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megaron ... Melanesian Pidgin

megaron: in ancient Greece and the Middle East, architectural form consisting of an open porch, a vestibule, and a large hall with a central hearth and a throne. The megaron was ...
Megasthenes: ancient Greek historian and diplomat, author of an account of India, the Indica, in four books. An Ionian, he was sent by the Hellenistic king Seleucus I on embassies to ...
Megatherium: largest of the ground sloths, an extinct group of mammals that underwent a highly successful evolutionary radiation in South America in the Cenozoic Era (beginning 66.4 million years ago). The ...
Meghalaya: state of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bounded on the south and southwest by Bangladesh and on all other sides by the ...
Meghna River: major watercourse of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, in Bangladesh. The name is properly applied to a channel of the Old Brahmaputra downstream from Bhairab Bazar, after it has received the Surma ...
Megiddo: important town of ancient Palestine, overlooking the Plain of Esdraelon (Valley of Jezreel). It lies about 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Haifa in northern Israel. Megiddo's strategic location at ...
Megillah: in the Hebrew Bible, any of the five sacred books of the Ketuvim (the third division of the Old Testament), in scroll form, that are read in the synagogue in ...
Meher Baba: spiritual master in western India with a sizable following both in that country and abroad. Beginning on July 10, 1925, he observed silence for the last 44 years of his ...
Mehmed Aga: an architect whose masterpiece is the Sultan Ahmed Cami (Blue Mosque) in Istanbul.
Mehmed Fuat Koprulu: scholar, historian, and statesman who made important contributions to the history of Turkey and its literature.
Mehmed I: Ottoman sultan who reunified the dismembered Ottoman territories following the defeat of Ankara (1402). He ruled in Anatolia and, after 1413, in the Balkans as well.
Mehmed II: Ottoman sultan from 1444 to 1446 and from 1451 to 1481. A great military leader, he captured Constantinople and conquered the territories in Anatolia and the Balkans that comprised the ...
Mehmed III: Ottoman sultan (1595-1603) whose reign saw a long and arduous conflict with Austria and serious revolts in Anatolia.
Mehmed IV Avci: Ottoman sultan whose reign (1648-87) was marked first by administrative and financial decay and later by a period of revival under the able Koprulu viziers. Mehmed IV, however, devoted himself ...
Mehmed Siyah-Kalem: artist known solely by the attribution of his name to a remarkable series of paintings preserved in the Imperial Ottoman Palace Library (Topkapi Saray).
Mehmed V: Ottoman sultan from 1909 to 1918, whose reign was marked by the absolute rule of the Committee of Union and Progress and by Turkey's defeat in World War I.
Mehmed VI: the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, whose forced abdication and exile in 1922 prepared the way for the emergence of the Turkish Republic under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal ...
Mehring, Franz: radical journalist, historian of the German Social Democratic Party, and biographer of Karl Marx.
Mehsana: town, administrative headquarters of Mehsana district, Gujarat state, west central India, in the lowlands between the Aravalli Range and the Little Rann of Kutch. Founded in the 12th to the ...
Mehta, Sir Pherozeshah: Indian political leader, planner of Bombay's municipal charter and founder of the English-language newspaper Bombay Chronicle (1913).
Mehta, Zubin: orchestral conductor, musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (1962-78), the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (1978-91), and the Israel Philharmonic (from 1968).
Mehul, Etienne-Nicolas: composer who influenced the development of French opera and who was one of the principal composers in the late 18th- and early 19th-century style.
Mei Juecheng: Chinese court official, mathematician, and astronomer.
Mei Lanfang: Chinese theatrical performer, one of the greatest singer-actor-dancers in Chinese history.
Mei Wending: Chinese writer on astronomy and mathematics whose work represented an association of Chinese and Western knowledge.
Mei Yaochen: a leading Chinese poet of the Northern Song dynasty whose verses helped to launch a new poetic style linked with the guwen ("ancient literature") revival.
Mei-chou: city in northeastern Kwangtung sheng (province), China. It is situated on the north bank of the Mei River, a tributary of the Han River, which discharges into the sea at ...
Meidias Painter: Greek vase painter known for his theatrical "florid" style and for his "flying drapery." A large hydria (water vessel), dating from c. 410 BC, now in the British Museum, is ...
Meier Helmbrecht: realistic medieval epic poem (c. 1250), remarkable for its portrayal of the seamy decline of chivalry, when knights became robbers and peasants rebelled against their masters. In the poem the ...
Meier, Richard: American architect noted for his refinements of and variations on classic Modernist principles: pure geometry, open space, and an emphasis on light.
Meighen, Arthur: Canadian politician who was Conservative Party leader (1920-26; 1941-42) and prime minister of Canada (1920-21; 1926).
Meigs, Montgomery C: U.S. engineer and architect, who, as quartermaster general of the Union Army during the American Civil War, was responsible for the purchase and distribution of vital supplies to Union troops. ...
Meiji: emperor of Japan from 1867 to 1912, during whose reign Japan was dramatically transformed from a feudal country into one of the great powers of the modern world.
Meiji Restoration: in Japanese history, the political revolution that brought about the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and returned control of the country to direct Imperial rule under the emperor Meiji, beginning ...
Meikle, Andrew: Scottish millwright and inventor of the threshing machine for removing the husks from grain.
Meiktila: town, central Myanmar (Burma), on Meiktila Lake. A major road and rail centre on the Thazi-Myingyan railway, the town also has an airfield. It is a Buddhist centre, the site ...
Meillet, Antoine: one of the most influential linguists of his time. Using a comparative method of utmost precision, he clearly explained the early Indo-European linguistic system and traced its history. He steadily ...
Mein Kampf: political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler. It was his only complete book and became the bible of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany's Third Reich. It was published in two volumes ...
Meinecke, Friedrich: the leading German historian of the first half of the 20th century and, together with his teacher Wilhelm Dilthey, a founding father of modern intellectual historiography.
Meinhof, Carl: German scholar of African languages and one of the first to give them scientific treatment. He studied primarily the Bantu languages but also Hottentot, Bushman, and Hamitic. Alice Werner published ...
Meiningen: city, Thuringia Land (state), central Germany. It lies along the Werra River, between the Thuringian Forest (Thuringer Wald) and the Rhon Mountains. First mentioned in 982 and ...
Meiningen Company: experimental acting group begun in 1866 and directed by George II, duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and his morganatic wife, the actress Ellen Franz. It was one of the first companies in ...
Meinong, Alexius: Austrian philosopher and psychologist remembered for his contributions to axiology, or theory of values, and for his Gegenstandstheorie, or theory of objects.
meiosis: division of a germ cell involving two fissions of the nucleus and giving rise to four gametes, or sex cells, each possessing half the number of chromosomes of the original ...
meiping: type of Chinese pottery vase inspired by the shape of a young female body. The meiping was often a tall celadon vase made to resemble human characteristics, ...
Meir: rabbi who was among the greatest of the tannaim, the group of some 225 masters of the Jewish Oral Law that flourished in Palestine for roughly the first 200 years ...
Meir Of Rothenburg: great rabbinical authority of 13th-century German Jewry and one of the last great tosaphists (writers of notes and commentary) of Rashi's authoritative commentary on the Talmud.
Meir, Golda: a founder and fourth prime minister (1969-74) of the State of Israel.
Meireles, Cecilia: poet, teacher, and journalist, whose lyrical and highly personal poetry, often simple in form yet containing complex symbolism and imagery, earned her an important position in 20th-century Brazilian literature.
Meissen: city, Saxony Land (state), southeastern Germany. It lies on the Elbe River just northwest of Dresden. It grew out of the early Slavic settlement of Misni and ...
Meissen porcelain: German hard-paste, or true, porcelain produced at the Meissen factory, near Dresden in Saxony (now Germany), from 1710 until the present day. It was the first successfully produced true porcelain ...
Meissner effect: the expulsion of a magnetic field from the interior of a material that is in the process of becoming a superconductor, that is, losing its resistance to the flow of ...
Meissner, Alexander: Austrian engineer whose work in antenna design, amplification, and detection advanced the development of radio telegraphy.
Meissonier, Ernest: French painter and illustrator of military and historical subjects, especially of Napoleonic battles.
Meissonier, Juste-Aurele: French goldsmith, interior decorator, and architect, often considered the leading originator of the influential, though short-lived, Rococo style in the decorative arts.
meistersinger: any of certain German musicians and poets, chiefly of the artisan and trading classes, in the 14th to the 16th century. They claimed to be heirs of 12 old masters, ...
Meit, Conrat: Flemish sculptor and medalist known for the realistic portraits that he produced during the Northern Renaissance. Meit was a central figure in the art of his period, and his sculptures ...
Meithei: dominant population of Manipur in northeastern India. The area was once inhabited entirely by peoples resembling such hill tribes as the Naga and the Mizo. Intermarriage and the political dominance ...
Meitner, Lise: Austrian-born physicist who shared the Enrico Fermi Award (1966) with the chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann for their joint research that led to the discovery of uranium fission.
Mekambo: town, northeastern Gabon. It lies along the south bank of the Djadie River (a tributary of the Ogooue). Mekambo is the trading centre for a substantial mining district. The hills ...
Mekele: town, northern Ethiopia. Situated 6,778 feet (2,066 m) above sea level overlooking the salt mines of the Danakil Plain, Mekele is the principal centre of Ethiopia's inland salt trade. Newer ...
Meknes: city, north-central Morocco. It lies about 70 miles (110 km) from the Atlantic Ocean and 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Fes. One of Morocco's four imperial cities, it was ...
Mekong River: longest river in Southeast Asia, the 7th longest in Asia, and the 12th longest in the world. It has a length of about 2,700 miles (4,350 km). Rising in southeastern ...
Mekons, the: British rock group that exemplified punk rock's do-it-yourself ethos. Principal members were Jon Langford (b. October 11, 1957, Newport, Gwent [now in Newport], Wales, ), Tom Greenhalgh (b. November 4, ...
Mekri carpet: floor covering handwoven in the Turkish town of Mekri (modern Fethiye), noted for its unusual prayer rugs. They are sometimes called Rhodes carpets, even though there is no evidence that ...
Mela, Pomponius: author of the only ancient treatise on geography in classical Latin, De situ orbis ("A Description of the World"), also known as De chorographia ("Concerning Chorography"). Written about AD 43 ...
melaconite: noncrystalline variety of the mineral tenorite (q.v.).
Melaka: town and port, Peninsular (West) Malaysia, on the Strait of Malacca, at the mouth of the sluggish Melaka River. The city was founded about 1400, when Paramesvara, the ruler of ...
melamine: a colourless, crystalline substance belonging to the family of heterocyclic organic compounds, which are used principally as a starting material for the manufacture of synthetic resins.
Melampus: in Greek mythology, a seer who as a child received the understanding of the language of birds after two young snakes, whose lives he had saved, licked his ears when ...
melancholia: formerly the psychological condition known as depression. The term now refers to extreme features of depression, especially the failure to take pleasure in activities.
Melanchthon, Philipp: German author of the Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran Church (1530), humanist, Reformer, theologian, and educator. He was a friend of Martin Luther and defended his views. In 1521 Melanchthon ...
Melanesia: one of the traditional ethnogeographic groupings of the Pacific Islands, including (generally from west to east) the island of New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and the Bismarck and Louisiade archipelagoes; ...
Melanesian culture: the beliefs and practices of those indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands grouped as Melanesia. The islands include (generally from west to east) the island of New Guinea, the Admiralty ...
Melanesian languages: languages belonging to the Eastern, or Oceanic, branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family and spoken in the islands of Melanesia. The Melanesian languages, of which there are about 400, ...
Melanesian Pidgin: an English-based pidgin that is used widely in Melanesia as a trade and mission language; in some areas it has become established as a creole (i.e., it has become the ...