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pediment: in architecture, triangular gable crowning a portice (area, with a roof supported by columns, leading to the entrance of a building); or a similar form used decoratively over a doorway ...
pediment: in geology, any relatively flat surface of bedrock (exposed or veneered with alluvial soil or gravel) that occurs at the base of a mountain or as a plain having no ...
pedodontics: dental specialty that deals with the care of children's teeth. The pedodontist is extensively concerned with prevention, which includes instruction in proper diet, use of fluoride, and practice of oral ...
pedology: scientific discipline concerned with all aspects of soils, including their physical and chemical properties, the role of organisms in soil production and in relation to soil character, the description and ...
pedophilia: psychosexual disorder in which an adult's arousal and sexual gratification occur primarily through sexual contact with prepubescent children. The typical pedophile is unable to find satisfaction in an adult sexual ...
Pedrell, Felipe: Spanish composer and musical scholar who devoted his life to the development of a Spanish school of music founded on both national folk songs and Spanish masterpieces of the past.
Pedro I: founder of the Brazilian empire and first emperor of Brazil, from Dec. 1, 1822, to April 7, 1831, also reckoned as King Pedro (Peter) IV of Portugal.
Pedro II: second and last emperor of Brazil (1831-89), whose benevolent and popular reign lasted nearly 50 years.
Pedro Juan Caballero: town, eastern Paraguay, founded in 1899. It lies in the Amambay Mountains at 2,296 feet (700 m) above sea level, opposite Ponte Pora, Braz. Pedro Juan Caballero is the region's ...
Pedrolino: stock character of the Italian commedia dell'arte, a simpleminded and honest servant, usually a young and personable valet. One of the comic servants, or zanni, Pedrolino functioned in the commedia ...
Pee Dee River: river rising as the Yadkin River in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwestern North Carolina, U.S. Flowing northeast past Wilkesboro and Elkin, then southeast past Badin, it becomes the Pee ...
Peebles: royal burgh (town), Scottish Borders council area, historic county of Peeblesshire, Scotland, at the junction of Eddleston Water with the River Tweed. Peebles, which gained royal burgh status in 1367, ...
Peeblesshire: historic county of southeastern Scotland that forms a triangle between the historic counties of Midlothian (north and northeast), Selkirkshire (east and southeast), Dumfriesshire (south), and Lanarkshire (west). It lies entirely ...
Peekskill: city, Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S., on the east bank of the Hudson River, 41 miles (66 km) north of New York City. Its name derives from Jan Peek, ...
Peel: town on the west coast of the Isle of Man, one of the British Isles, on Peel Bay at the mouth of the River Neb, which forms the harbour. On ...
Peel Commission: group headed by Lord Robert Peel, appointed in 1936 by the British government to investigate the causes of unrest among Palestinian Arabs and Jews.
Peel River: river in northern Yukon Territory and northwestern Mackenzie District of the Northwest Territories, Canada, the northernmost tributary of the Mackenzie River. From its major headstream, the Ogilvie River, in the ...
Peel, Sir Robert, 2nd Baronet: British prime minister (1834-35, 1841-46) and founder of the Conservative Party. Peel was responsible for the repeal (1846) of the Corn Laws that had restricted imports.
Peele, George: Elizabethan dramatist who experimented in many forms of theatrical art: pastoral, history, melodrama, tragedy, folk play, and pageant.
Peenemunde: village, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Land (state), northeastern Germany, at the northwestern end of Usedom Island in the estuarine mouth of the Peene River on the Baltic Sea coast. It was mentioned ...
peep: any of about a dozen species of small sandpipers. Some are also called oxbirds or oxeyes. See sandpiper.
peep show: children's toy and scientific curiosity, usually consisting of a box with an eyehole, through which the viewer sees a miniature scene or stage setting, painted or constructed in perspective. Peep ...
peeping tom: person who derives sexual satisfaction from watching from hiding places as others disrobe or engage in sexual acts. The term derives from the legendary Peeping Tom, a prying tailor who ...
Pegasus: in Greek mythology, a winged horse that sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa as she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. With Athena's (or Poseidon's) help, another Greek ...
Pegasus: any of a series of three U.S. scientific satellites launched in 1965. These spacecraft were named for the winged horse in Greek mythology because of their prominent wing-like structure. This ...
Pegler, Westbrook: American columnist whose continual crusades, combined with an acerbic, original style, attracted nationwide attention.
pegmatite: almost any wholly crystalline igneous or metamorphic rock that is at least in part very coarse grained, the major constituents of which include minerals typically found in ordinary igneous rocks ...
Pegolotti, Francesco Balducci: Florentine mercantile agent best known as the author of the Pratica della mercatura ("Practice of Marketing"), which provides an excellent picture of trade and travel in his day.
Pegu: port city, southern Myanmar (Burma), on the Pegu River, 47 miles (76 km) northeast of Yangon (Rangoon). Pegu was the capital of the Mon kingdom and is surrounded by the ...
Pegu Mountains: mountain range of south-central Myanmar (Burma), extending 270 miles (435 km) north-south between the Irrawaddy and Sittang rivers and ending in a ridge at Yangon (Rangoon). The range averages about ...
Peguy, Charles: French poet and philosopher who combined Christianity, socialism, and patriotism into a deeply personal faith that he carried into action.
Pehowa: city, north-central Haryana state, northwestern India. It lies along the Saraswati River. It is an important pilgrimage centre housing the Pirthudakeshwar (Pirthuveshwar) temples built by the Marathas in honour of ...
Pei River: river in central Kwangtung Province, southeastern China. It is formed by the union of two smaller rivers, the Wu and the Chen, at Shao-kuan, in northern Kwangtung Province. The Pei ...
Pei, I.M.: Chinese-born American architect noted for his large but elegantly designed urban buildings and complexes.
Pei, Mario: Italian-born American linguist whose many works helped to provide the general public with a popular understanding of linguistics and philology.
Pei-hai: city and port in the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi, China. The city was in Kwangtung Province until 1965, when it became part of Kwangsi. It is on the shore ...
Pei-p'iao: mining town, western Liaoning Province, China. Located northwest of the Ta-ling Stream and east of the Ta-ch'ing Mountains, it is the site of a coal combine. The vertical shafts, which ...
peine forte et dure: in English law, punishment that was inflicted upon those who were accused of a felony and stood silent, refusing to plead either guilty or not guilty, or upon those who ...
Peipus, Lake: lake forming part of the boundary between Estonia and Pskov oblast (province) of Russia. It is connected by the narrow Lake Tyoploye to a southern extension, Lake Pskov. Lake Peipus ...
Peirce, Benjamin: American mathematician, astronomer, and educator who computed the general perturbations of the planets Uranus and Neptune.
Peirce, Charles Sanders: American scientist, logician, and philosopher who is noted for his work on the logic of relations and on pragmatism as a method of research.
Peiresc, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de: French antiquary, Humanist, and influential patron of learning who discovered the Orion Nebula (1610) and was among the first to emphasize the study of coins for historical research.
Peisistratus: tyrant of ancient Athens whose unification of Attica and consolidation and rapid improvement of Athens' prosperity helped to make possible the city's later preeminence in Greece.
Pekalongan: kotamadya (municipality), Jawa Tengah provinsi ("province"), central Java, Indonesia. It is situated on the northern coastal plain. The city is the capital of Pekalongan regency, has a fort (1753) and ...
Pekanbaru: kotamadya (municipality) and capital of Riau provinsi ("province"), central Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a port on the Siak River and is located about 100 miles (160 km) upstream from the ...
Pekin: city, seat (1849) of Tazewell county, central Illinois, U.S. It lies along the Illinois River (bridged) just south of Peoria. French explorers wintered in the area in 1680. The first ...
Peking duck: one of the most celebrated dishes of Beijing, or Mandarin Chinese, cuisine, with a history of more than 400 years. In its classic form, the dish calls for a specific ...
Peking man: extinct hominin of the species Homo erectus, known from fossils found at Zhoukoudian near Beijing. Peking man was identified as a member of the human lineage by ...
Peking University: university in Beijing, one of the oldest and most important institutions of higher learning in China. Its total enrollment is approximately 55,000.
Peking Zoological Garden: zoological garden on the western outskirts of Peking, founded in 1906 by the empress dowager Tz'u-hsi. The zoo is managed by the Peking Office of Parks and Forestry, financed with ...
Pekingese: breed of toy dog developed in ancient China, where it was held sacred and was kept as a palace dog by members of the Imperial family. It was introduced to ...
Peko: in Estonian religion, an agricultural deity who aided the growth of grain, especially barley. Peko was represented by a wax image that was kept buried in the grain in the ...
pelage: hairy, woolly, or furry coat of a mammal, distinguished from the underlying bare skin. The pelage is significant in several respects: as insulation; as a guard against injury; and, in ...
Pelagia Of Antioch, Saint: 15-year-old Christian virgin who, probably during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian, threw herself from a housetop to save her chastity and died instantly. Her authenticity was ...
Pelagianism: a 5th-century Christian heresy taught by Pelagius (q.v.) and his followers that stressed the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will. Pelagius was concerned about ...
pelagic zone: ecological realm that includes the entire ocean water column. Of all the inhabited Earth environments, the pelagic zone has the largest volume, 1,370,000,000 cubic kilometres (330,000,000 cubic miles), and the ...
Pelagie Islands: group of islands in the Mediterranean Sea between Malta and Tunisia, south of Sicily; administratively they form the commune of Lampedusa in Agrigento province, Sicily, Italy. The group consists of ...
Pelagius: monk and theologian whose heterodox theological system known as Pelagianism (q.v.) emphasized the primacy of human effort in spiritual salvation.
Pelagius I: pope from 556 to 561. His ecclesiastical roles under popes St. Agapetus I, St. Silverius, and Vigilius were highly important in the history of the church.
Pelagius II: pope from 579 to 590.
Pelasgi: the people who occupied Greece before the 12th century BC. The name was used only by ancient Greeks. The Pelasgi were mentioned as a specific people by several Greek authors, ...
Pelavicino, Oberto: leader of the Ghibelline (imperial) party in northern Italy and powerful supporter of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II and his sons.
Pelayo: founder of the Christian kingdom of Asturias in northern Spain, which survived through the period of Moorish hegemony to become the spearhead of the Christian Reconquista in the later Middle ...
Pele: football (soccer) player, in his time probably the most famous and possibly the best-paid athlete in the world. He was part of the Brazilian national teams that won three World ...
pelecaniform: (order Pelecaniformes), any of the relatively large and diverse group of aquatic birds that share the common characteristic of webbing between all four toes. There are three main groups (suborders): ...
Pelee Island: island, in Lake Erie, southern Ontario, Canada. It lies near the Ohio boundary, a few miles south of Point Pelee National Park and has an area of 18 square miles ...
Pelee, Mount: active volcanic mountain on the Caribbean island of Martinique, French West Indies. Situated 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Fort-de-France, it is 4,583 feet (1,397 m) high. The Pelee (French: ...
Peletier, Jacques: French poet and critic whose knowledge and love of Greek and Latin poetry influenced the group of French poetry reformers known as La Pleiade. In the preface to his translation ...
Peleus: in Greek mythology, king of the Myrmidons of Thessaly; he was most famous as the husband of Thetis (a sea nymph) and the father of the hero Achilles, whom he ...
Pelham, Henry: prime minister of Great Britain from 1743 to 1754. A somewhat colourless politician, he worked for peace abroad and introduced important financial reforms.
Pelias: in Greek mythology, a king of Iolcus in Thessaly who imposed on his half-nephew Jason the task of bearing off the Golden Fleece. According to Homer, Pelias and Neleus were ...
pelican: (genus Pelecanus), any of seven or eight species of water birds constituting the family Pelecanidae (order Pelecaniformes), distinguished by their large, elastic throat pouches. Pelicans inhabit lakes, rivers, and seacoasts ...
Pelion, Mount: mountain on the Magnesia peninsula of southeastern Thessaly, Greece, rising to 5,417 feet (1,651 m) at its highest point. Pelion peak (5,075 feet), just northeast of Volos, has a wooded ...
Pelissier, Aimable-Jean-Jacques, Duke De Malakoff: French general who distinguished himself in the conquest of Algeria and was the last French commander in chief in the Crimean War.
Pella: ancient capital of King Archelaus of Macedonia at the end of the 5th century BC and birthplace of Alexander the Great. The city lay in northern Greece, about 24 miles ...
pellagra: nutritional disorder caused by a dietary deficiency of niacin (also called nicotinic acid) or a failure of the body to absorb this vitamin or the amino acid tryptophan, which is ...