Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Shop

0-9

Harlech ... Harris, Marvin

Harlech: castle and village, Gwynedd county, historic county of Merioneth (Meirionnydd), Wales, on the coast of Cardigan Bay. In 1283, after defeating Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the English king Edward I began ...
Harlem: district of New York City, U.S., occupying a large part of northern Manhattan Island and Borough. Harlem as a neighbourhood has no fixed boundaries; it may generally be said to ...
Harlem Globetrotters: predominantly black professional U.S. basketball team that plays exhibition games all over the world, drawing crowds as large as 75,000 to see the players' spectacular ball handling and humorous antics.
Harlem Renaissance: period of outstanding literary vigour and creativity that took place in the 1920s, changing the character of literature created by black Americans, from quaint dialect works and conventional imitations of ...
Harlequin: one of the principal stock characters of the Italian commedia dell'arte; often a facile and witty gentleman's valet and a capricious swain of the serving maid. In the early years ...
harlequin beetle: large tropical American beetle with an elaborate variegated pattern of black with muted red and greenish yellow markings on its wing covers.
harlequin cabbage bug: (Murgantia histrionica), insect belonging to the stinkbug family (Pentatomidae) of the order Heteroptera. Though of tropical or subtropical origin this insect now ranges from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific ...
harlequinade: play or scene, usually in pantomime, in which Harlequin, a male character, has the principal role. Derived from the Italian commedia dell'arte, harlequinades came into vogue in early 18th-century England, ...
Harlingen: city, Cameron county, southern Texas, U.S., 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Brownsville, with which it forms an industrial-agribusiness-port complex. Founded in the early 1900s and named after Harlingen, Netherlands, ...
Harlow: new town and coextensive district, administrative and historic county of Essex, England. It was designated by British planners in 1947 as one of London's eight post-World War II new towns ...
Harlow, Jean: American actress who was the original "Blonde Bombshell." Known initially for her striking beauty and forthright sexuality, Harlow developed considerably as an actress, but she died prematurely at the height ...
Harman, Martin Coles: English financier and one of the few private individuals-particularly, one of the few persons while alive-to have his portrait on coins.
harmattan: hot, dry wind that blows from the northeast or east in the southern Sahara, mainly in winter. It usually carries large amounts of dust, which it transports hundreds of kilometres ...
harmine: hallucinogenic alkaloid found in the seed coats of a plant (Peganum harmala) of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, and also in a South American vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) from ...
Harmodius and Aristogiton: the tyrannoktonoi, or "tyrannicides," who according to popular, but erroneous, legend freed Athens from the Peisistratid tyrants. They were celebrated in drinking songs as the deliverers of the city, their ...
Harmonia: in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, according to the Theban account; in Samothrace she was the daughter of Zeus and the Pleiad Electra. She was carried off ...
harmonic analysis: mathematical procedure for describing and analyzing phenomena of a periodically recurrent nature. Many complex problems have been reduced to manageable terms by the technique of breaking complicated mathematical curves into ...
harmonic construction: in projective geometry, determination of a pair of points C and D that divides a line segment AB harmonically (see ), that is, internally and externally in the same ratio, ...
Harmonic Drive: mechanical speed-changing device, invented in the 1950s, that operates on a different principle from, and has capabilities beyond the scope of, conventional speed changers. It consists of a thin ring ...
harmonic function: mathematical function of two variables having the property that its value at any point is equal to the average of its values along any circle around that point, provided the ...
harmonica: either of two musical instruments, the friction-sounded glass harmonica (q.v.) and the mouth organ, a free-reed wind instrument produced by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin in 1821 as the Mundaoline. It ...
harmonium: free-reed keyboard instrument that produces sound when wind sent by foot-operated bellows through a pressure-equalizing air reservoir causes metal reeds screwed over slots in metal frames to vibrate through the ...
harmony: in music, the sound of two or more notes heard simultaneously. In practice, this broad definition can also include some instances of notes sounded one after the other. If the ...
Harmony: borough (town), Butler county, western Pennsylvania, U.S., on Connoquenessing Creek, 25 miles (40 km) north of Pittsburgh. It is known as the first settlement in America of the Harmonist Society ...
harmotome: hydrated barium aluminosilicate mineral, BaAl₂Si₆O₁₆·6H₂O, in the zeolite family. Harmotome is isostructural with the mineral phillipsite; that is, the three-dimensional structure of the aluminosilicate framework is the same in the ...
Harmsworth Cup: motorboat racing award established in 1903 by the British publisher Sir Alfred Harmsworth (later Viscount Northcliffe), the first perpetual international event in the sport. A contest between boats representing nations, ...
Harnack, Adolf von: German theologian and historian; he was recognized also for his scientific endeavours. In such seminal works as The History of Dogma (1886-89; 4th ed. 1909) and
harness: the gear or tackle other than a yoke of a draft animal (as a horse, dog, or goat). The modern harness appears to have been developed in China some time ...
harness racing: sport of driving at speed a Standardbred (q.v.) horse pulling a light two-wheeled vehicle called a sulky. Harness racing horses are of two kinds, differentiated by gait: the pacing horse, ...
Harnett, William: U.S. still-life painter who was one of the masters of trompe l'oeil painting in the 19th century.
Harney Peak: highest point (7,242 feet [2,207 metres]) in the Black Hills and in South Dakota, U.S., and the highest point in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. It is found ...
Harnosand: city and port, capital of the administrative lan (county) of Vasternorrland, northeastern Sweden, on the Gulf of Bothnia, near the mouth of Angerman Stream. It is set amid hills partly ...
Haro Strait: passage of the eastern North Pacific, lying between Vancouver and Saturna islands of the province of British Columbia, Canada (west), and San Juan and Stuart islands of the state of ...
Haro, Luis Mendez de: chief minister and favourite of King Philip IV (reigned 1621-65), who failed to stem the decline of Spanish power and prestige.
Harold I: king of England from 1035 to 1040.
Harold II: also called Harold Godwineson, or Godwinson last Anglo-Saxon king of England. A strong ruler and a skilled general, he held the crown for nine months in 1066 before he was ...
harp: stringed instrument in which the resonator, or belly, is perpendicular, or nearly so, to the plane of the strings. Each string produces one note, the gradation of string length from ...
harp seal: (Pagophilus groenlandicus, sometimes Phoca groenlandica), migratory northern seal of the family Phocidae, found in the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. The adult male is light grayish or yellowish with brown ...
Harpagus: Median general who first served Astyages, the last king of the Median Empire, but later deserted to the Achaemenid king Cyrus II.
Harper: town and Atlantic Ocean port, southeastern Liberia, West Africa. It is situated on Cape Palmas. The cape was settled (1833) by a group of North American freed slaves sponsored by ...
Harper Brothers: printers and members of a distinguished American publishing firm which exerted a significant influence on letters and politics throughout the 19th century.
Harper's Magazine: monthly magazine published in New York City, one of the oldest literary and opinion journals in the United States. It was founded in 1850 as Harper's New ...
Harper, Frances E.W.: American author, orator, and social reformer who was notable for her poetry, speeches, and essays on abolitionism, temperance, and woman suffrage.
Harper, Ida A. Husted: journalist and suffragist, remembered for her writings in the popular press for and about women and for her contributions to the documentation of the woman suffrage movement.
Harper, Michael S.: African-American poet whose sensitive, personal verse is concerned with ancestral kinship, jazz and the blues, and the separation of the races in America.
Harper, Robert Almer: American biologist who identified the details of reproduction in the development of the fungus ascospore (sexually produced spores of fungi in the class Ascomycetes).
Harper, Stephen: Canadian politician, prime minister of Canada from 2006.
Harper, William Rainey: U.S. Hebraist, who served as leader of the Chautauqua Institution and first president of the University of Chicago.
Harpers Ferry: town, Jefferson county, in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, U.S., at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, in the Blue Ridge Mountains where West Virginia, Virginia, and ...
Harpignies, Henri: French landscape painter and engraver whose finest works include watercolours showing the influence of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.
harpoon: barbed spear used to kill whales, tuna, swordfish, and other large sea creatures, formerly thrown by hand but now, in the case of whales, shot from especially constructed guns.
harpsichord: keyboard musical instrument in which strings are set in vibration by plucking. It was one of the most important keyboard instruments in European music from the 16th through the first ...
Harpur, Charles: early Australian poet whose verse, though often lacking intensity and originality, reflects a gentle and sincere personality.
Harpy: in Greco-Roman classical mythology, a fabulous creature, probably a wind spirit. The presence of harpies as tomb figures, however, makes it possible that they were also conceived of as ghosts. ...
harquebus: first gun fired from the shoulder, a smoothbore matchlock with a stock resembling that of a rifle. The harquebus was invented in Spain in the mid-15th century. It was often ...
Harran: ancient city of strategic importance, now a village, in southeastern Turkey. It lies along the Balikh River, 24 miles (38 km) southeast of Urfa. The town was located on the ...
Harrier: single-engine, "jump-jet" fighter-bomber designed to fly from combat areas and aircraft carriers and to support ground forces. It was made by Hawker Siddeley Aviation and first flew on Aug. 31, ...
harrier: any of about 11 species of hawks of the subfamily Circinae (family Accipitridae). They are plain-looking, long-legged, and long-tailed birds of slender build that cruise low over meadows and marshes ...
Harrigan, Edward: American actor, producer, and playwright, half of the comedy team of Harrigan and Hart.
Harriman, Edward Henry: American financier and railroad magnate, one of the leading builders and organizers in the era of great railroad expansion and development of the West during the late 19th century.
Harriman, Florence Jaffray: U.S. diplomat, noted for her service as U.S. minister to Norway during World War II.
Harriman, W Averell: statesman who was a leading U.S. diplomat in relations with the Soviet Union during World War II and the Cold War period following World War II.
Harrington, James: English political philosopher whose major work, The Common-wealth of Oceana (1656), was a restatement of Aristotle's theory of constitutional stability and revolution.
Harrington, William Stanhope, 1st earl of, Viscount Petersham of Petersham: British diplomat and statesman in the Walpole-Pelham era.
Harriot, Thomas: mathematician, astronomer, and investigator of the natural world.
Harris movement: largest mass movement toward Christianity in West Africa, named for the prophet William Wade Harris (c. 1850-1929), a Grebo of Liberia and a teacher-catechist in the American Episcopal mission.
Harris Treaty: (July 29, 1858), agreement that secured commercial and diplomatic privileges for the United States in Japan and constituted the basis for Western economic penetration of Japan. Negotiated by Townsend Harris, ...
Harris, Alexander: English author whose Settlers and Convicts; or, Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods (1847) is an outstanding fictional account of life in Australia.
Harris, Barbara Clementine: African American clergywoman and social activist who was the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion.
Harris, Benjamin: English bookseller and writer who was the first journalist in the British-American colonies.
Harris, Emmylou: American singer and songwriter who ranged effortlessly among folk, pop, rock, and country-and-western styles, added old-time sensibilities to popular music and sophistication to country music, and established herself as "the ...
Harris, Frank: Irish-born American journalist and man of letters best known for his unreliable autobiography, My Life and Loves, 3 vol. (1923-27), the sexual frankness of which was new for its day ...
Harris, George Washington: American humorist who combined the skill of an oral storyteller with a dramatic imagination.
Harris, Joel Chandler: American author, creator of the folk character Uncle Remus.
Harris, Louis: pollster, public-opinion analyst, and columnist. He founded Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. (1956), and LH Research (1992) and was director of the Time Magazine-Harris Poll (1969-72).
Harris, Marvin: American anthropological historian and theoretician known for his work on cultural materialism. His fieldwork in the Islas ("Islands") de la Bahia and other regions of Brazil and in Mozambique focused ...