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Peacham, Henry ... pedigree
Peacham, Henry
English author best known for his The Compleat Gentleman (1622), important in the tradition of courtesy books. Numerous in the late Renaissance, courtesy books dealt with the education, ideals, and ...
peachblow glass
American art glass made in the latter part of the 19th century by factories such as the Mount Washington Glass Works of New Bedford, Mass., and the New England Glass ...
peacock
any of several resplendent birds of the pheasant family, Phasianidae (order Galliformes). Strictly, the male is a peacock, and the female is a peahen; both are peafowl. Two species of ...
Peacock Throne
famous golden throne stolen from India by the Persians in 1739. Thereafter lost, it (and its reproductions) remained the symbol of the Persian, or Iranian, monarchy.
peacock worm
(Sabella), any of a genus of segmented marine worms of the class Polychaeta (phylum Annelida). This type of fanworm lives in a tube about 30 to 40 centimetres (12 to ...
Peacock, Thomas Love
English author who satirized the intellectual tendencies of his day in novels in which conversation predominates over character or plot. His best verse is interspersed in his novels.
Peak District
hill area in the county of Derbyshire, England, forming the southern end of the Pennines, the upland "spine" of England. The northern half is dominated by high gritstone moorlands, rising ...
Peak Downs
fertile region of northeast central Queensland, Australia, comprising rolling scrub- and grass-covered country studded with peaks of volcanic rock. Bounded by the Rivers Belyando (west) and Nogoa (east) and drained ...
Peake, Mervyn
English novelist, poet, painter, playwright, and illustrator, best known for the bizarre Titus Groan trilogy of novels and for his illustrations of his novels and of children's stories.
Peale, Anna Claypoole; and Peale, Sarah Miriam
American painters, known for their portraiture, who were among the first women to achieve professional recognition and success as artists in the United States.
Peale, Charles Willson
American painter best remembered for his portraits of the leading figures of the American Revolution and as the founder of the first major museum in the United States.
Peale, Rembrandt
American painter, writer, and portraitist of prominent figures in Europe and the post-Revolutionary United States.
Peano, Giuseppe
Italian mathematician and a founder of symbolic logic whose interests centred on the foundations of mathematics and on the development of a formal logical language.
peanut
the pod, or legume, of Arachis hypogaea (family Fabaceae), which has the peculiar habit of ripening underground. (Despite its several common names, it is not a true nut.) It is ...
Peanuts
comic strip drawn and authored by Charles Schulz (q.v.).
peanutworm
any member of the invertebrate phylum Sipuncula, a group of elongated, often spindle-shaped, unsegmented marine worms. The head usually has one or more rings of tentacles. Peanutworms vary in length ...
pear
any of several species of the genus Pyrus, especially Pyrus communis, of the rose family (Rosaceae), which is one of the most important fruit trees of the world and is ...
Pearic languages
a branch of the Mon-Khmer family of languages, which is itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. The Pearic languages include Chong, Samre (Eastern Pear), Samrai (Western Pear), Chung (Sa-och), ...
pearl
concretion formed by a mollusk consisting of the same material (called nacre, or mother-of-pearl) as the mollusk's shell. It is a highly valued gemstone.
Pearl Harbor
naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Honolulu county, southern Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. In U.S. history the name recalls the Japanese surprise air attack on Dec. 7, ...
Pearl Harbor attack
(December 7, 1941), surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into ...
Pearl Islands
archipelago, in the Gulf of Panama, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Panama City, Panama, consisting of 183 islands, of which 39 are sizable. The most important islands include ...
Pearl Jam
American band that helped popularize grunge music in the early 1990s. The original members were Eddie Vedder (original name Edward Louis Severson III; b. December 23, 1964, Chicago, Illinois, U.S., ...
Pearl River
river in the southern United States, rising in east-central Mississippi and flowing southwestward, through Jackson, the capital of the state, then generally southward into Louisiana, past Bogalusa, and emptying into ...
Pearl River Delta
extensive low-lying area formed by the junction of the Hsi, Pei, Tung, and Pearl (Chu) rivers in south Kwangtung province, China. It covers an area of 2,900 square miles (7,500 ...
Pearl, Raymond
American zoologist, one of the founders of biometry, the application of statistics to biology and medicine.
pearlfish
any of about 27 species of slim, eel-shaped marine fishes of the family Carapidae noted for living in the bodies of sea cucumbers, pearl oysters, starfishes, and other invertebrates. Pearlfishes ...
Pears, Sir Peter
British tenor, a singer of outstanding skill and subtlety who was closely associated with the works of Sir Benjamin Britten. He received a knighthood in 1977.
Pearse, Patrick Henry
leader of Irish nationalism and Irish poet and educator. He was the first president of the provisional government of the Irish Republic proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, April 24, ...
Pearson, Drew
one of the most influential newspaper columnists in the United States.
Pearson, Hesketh
English actor, director, and biographer.
Pearson, Karl
English mathematician, one of the founders of modern statistics.
Pearson, Lester B.
politician, diplomat, and prime minister of Canada (1963-68), who was prominent as a mediator in international disputes. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1957.
Peary Land
region, northern Greenland, extending about 200 miles (320 km) east and west along the Arctic Ocean, between Victoria Fjord and the Greenland Sea. One of the northernmost land regions of ...
Peary, Robert Edwin
U.S. Arctic explorer usually credited with leading the first expedition to reach the North Pole (1909).
peasant
any member of a class of persons who till the soil as small landowners or as agricultural labourers. The term peasant originally referred to small-scale agriculturalists in Europe in historic ...
Peasants' Revolt
(1381), first great popular rebellion in English history. Its immediate cause was the imposition of the unpopular poll tax of 1381, which brought to a head the economic discontent that ...
Pease, Edward Reynolds
English writer and one of the founders of the Fabian Society.
peat
organic fuel consisting of a light, spongy material formed in temperate humid environments by the accumulation and partial decomposition of vegetable remains under conditions of deficient drainage. Vast beds occur ...
peat moss
any of more than 160 species of plants of the subclass Sphagnidae, of the order Sphagnales, comprising the family Sphagnaceae, which contains one genus, Sphagnum. The pale green to deep ...
peat sampler
device for collecting uncontaminated samples of sediment from various kinds of deposits containing fossil pollen and other organic remains. Several instruments have been developed to retrieve controlled samples, and, although ...
pebble chopper
primordial cutting tool, the oldest type of tool made by forerunners of modern humans. The tool consists of a rounded stone struck a number of blows with a similar stone ...
pebble mosaic
type of mosaic work that uses natural pebbles arranged to form decorative or pictorial patterns. It was used only for pavements and was the earliest type of mosaic in all ...
Pec
town, western Kosovo region, republic of Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro. It lies on a small tributary of the Beli Drim River, between the North Albanian Alps (Prokletije) and the Mokra ...
pecan
(Carya illinoinensis, or illinoensis), nut and tree of the walnut family (Juglandaceae), native to temperate North America. The tree occasionally reaches a height of about 50 m (160 feet) and ...
peccary
any of the three species of piglike mammal found in the southern deserts of the United States southward through the Amazon Basin to Patagonian South America (see Patagonia). Closely resembling ...
Pechenegs
nomadic Turkic people who occupied the steppes north of the Black Sea (6th-12th century) and by the 10th century were in control of the lands between the Don and lower ...
Pechenga
town, Murmansk oblast (province), northwestern Russia. It lies at the head of Pechenga Bay on the Barents Sea coast. Dating from the 16th century, the town was in northern Finland ...
Pechiney
French state-owned, multinational holding company formed in December 1971 as Pechiney Ugine Kuhlmann SA after the merger of Pechiney SA, an aluminum producer established in 1855, and Societe Ugine Kuhlmann, ...
Pechora River
river in Russia, having a course of 1,124 miles (1,809 km). Rising in the northern Urals near Mount Koyp, it flows south in a narrow, deep valley, then west and ...
Pechora Sea
sea lying to the north of European Russia, between Kolguyev Island to the west and the Yugorsky Peninsula to the east. To the north is Novaya Zemlya. The Pechora Sea ...
Pechstein, Max
painter and printmaker, who was a leading member of the group of German Expressionist artists known as Die Brucke ("The Bridge"). He is best known for his paintings of nudes ...
peck
unit of capacity in the U.S. Customary and the British Imperial Systems of measurement. In the United States the peck is used only for dry measure and is equal to ...
Peck, Annie Smith
American mountain climber whose numerous ascents-often record-setting and some at an advanced age-made her a remarkable figure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Peck, Gregory
tall, imposing American actor with a deep, mellow voice, best known for conveying characters of honesty and integrity.
Peckham, Rufus Wheeler
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1896 to 1909.
Peckinpah, Sam
American motion-picture director and screenwriter known for spectacular, violent westerns.
Pecos
city, seat (1883) of Reeves county, southwestern Texas, U.S. It is situated in the Pecos River valley, some 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Odessa. It originated in 1881 as ...
Pecos Bill
in American folklore, cowboy hero of the Pecos River region of Texas who was an exaggerated personification of Western stamina and values; his vivid exploits are analogous to those of ...
Pecos River
river in the southwestern United States, rising in Mora County, north-central New Mexico, in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and flowing about 926 miles (1,490 km) through eastern New Mexico ...
Pecs
("Five Churches"), capital of Baranya megye (county), southwestern Hungary. It lies at the southern foot of the wooded Mecsek Mountains, 135 miles (220 km) south-southwest of Budapest. It is one ...
pectin
any of a group of water-soluble carbohydrate substances that are found in the cell walls and intercellular tissues of certain plants. In the fruits of plants, pectin helps keep the ...
pectoralis muscle
any of the muscles that connect the front walls of the chest with the bones of the upper arm and shoulder. There are two such muscles on each side of ...
pectus excavatum
a chest deformity caused by depression of the breastbone, or sternum. Pectus excavatum is generally not noticeable at birth but becomes more evident with age unless surgically corrected. In most ...
pedagogy
study of teaching methods, including the aims of education and the ways in which such goals may be achieved. The field relies heavily on educational psychology, or theories about the ...
pedal harp
musical instrument in which pedals control a mechanism raising the pitch of given strings by a semitone (single action) or by both a semitone and a whole tone (double action). ...
pedal point
in music, a sustained note, ordinarily in the bass, over which changing harmonies are played. The name may derive from the low tones sustained by organ pedals, although a pedal ...
Pedersen, Charles J.
American chemist who, along with Jean-Marie Lehn and Donald J. Cram, was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his synthesis of the crown ethers-a group of organic compounds ...
Pedersen, Christiern
Danish humanist who was among the first to rediscover Denmark's national literary and historical heritage and to encourage the development of a vernacular style in Danish literature.
Pedersen, Holger
Danish linguist of exceptional accomplishment, especially in comparative Celtic grammar.
pedestal
in Classical architecture, support or base for a column, statue, vase, or obelisk. Such a pedestal may be square, octagonal, or circular. The name is also given to the vertical ...
Pedi
a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting Northern province, South Africa, and constituting the major group of the Northern Sotho ethnolinguistic cluster of peoples, who numbered about 3,700,000 in the late 20th century. ...
pediatrics
medical specialty dealing with the development and care of children and with the diagnosis and treatment of childhood diseases. The first important review of childhood illness, an anonymous European work ...
pedicab
three-wheeled vehicle with a hooded carriage body balanced on two of the wheels. The body may be placed in front or in back of the driver, who propels the vehicle ...
Pedieos River
river in central and eastern Cyprus. It rises in the Troodos range and flows in a northeasterly direction toward Nicosia, where it takes an easterly turn through the part of ...
pedigree
a record of ancestry or purity of breed. Studbooks (listings of pedigrees for horses, dogs, etc.) and herdbooks (records for cattle, swine, sheep, etc.) are maintained by governmental or private ...