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Pickens: county, northwestern South Carolina, U.S. It is bounded to the north by North Carolina, to the east by the Saluda River, and to the west by Lakes Jocassee (impounded by ...
pickerel: any of several North American pikes, family Esocidae, distinguished from the related muskellunge and northern pike by its smaller size, completely scaled cheeks and gill covers, and banded or chainlike ...
pickerel frog: (Rana palustris), dark-spotted frog (family Ranidae), found in eastern North America, usually in such areas as meadows, cool streams, and sphagnum bogs. The pickerel frog is about 5 to 7.5 ...
pickerelweed: any of several genera of aquatic plants comprising the family Pontederiaceae, especially those of the genus Pontederia. Most species are perennials, native primarily to tropical America. They have creeping rootstocks, ...
Pickering, Edward Charles: U.S. physicist and astronomer who introduced the use of the meridian photometer to measure the magnitude of stars and established the Harvard Photometry (1884), the first great photometric catalog.
Pickering, Timothy: American Revolutionary officer and Federalist politician who served (1795-1800) with distinction in the first two U.S. cabinets.
Pickering, William Hayward: New Zealand-born American engineer, physicist, and head of the team that developed Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite. He played a leading role in the development of the U.S. space ...
Pickering, William Henry: U.S. astronomer who discovered Phoebe, the ninth satellite of Saturn.
pickeringite: magnesium-rich variety of the mineral halotrichite (q.v.).
Pickett, Bill: American rodeo cowboy who introduced bulldogging, a modern rodeo event that involves wrestling a running steer to the ground.
Pickett, George Edward: Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War, known for Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Pickett, Joseph: American folk painter known for his primitive depictions of town and landscape around his native New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Pickett, Wilson: American singer-songwriter, whose explosive style helped define the soul music of the 1960s. Pickett was a product of the Southern black church, and gospel was at the core of his ...
Pickford, Mary: Canadian-born U.S. motion-picture actress, "America's sweetheart" of the silent screen, and one of the first film stars. At the height of her career, she was one of the richest and ...
pickwickian syndrome: a complex of respiratory and circulatory symptoms associated with some cases of extreme obesity. The name originates from the fat man depicted in Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, who showed ...
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, Conte Di Concordia: Italian scholar and Platonist philosopher whose De hominis dignitate oratio ("Oration on the Dignity of Man"), a characteristic Renaissance work composed in 1486, reflected his syncretistic method of taking the ...
Pico Island: island of the Portuguese Azores archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean. Separated from Faial Island by the Faial Channel, it has an area of 163 square miles (433 square km) ...
Picon, Molly: American actress and singer, the "Sweetheart of Second Avenue" in Yiddish theatre in New York City during the 1920s and '30s, who was known for her impish charm and comedic ...
picornavirus: any of a group of viruses constituting the family Picornaviridae, a large group of the smallest known animal viruses, "pico" referring to small size and "rna" referring to its core ...
picric acid: pale yellow, odourless crystalline solid that has been used as a military explosive, as a yellow dye, and as an antiseptic. Picric acid (from Greek pikros, "bitter") was so named ...
picrite: intrusive igneous rock of ultrabasic (very silica-poor) composition that is composed largely of olivine and augite and is somewhat similar to peridotite. Picrites are dark, heavy rocks and contain a ...
Pict: (from Latin Picti, "painted"), one of an ancient people who lived in what is now eastern and northeastern Scotland, from Caithness to Fife. Their name may refer to their custom ...
Pictet de Rochemont, Charles: statesman and diplomat who prepared the declaration of Switzerland's permanent neutrality ratified by the great powers in 1815.
Pictish language: language spoken by the Picts in northern Scotland and replaced by Gaelic after the union in the 9th century of the Pictish kingdom with the rest of Scotland. Knowledge concerning ...
pictography: expression and communication by means of pictures and drawings having a communicative aim. These pictures and drawings (called pictographs) are usually considered to be a forerunner of true writing and ...
Picton: unincorporated place and administrative centre of Prince Edward County, a municipality in southeastern Ontario, Can. It lies along Lake Ontario's Bay of Quinte, 15 miles (25 km) southeast of Belleville. ...
Picton: town and port, Marlborough unitary authority, northeastern South Island, New Zealand. It lies along Waitohi Bay (Picton Harbour), a southwest extension of Queen Charlotte Sound off Davis Strait. In 1848 ...
Pictou: town, seat of Pictou county, northern Nova Scotia, Canada. It lies just northwest of New Glasgow, on Pictou Harbour, facing Northumberland Strait. The site, a former Micmac Indian village, was ...
picture frame: mounting assemblage designed to protect, display, and often enhance a painting, drawing, photograph, or other visual representation. See frame design.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: colourful sandstone cliffs lining the southern shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. The area, established in 1966 as the country's first national lakeshore, extends for ...
picturesque: artistic concept and style of the late 18th and early 19th centuries characterized by a preoccupation with the pictorial values of architecture and landscape in combination with each other.
piculet: any of about 29 species of small, stub-tailed birds related to the woodpeckers and constituting the subfamily Picumninae, family Picidae (q.v.). Nearly all are restricted to Central and South America; ...
Picus: in Roman mythology, ancient Roman woodpecker sacred to the god Mars. It was widely worshipped in ancient Italy and developed into a minor god. Picus was an agricultural deity associated ...
piddock: any of the marine bivalve mollusks of the family Pholadidae (Adesmoidea). Worldwide in distribution, they are especially adapted for boring into rock, shells, peat, hard clay, or mud. Most species ...
pidgin: language with a greatly reduced vocabulary and a simplified grammar, often based on a western European language. Pidgins usually arise as methods of communication between groups that have no language ...
pidyon ha-ben: Jewish ceremony in which the father redeems his wife's firstborn son by offering to a cohen (a male Jew descended from the first priest, Aaron) the equivalent of five silver ...
pie: dish made by lining a shallow container with pastry and filling the container with a sweet or savoury mixture. A top crust may be added; the pie is baked until ...
piedmont: in geology, landform created at the foot of a mountain (Italian: ai piede della montagne) or mountains by debris deposited by shifting streams. Such an alluvial region in a humid ...
Piedmont: geographic region in the eastern United States, running some 600 miles (950 km) between New Jersey (north) and Alabama (south) and lying between the Appalachian Mountains (west) and the Atlantic ...
Piedmont: regione, northwestern Italy, comprising the provincie of Alessandria, Asti, Biella, Cuneo, Novara, Torino, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, and Vercelli.
piedmontite: a silicate mineral that belongs to the epidote (q.v.) series.
Piedras Negras: city, northeastern Coahuila estado ("state"), northeastern Mexico. It lies at 722 feet (220 m) above sea level on the Rio Grande (Bravo del Norte River), just across from Eagle Pass, ...
Pielinen, Lake: lake located in eastern Finland, near the border with Russia. The lake is approximately 60 mi (100 km) long between the towns of Nurmes and Uimaharju and ranges from 1 ...
Pieman River: river, northwestern Tasmania, Australia. It is formed near Tullah by the confluence of the Macintosh and Murchison rivers. The 61-mile- (98-kilometre-) long main stream is fed by the Huskisson and ...
Pien Canal: canal running northwest-southeast through Honan, Anhwei, and Kiangsu provinces of China. In medieval times the name was given to several different canals that connected the Huang Ho (Yellow River), north ...
Pien-tsung-lun: (Chinese: "Discussions of Essentials"), treatise by Hsieh Ling-yun, an early Chinese Buddhist intellectual, valued chiefly as one of the few sources of information about the author's eminent teacher, Tao-sheng (d. ...
piepoudre court: lowest and most expeditious of the courts of justice known to the ancient common law of England. It was generally constituted by merchants and dealt with fair trading. The name ...
pier: in building construction, vertical loadbearing member such as an intermediate support for adjacent ends of two bridge spans. In foundations for large buildings, piers are usually cylindrical concrete shafts, cast ...
Pierce, Franklin: 14th president of the United States (1853-57). He failed to deal effectively with the corroding sectional controversy over slavery in the decade preceding the American Civil War (1861-65). (For a ...
Pierce, George Washington: American inventor who was a pioneer in radiotelephony and a noted teacher of communication engineering.
Pierce, Jane: American first lady (1853-57), the wife of Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States.
Pierce, John Davis: Michigan's first superintendent of public instruction and leader in the establishment of the University of Michigan.
Pierce, John Robinson: American communications engineer, scientist, and father of the communications satellite.
Pierce, Sarah: American educator, noted for the school that she developed from a small group of pupils studying in her home into one of the first major U.S. institutions for women, Litchfield ...
pierced work: in metalwork, perforations created for decorative or functional effect or both; the French term for such work is ajoure. Both hand-operated and mechanical tools such as saws, drills, chisels, and ...
Pieris: genus of about eight species of evergreen, white-flowered shrubs and small trees, of the heath family (Ericaceae), native to eastern Asia and eastern North America.
Piero Della Francesca: painter whose serene, disciplined exploration of perspective had little influence on his contemporaries but came to be recognized in the 20th century as a major contribution to the Italian Renaissance. ...
Piero Di Cosimo: Italian Renaissance painter noted for his eccentric character and his fanciful mythological paintings.
Pierre: city, seat (1880) of Hughes county and capital of South Dakota, U.S. It lies on the eastern bank of the Missouri River, in the geographic centre of the state.
Pierre Shale: division of Upper Cretaceous rocks in the United States (the Cretaceous Period lasted from 144 to 66.4 million years ago). Named for exposures studied near old Fort Pierre, S.D., the ...
Piest'any: town, Zapadni Slovensko kraj (region), Slovakia, on the Vah River, approximately 48 miles (77 km) northeast of Bratislava. Piest'any is a Carpathian health resort, known since the Middle Ages for ...
Pieta: as a theme in Christian art, depiction of the Virgin Mary supporting the body of the dead Christ. Some representations of the Pieta include John the Apostle, Mary Magdalene, and ...
Pietarsaari: town, western Finland, northeast of the city of Vaasa. Pietarsaari, which was formerly mainly Swedish-speaking, was founded in 1652; it became an important commercial centre because of its location on ...
Pietas: in Roman religion, personification of a respectful and faithful attachment to gods, country, and relatives, especially parents. Pietas had a temple at Rome, dedicated in 181 BC, and was often ...
Pietermaritzburg: city, capital of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It lies in the Msunduzi River valley, at the base of a tree-covered escarpment inland from Durban. Boers from the Cape Colony founded ...
Pietersburg: town and capital of Northern province, South Africa. It is located about midway between Pretoria and the Zimbabwe border, at an elevation of 4,199 feet (1,280 m). The town was ...
Pietism: influential religious reform movement that began among German Lutherans in the 17th century. It emphasized personal faith against the main Lutheran church's perceived stress on doctrine and theology over Christian ...
pietra dura: (Italian: "hard stone"), in mosaic, any of several kinds of hard stone used in commesso mosaic work, an art that flourished in Florence particularly in the late 16th and 17th ...
Pietrasanta: town, centre of a district known as Versilia, Lucca provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, central Italy, at the foot of the Alpi Apuane (mountains) just southeast of Carrara. Its piazza is ...
Pietro da Cortona: Italian architect, painter, and decorator, an outstanding exponent of Baroque style.
Pietro Della Vigna: chief minister of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II, distinguished as jurist, poet, and man of letters whose sudden fall from power and tragic death captured the imagination of poets ...
piezoelectricity: appearance of positive electric charge on one side of certain nonconducting crystals and negative charge on the opposite side when the crystals are subjected to mechanical pressure. This effect is ...
pig: wild or domestic swine, a mammal of the Suidae family. In Britain, the term pig refers to all domestic swine; in the United States, to ...
pig iron: crude iron obtained directly from the blast furnace and cast in molds. See cast iron.
Pigalle, Jean-Baptiste: French sculptor noted for his stylistically varied and original works.
pigeon: any of several hundred species of birds constituting the family Columbidae (order Columbiformes). Smaller forms are usually called doves, larger forms pigeons. An exception is the white domestic pigeon, the ...