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horoscope: in astrology, a chart of the heavens, showing the relative positions of the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the ascendant and midheaven signs of the zodiac at a specific ...
Horowitz, Vladimir: Russian-born American virtuoso pianist in the Romantic tradition. He was celebrated for his flawless technique and an almost orchestral quality of tone. Horowitz's performances of works by Franz Liszt, Sergey ...
Horrocks, Jeremiah: British astronomer and clergyman who applied Johannes Kepler's laws of planetary motion to the Moon and whose observations of a transit of Venus (1639) are the first recorded.
horror film: motion picture calculated to cause intense repugnance, fear, or dread. Horror films may incorporate incidents of physical violence and psychological terror; they may be studies of deformed, disturbed, psychotic, or ...
horror story: a story in which the focus is on creating a feeling of fear. Such tales are of ancient origin and form a substantial part of the body of folk literature. ...
Horry: county, extreme eastern South Carolina, U.S. It is a low-lying area on the Coastal Plain bordered to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast by North Carolina, and ...
horse: a hoofed, herbivorous mammal of the family Equidae. It comprises a single species, Equus caballus, whose numerous varieties are called breeds. Before the advent of mechanized vehicles, ...
horse brass: decorative metal plaque fitted to the martingale, a set of straps attached to saddle and bridle that serve to steady a horse's head or check its upward movement. The use ...
horse chestnut: any of several trees belonging to the genus Aesculus in the horse chestnut family (Hippocastanaceae), native to the North Temperate Zone. They have palmately compound leaves and erect flower clusters, ...
horse collar: device of leather, or leather and metal, encircling a horse's neck, to which traces are attached, used to hitch the animal to a wagon or plow. A Dutch collar consists ...
horse fly: any member of the insect family Tabanidae (order Diptera), but more specifically any member of the genus Tabanus. These stout flies, as small as a housefly or as large as ...
horse latitude: either of two subtropical atmospheric high-pressure belts that encircle the Earth around latitudes 30°-35° N and 30°-35° S and that generate light winds and clear skies. Because they contain dry, ...
horse racing: sport of running horses at speed, mainly Thoroughbreds with a rider astride or Standardbreds with the horse pulling a conveyance with a driver. These two kinds of racing are called ...
horse show: exhibition of horses and horsemanship, derived from the medieval tournaments and agricultural fairs of Europe. Horse shows range from small, informal affairs to elaborate week-long displays. Horses may be classed ...
horsecar: street carriage on rails, pulled by horse or mule, introduced into New York City's Bowery in 1832 by John Mason, a bank president. The horsecar, precursor of the motorized streetcar, ...
horsehair: animal fibre obtained from the manes and tails of horses and ranging in length from 8 inches (20 cm) to 3 feet (90 cm) and most often of black colour. ...
horsehair worm: any of the approximately 250 to 300 species of the class Nematomorpha, or Gordiacea (phylum Aschelminthes). The young of these long, thin worms are parasitic in arthropods. The adults are ...
Horsehead Nebula: (catalog number IC 434), ionized-hydrogen region in the constellation Orion. The nebula consists of a cloud of ionized gas lit from within by young, hot stars; a dark cloud containing ...
horsemanship: the art of riding, handling, and training horses. Good horsemanship requires that a rider control the animal's direction, gait, and speed with maximum effectiveness and minimum efforts.
Horsens: city, Vejle amtskommune (county commune), eastern Jutland, Denmark. It lies at the head of Horsens Fjord, southwest of Arhus. Founded in the 11th or 12th century, Horsens was a fortified ...
horsepower: the common unit of power; i.e., the rate at which work is done. In the British Imperial System, one horsepower equals 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute-that is, the power ...
horseradish: (Armoracia lapathifolia), hardy perennial plant of the mustard family (Brassicaceae, or Cruciferae). Its hotly pungent, fleshy root is used as a condiment or table relish, mainly in the form of ...
horseshoe: U-shaped metal plate by which horses' hooves are protected from wear on hard or rough surfaces. Horseshoes apparently are a Roman invention; a mule's loss of its shoe is mentioned ...
horseshoe bat: any of almost 80 species of large-eared, insect-eating bats that make up the sole genus of family Rhinolophidae. Their taxonomic name refers to the large, complex nose leaf consisting of ...
horseshoe crab: any of four species of marine arthropods of the order Xiphosura (class Merostomata), found on the east coasts of Asia and North America. Despite their names, these animals are not ...
Horseshoe Falls: Canadian section of Niagara Falls (q.v.) on the Niagara River. It is separated from the American Falls by Goat Island and derives its name from its curving 3,000-foot (900-metre) crest.
horseshoe pitching: game for two or four players, most popular in the United States and Canada, in which players attempt to throw horseshoes so as to encircle a stake or to get ...
horseshoe shrimp: any member of the marine crustacean subclass Cephalocarida, named because of the curving, horseshoelike shape of the body. A few species are known, the first of which was described in ...
horseshoe worm: phylum name Phoronida, a small group of wormlike marine invertebrates that live in tubes secreted by special glands.
horsetail: (Equisetum species), plants of the genus Equisetum, 30 species of rushlike, conspicuously jointed, perennial herbs. Equisetum is the only living genus of the order Equisetales and the class Sphenopsida. Horsetails ...
Horsham: city, west central Victoria, Australia, on the Wimmera River. Proclaimed successively a borough (1882), a town (1932), and a city (1949), Horsham was named after the West Sussex hometown of ...
Horsham: town and district, administrative county of West Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England. The town serves an extensive area of the Sussex Weald as an agricultural market and shopping centre ...
Horsley, John Callcott: British narrative painter best known as the designer of the first Christmas card. Created in 1843 for Callcott's friend Sir Henry Cole, an edition of 1,000 cards was placed on ...
Horsley, Sir Victor: British physiologist and neurosurgeon who was first to remove a spinal tumour (1887). He also made valuable studies of thyroid activity, rabies prevention, and the functions of localized areas of ...
horst and graben: elongate fault blocks of the Earth's crust that have been raised and lowered, respectively, relative to their surrounding areas as a direct effect of faulting. Horsts and grabens may range ...
Horst, Louis: U.S. pianist, composer, and one of the first persons anywhere to teach choreography as a distinct discipline; known particularly for his long associations as musical director with Denishawn and Martha ...
Hort, Fenton J A: English New Testament scholar who produced, with Brooke Foss Westcott, a major critical text of the Greek New Testament. Hort was known for his theological depth and knowledge of the ...
Horta: town, on the southeastern coast of Faial Island, part of the Portuguese Azores archipelago in the North Atlantic. Founded in 1466 by the Fleming Jobst van Heurter under Portuguese royal ...
Horta, Victor, Baron: an outstanding architect of the Art Nouveau style, who ranks with Henry van de Velde and Paul Hankar as a pioneer of modern Belgian architecture.
Hortense: queen of Holland, stepdaughter of Napoleon I, and mother of Napoleon III.
Hortensia: daughter of the Roman orator Quintus Hortensius, known for her speech against the taxation of women without representation, related by Appian (Civil Wars, iv, 32-34). In 43 the triumvirate of ...
Hortensius Hortalus, Quintus: Roman orator and politician, Cicero's opponent in the Verres trial. Delivering his first speech at age 19, Hortensius became a distinguished advocate. He was leader of the bar until his ...
Hortensius, Quintus: dictator of Rome in 287 who ended two centuries of "struggle between the orders" (the plebeians' fight to gain political equality with patricians). When the plebeians, pressed by their patrician ...
Horthy, Miklos: Hungarian naval officer and conservative leader who defeated revolutionary forces in Hungary after World War I and remained the country's head of state until 1944.
horticulture: the branch of plant agriculture dealing with garden crops, generally fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. The word is derived from the Latin hortus, "garden," and colere, "to cultivate." As a ...
Horton, George Moses: African-American poet who wrote sentimental love poems and antislavery protests. He was one of the first professional black writers in America.
Horton, Robert E: American hydraulic engineer and hydrologist who established a quantitative basis for the analysis of the drainage of networks of streams. The empirical rules he discovered and set forth are generally ...
hortonolite: silicate mineral, a member of the forsterite-fayalite series (q.v.) of olivines.
Horup, Viggo: Danish politician and journalist, the leading late 19th-century advocate of parliamentary government in Denmark.
Horus: in ancient Egyptian religion, god in the form of a falcon whose eyes were the sun and the moon. Falcon cults were widespread in Egypt. At Nekhen (Greek: Hierakonpolis), however, ...
Horvath, Odon Edmund Josef von: Hungarian novelist and playwright who was one of the most promising German-language dramatists of the 1930s and one of the earliest antifascist writers in Germany.
Horvitz, H. Robert: American biologist who, with Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2002 for their discoveries about how genes regulate tissue and organ ...
Horyu Temple: Japanese Buddhist temple complex in the town of Ikaruga, northwestern Nara ken (prefecture), west-central Honshu, Japan. One of the Seven Great Temples of Nara, the Horyu is also the centre ...
hose: flexible piping designed to carry liquids or gases. Early hoses were made from leather, which was never wholly satisfactory and was supplanted in the 19th century by natural rubber. Rubber ...
Hosea, Book of: the first of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, considered as one book, The Twelve, in the Jewish canon. According to the superscription, Hosea ...
Hoshangabad: city, central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The city lies just south of the Narmada River. Founded by Sultan Hoshang Shah of Malwa in 1406, it served as a defense ...
Hoshea: in the Old Testament (2 Kings 15:30; 17:1-6), son of Elah and last king of Israel (c. 732-724 BC). He became king through a conspiracy in which his predecessor, Pekah, ...
Hoshiarpur: city, northeastern Punjab state, northwestern India. The city is a manufacturing and trade centre and a rail terminus; it also lies at a major road junction. Its industries include silk ...
hosiery: knit or woven coverings for the feet and legs designed to be worn inside shoes, particularly women's stockings and tights; also socks for men, women, and children. In Great Britain, ...
Hosius Of Cordoba: Spanish bishop of Cordoba who, as ecclesiastical adviser to Emperor Constantine I, was one of the chief defenders of orthodoxy in the West against the early Donatists (q.v.).
Hosius, Stanislaus: Polish StanisLaw Hozjusz Polish cardinal, one of the most significant figures of the Counter-Reformation.
Hoskyns, Sir Edwyn Clement, 13th Baronet: Anglican biblical scholar and theologian.
Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue: American sculptor, one of the leading female sculptors working in Rome in the 19th century and perhaps the only one to win complete financial independence through her artistic work.
Hosokawa Katsumoto: leader of a powerful military faction in medieval Japan whose dispute with Yamana Mochitoyo, the head of the powerful Yamana clan, resulted in the Onin War (1467-77). This conflict ravaged ...
Hosokawa Morihiro: founder of the reform political party Japan New Party (Nihon Shinto) and prime minister of Japan in 1993-94.
hospice: a home or hospital established to relieve the physical and emotional suffering of the dying. The term hospice dates back to the European Middle Ages, when it denoted places of ...
hospital: an institution that is built, staffed, and equipped for the diagnosis of disease; for the treatment, both medical and surgical, of the sick and the injured; and for their housing ...
Hospital, Janette Turner: Australian novelist and short-story writer who explored the political, cultural, and interpersonal boundaries that separate different peoples.
Hospitalet de Llobregat: city, Barcelona provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. It is a southwestern industrial suburb of Barcelona city and extends from the Marina Mountains to the ...
Hospitallers: a religious military order that was founded at Jerusalem in the 11th century and that, headquartered in Rome, continues its humanitarian tasks in most parts of the modern world under ...
Hostilian: Roman emperor in 251.
Hostos, Eugenio Maria de: educator and writer who was an early advocate of self-government for the island of Puerto Rico.
hot rod: privately designed and built automobile constructed along individualistic lines to provide maximum starting acceleration; it is most popular in the United States. Hot-rod competition is largely confined to acceleration contests ...
hot spring: spring with water at temperatures substantially higher than the air temperature of the surrounding region. Most hot springs discharge groundwater that is heated by shallow intrusions of magma (molten rock) ...
Hot Springs: city, seat (1882) of Fall River county, southwestern South Dakota, U.S. It lies along the Fall River in a canyon walled by red rocks, in the southern Black Hills, about ...
Hot Springs: resort, spa, city, and seat (1874) of Garland county, central Arkansas, U.S. It lies just north of the Ouachita River at the eastern edge of the Ouachita Mountains and the ...