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passacaglia ... pathology

passacaglia: (Italian, from Spanish passacalle, or pasacalle: "street song"), musical form of continuous variation in 34 time; and a courtly dance. The dance, as it first appeared in 17th-century Spain, was ...
passage rite: any of numerous ceremonial events, existing in all historically known societies, that mark the passage of an individual from one social or religious status to another. Many of the most ...
Passaic: county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., bordered by New York state to the north and the Pequannock and Pompton rivers to the south; the Passaic River, which crosses the southeastern portion ...
Passaic: city, Passaic county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., on the Passaic River, 9 miles (14 km) north of Newark. It was established by the Dutch in 1678 as a fur-trading post. ...
Passaic River: river, rising near Morristown, southeastern Morris county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It flows south past Millington, then north and east to Paterson and its Great Falls (70 feet [21 metres] ...
Passamaquoddy: Algonkian-speaking Indians who lived on Passamaquoddy Bay, the St. Croix River, and Schoodic Lake on the boundary between what are now Maine and New Brunswick. They belonged to the Abenaki ...
Passamaquoddy Bay: inlet of the Bay of Fundy (Atlantic Ocean), between southwestern New Brunswick, Can., and southeastern Maine, U.S., at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Deer Island and Campobello Island ...
Passarowitz, Treaty of: (July 21, 1718), pact signed at the conclusion of the Austro-Turkish (1716-18) and the Venetian-Turkish (1716-18) wars at Passarowitz (now Pozerevac, Yugos.). By its terms the Ottoman Turks lost substantial ...
Passau: city, Bavaria Land (state), southeastern Germany. It lies at the confluence of the Danube, Inn, and Ilz rivers, on the Austrian border.
passenger pigeon: (Ectopistes migratorius), migratory bird hunted to extinction by man. Billions of these birds inhabited eastern North America in the early 1800s; migrating flocks darkened the skies for days. As settlers ...
passepied: lively dance of Brittany adopted c. 1650 by French and English aristocrats, who, during the century of its popularity, frequently danced it dressed as shepherds and shepherdesses. As a court ...
Passerat, Jean: French poet, author of some elegant and tender verse, and one of the contributors to the "Satire Menippee," the manifesto of the moderate Royalist party in support of Henry of ...
Passeres: bird suborder (order Passeriformes) that includes all songbirds. Birds belonging to the suborder Passeres are also referred to as oscines. See songbird.
Passeridae: sparrow weaver family of small gregarious birds, based on the genus Passer, the well-known sparrows. In this work these birds are classified as a subfamily (Passerinae) in the weaverfinch family ...
passeriform: any member of the order Passeriformes, the largest order of birds and the dominant avian group on Earth today. The passeriform birds are true perching birds, with four toes, three ...
Passifloraceae: the passion-flower family within the order Violales, containing about 20 genera and 600 species of herbaceous or woody vines, shrubs, and trees, mostly of warm regions. The family is most ...
Passion music: musical setting of the suffering and Crucifixion of Christ, based either on biblical texts or poetic elaborations. Dating from the 4th century onward, they range from unaccompanied plainsong to compositions ...
Passion play: religious drama of medieval origin dealing with the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ. Early Passion plays (in Latin) consisted of readings from the Gospel with interpolated poetical sections on ...
passion-flower: any of about 400 species of tendril-bearing, herbaceous vines comprising the genus Passiflora (family Passifloraceae), with characteristic flowers. Some are important as ornamentals; others are grown for their edible fruits.
Passionist: a religious order of men in the Roman Catholic church, founded by Paolo Francesco Danei (now known as St. Paul of the Cross) in Italy in 1720 to spread devotion ...
Passo Fundo: city, northern Rio Grande do Sul estado ("state"), southern Brazil. The city lies near the headwaters of the Passo Fundo River at 2,326 feet (709 m) above sea level. It ...
Passos: city, southwestern Minas Gerais estado ("state"), Brazil. Passos lies along the Bocaina River near the Rio Grande, at 2,388 feet (728 m) above sea level. It was made a seat ...
Passover: in Judaism, holiday commemorating the Hebrews' liberation from slavery in Egypt and the "passing over" of the forces of destruction, or the sparing of the firstborn of the Israelites, when ...
passport: a formal document or certification issued by a national government identifying a traveler as a citizen or national with a right to protection while abroad and a right to return ...
Passy, Frederic: French economist and advocate of international arbitration who was cowinner (with Jean-Henri Dunant) of the first Nobel Prize for Peace in 1901.
pasta: any of several starchy food preparations (pasta alimentaria) frequently associated with Italian cuisine and made from semolina, the granular product obtained from the endosperm of a type of wheat called ...
Pasta, Giuditta: reigning Italian soprano of her time, acclaimed for her vocal range and expressiveness.
paste: heavy, very transparent flint glass that simulates the fire and brilliance of gemstones because it has relatively high indices of refraction and strong dispersion (separation of white light into its ...
pastel: dry drawing medium executed with fragile, finger-size sticks. These drawing crayons, called pastels, are made of powdered pigments combined with a minimum of nongreasy binder, usually gum tragacanth or, from ...
Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich: Russian poet whose novel Doctor Zhivago helped win him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 but aroused so much opposition in the Soviet Union that he declined the honour. ...
Pasteur, Louis: French chemist and microbiologist whose contributions were among the most varied and valuable in the history of science and industry. It was he who proved that microorganisms cause fermentation and ...
Pasteurella: genus of rod-shaped bacteria that causes several serious diseases in domestic animals and milder infections in humans. The genus was named after Louis Pasteur. Its species are microbiologically characterized as ...
pasteurization: heat-treatment process that destroys pathogenic microorganisms in certain foods and beverages. It is named for the French scientist Louis Pasteur, who in the 1860s demonstrated that abnormal fermentation of wine ...
Pasto: city, capital of Narino department, southwestern Colombia, situated 8,291 feet (2,527 m) above sea level at the base of Galeras Volcano (14,029 feet [4,276 m]). Founded in 1539, Pasto was ...
Paston Letters: the largest surviving collection of 15th-century English correspondence. It is invaluable to historians and philologists and is preserved mainly in the British Museum. Part is derived from the circle of ...
Pastor, Ludwig, Freiherr Von Campersfelden: German author of one of the monumental papal histories, Geschichte der Papste seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, 16 vol. (1886-1933; History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle ...
Pastor, Tony: impresario and comic singer, considered the father of vaudeville in the United States.
Pastora Gomez, Eden: Nicaraguan guerrilla leader and legendary fighter.
pastoral literature: class of literature that presents the society of shepherds as free from the complexity and corruption of city life. Many of the idylls written in its name are far remote ...
Pastorius, Francis Daniel: German educator, humanitarian, author, and public official who helped settle Pennsylvania and was founder of Germantown, Pa.
Pastoureaux: (French: "Shepherds"), the participants in two popular outbreaks of mystico-political enthusiasm in France in 1251 and 1320. The first Pastoureaux were peasants in northeastern France who were aroused in 1251 ...
Pastrone, Giovanni: pioneer Italian motion picture director and producer.
pastry: stiff dough made from flour, salt, a relatively high proportion of fat, and a small proportion of liquid. It may also contain sugar or flavourings. Most pastry is leavened only ...
Pastry War: (1838-39), brief and minor conflict between Mexico and France, arising from the claim of a French pastry cook living in Tacubaya, near Mexico City, that some Mexican army officers had ...
Pasupata: perhaps the earliest Hindu sect to worship the god Siva (Shiva) as the supreme deity; it gave rise in turn to numerous subsects that flourished in Gujarat and Rajasthan, at ...
Pasuruan: city, Jawa Timur (East Java) provinsi (province), Java, Indonesia, on Madura Strait. The Dutch first established a fort at Pasuruan in 1707. It was the capital of ...
Patagonia: semiarid scrub plateau that covers nearly all of the southern portion of mainland Argentina. With an area of about 260,000 square miles (673,000 square kilometres), it constitutes a vast area ...
Patan: town, northern Gujarat state, west-central India. It is situated on the Saraswati River in the lowlands between the Aravalli Range and the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) . Once capital of ...
Patangoro: Indian people of western Colombia, apparently extinct since the late 16th century. They spoke a language of the Chibchan family. The Patangoro were agricultural, raising corn (maize), sweet manioc (yuca), ...
Patanjali: author or one of the authors of two great Hindu classics: the first, Yoga-sutras, a categorization of Yogic thought arranged in four volumes with the titles "Psychic Power," "Practice of ...
Patarine: member of a medieval group of lay craftsmen, tradesmen, and peasants organized in Milan about 1058 to oppose clerical concubinage and marriage; the group later widened its attack to oppose ...
patas monkey: long-limbed and predominantly ground-dwelling primate found in the grass and scrub regions of West and Central Africa and southeast to the Serengeti plains.
patch box: small, usually rectangular, sometimes oval box used mostly as a receptacle for beauty patches, especially in the 18th century. During the days of Louis XV, black patches of gummed taffeta ...
patch test: controlled application of biological or chemical substances to the skin in order to detect if the subject has an allergic hypersensitivity to one of them. The test was originally developed ...
Patchen, Kenneth: American experimental poet, novelist, painter, and graphic designer.
patchwork: the process of joining strips, squares, triangles, hexagons, or other shaped pieces of fabric (also called patches), by either hand or machine stitching, into square blocks or other units. It ...
pate: (French: "paste"), in French cuisine, a filled pastry, analogous to the English pie. The term pate is also used, with modifiers, to denote two other distinct preparations: pate en terrine, ...
pate-sur-pate: (French: "paste on paste"), method of porcelain decoration in which a relief design is created on an unfired, unglazed body by applying successive layers of white slip (liquid clay) with ...
Pategi: town, Kwara state, west-central Nigeria. It lies on the south bank of the Niger River opposite the town of Mureji and the mouth of the Kaduna River. Founded in the ...
Patel, Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai: Indian barrister and statesman, one of the leaders of the Indian National Congress during the struggle for Indian independence. During the first three years of Indian independence after 1947, he ...
patent: a government grant to an inventor of the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention, usually for a limited period. Patents are granted for new and ...
patent ductus arteriosus: persistence of a channel that shunts blood between the pulmonary artery and the aorta. Normally, after birth, the pulmonary artery carries blood depleted of oxygen and laden with carbon dioxide ...
patent theatre: any of several London theatres that, through government licensing, held a monopoly on legitimate dramatic production there between 1660 and 1843. In reopening the theatres that had been closed by ...
Pater, Walter: English critic, essayist, and humanist whose advocacy of "art for art's sake" became a cardinal doctrine of the movement known as Aestheticism.
Paterna ware: tin-glazed earthenware produced in the 14th and 15th centuries at Paterna, near Valencia, in eastern Spain. Although pottery was produced in Paterna as early as the 12th century under the ...
Paterno: town, Catania provincia, eastern Sicily, Italy, situated at the southwestern foot of Mount Etna, overlooking the Simeto River, just northwest of Catania. Paterno is believed to occupy the site of ...
Paterson: city, seat (1837) of Passaic county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., situated on the Passaic River, 11 miles (18 km) northwest of New York City. It was founded after the American ...
Paterson, A B: Australian poet and journalist noted for his composition of the internationally famous song "Waltzing Matilda." He achieved great popular success in Australia with The Man from Snowy River and Other ...
Paterson, Sir Alexander: penologist who modified the progressive Borstal system of English reformatories for juvenile offenders to emphasize its rehabilitative aspects.
Paterson, William: Scottish founder of the Bank of England, writer on economic issues, and the prime mover behind an unsuccessful Scottish settlement at Darien on the Isthmus of Panama.
Paterson, William: Irish-born jurist, one of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. senator (1789-90) and governor of New Jersey (1790-93). He also served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme ...
Pathe, Charles: French pioneer motion-picture executive who controlled a vast network of production and distribution facilities that dominated the world film market during the first years of the 20th century.
Pathein: city, southern Myanmar (Burma). It lies on the Bassein River, which is the westernmost distributary of the Irrawaddy River and is navigable by ships up to 10,000 tons. The city ...
Pathet Lao: left-oriented nationalist group in Laos that took control of the country in 1975. Founded in 1950, the Pathet Lao (Lao Country) movement joined with the Viet Minh, the Communist-oriented Vietnamese ...
pathetic fallacy: poetic practice of attributing human emotion or responses to nature, inanimate objects, or animals. The practice is a form of personification that is as old as poetry, in which it ...
pathology: medical specialty concerned with the determining causes of disease and the structural and functional changes occurring in abnormal conditions. Early efforts to study pathology were often stymied by religious prohibitions ...