They inhabit eastern and southern Brazil and part of northern Paraguay. The Ge peoples include the Northwestern Ge (Timbira, ...
Ge kiln: kiln known for the wares it produced during the early Song dynasty (960-1162), probably in the Zhejiang province in China. Scholars are uncertain of the kiln's exact location. Legends recorded ...
Ge languages: a group of about 10 South American Indian languages that extend through inland eastern Brazil as far as the Uruguayan border. Most linguists classify the Ge languages with a number ...
Ge'ez language: liturgical language of the Ethiopian church. Ge'ez is a Semitic language of the Southern Peripheral group, to which also belong the South Arabic dialects and Amharic, one of the principal ...
gear: machine component consisting of a toothed wheel attached to a rotating shaft. Gears operate in pairs to transmit and modify rotary motion and torque (turning force) without slip, the teeth ...
Geb: in ancient Egyptian religion, the god of the earth, the physical support of the world. Geb constituted, along with Nut (q.v.), his sister, the second generation in the Ennead (group ...
Geber: unknown author of several books that were among the most influential works on alchemy and metallurgy during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Gebrauchsmusik: music intended, by virtue of its simplicity of technique and style, primarily for performance by the talented amateur rather than the virtuoso. Gebrauchsmusik is, in fact, a modern reaction against ...
gecko: any lizard of the harmless but noisy family Gekkonidae, which contains about 80 genera and about 750 species. Geckos are small, usually nocturnal reptiles with a soft skin, a short, ...
Ged, William: Scottish goldsmith who invented (1725) stereotyping, a process in which a whole page of type is cast in a single mold so that a printing plate can be made from ...
Gedaliah, fast of: a minor Jewish observance (on Tishri 3) that mournfully recalls the assassination of Gedaliah, Jewish governor of Judah and appointee of Nebuchadrezzar, the Babylonian king. Gedaliah, a supporter of Jeremiah, ...
Geddes, James: American civil engineer, lawyer, and politician who played a leading role in the construction of the Erie Canal, one of the first great engineering works in North America.
Geddes, Norman Bel: American theatrical designer whose clean, functional decors contributed substantially to the trend away from naturalism in 20th-century stage design. As an important industrial designer he helped popularize "streamlining" as a ...
Geddes, Sir Patrick: Scottish biologist and sociologist who was one of the modern pioneers of the concept of town and regional planning.
Gediminas: grand duke of Lithuania, the strongest contemporary ruler of eastern Europe.
Gedling: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, east-central England. The district takes its name from the former village of Gedling, which was engulfed in the expansion of the eastern ...
Gedrosia: historic region west of the Indus River, in what is now the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. In 325 BC Alexander the Great's forces suffered disastrous losses there from the effects ...
Gee, Kenneth: English rugby player, a member of the powerful Wigan club that won the Rugby League (RL) Challenge Cup in 1948. He was also vital as forward in Wigan's RL championship ...
Gee, Maurice: novelist best known for his realistic evocations of New Zealand life. He also wrote popular books for juveniles.
Geel: commune, Antwerp province, northern Belgium, in the Kempenland (Campine) Plateau, east of Antwerp. Renowned for its unique system of family care for the mentally ill, it is linked with the ...
Geelong: second largest city of Victoria, Australia, and a major port on Corio Bay (an extension of Port Phillip Bay). Founded in 1837, its name is a derivation of the Aboriginal ...