Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Shop

0-9

Savai'i ... Sayers, Gale

Savai'i: westernmost and largest island of Samoa, in the South Pacific Ocean. It is separated from Upolu to the east by the Apolima Strait. Savai'i is about 50 miles (80 km) ...
savanna: vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy (i.e., scattered trees) above a continuous tall grass understory. The largest areas ...
Savannah: either of two historic U.S. ships, each representing a landmark in navigation. In 1819 the first Savannah, named for its home port in Georgia (although built in New York) became ...
Savannah: industrial seaport city, seat (1777) of Chatham county, southeastern Georgia, U.S., at the mouth of the Savannah River. Savannah was established in 1733 by James Edward Oglethorpe, the founder of ...
Savannah River: river formed by the confluence of the Tugaloo and Seneca rivers at Hartwell Dam, Georgia, U.S. It constitutes the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina as it flows southeastward past ...
Savannakhet: town in the central southern panhandle of Laos, on the left bank of the Mekong River. It had a teacher-training school (1911), a public high school (1946), a Buddhist secondary ...
Savara: tribe of eastern India. They are distributed mainly in the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Bihar, with total numbers of about 310,000, most of whom are in ...
Savard, Felix-Antoine: French-Canadian priest, poet, novelist, and folklorist whose works show a strong French-nationalist bias and a love of the Canadian landscape.
Savary, Anne-Jean-Marie-Rene, duc de Rovigo: French general, administrator, and trusted servant of Napoleon I.
savate: (Middle French: "old shoe"), French sport of fighting by kicking, practiced until the first half of the 19th century. It occurred mainly among the lower orders of Parisian society. When ...
Save the Children: any of several independent, voluntary organizations that seek to provide both disaster and long-term aid to disadvantaged children throughout the world. The original organization was founded in Great Britain in ...
Savelli, Luca: Roman senator who in 1234 led a revolution against Pope Gregory IX to further the commercial interests of the Roman middle class.
Savery, Thomas: English engineer and inventor who built the first steam engine.
Savery, William: American cabinetmaker who was an important member of the group of Philadelphia craftsmen working in the Chippendale style during the 18th century.
Savigny, Friedrich Karl von: German jurist and legal scholar who was one of the founders of the influential "historical school" of jurisprudence. He advocated that the meaning and content of existing bodies of law ...
Savimbi, Jonas: Angolan politician, the leader of a long-continuing guerrilla insurgency against the postindependence government of Angola.
saving: process of setting aside a portion of current income for future use, or the flow of resources accumulated in this way over a given period of time. Saving may take ...
savings and loan association: a savings and home-financing institution that makes loans for the purchase of private housing, home improvements, and new construction. Formerly cooperative institutions in which savers were shareholders in the association ...
savings bank: financial institution that gathers savings, paying interest or dividends to savers. It channels the savings of individuals who wish to consume less than their incomes to borrowers who wish to ...
Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich: revolutionary who violently opposed both the imperial and the Soviet regimes in Russia. He wrote several pseudonymous novels based on his career as a terrorist.
Savo: island in the eastern Solomon Islands, southwestern Pacific Ocean, just north of Guadalcanal. Rising 1,673 feet (510 metres) from the ocean, the island is 5 miles (8 km) long and ...
Savoldo, Giovanni Girolamo: painter of the Brescian school whose style is marked by a quiet lyricism. Scholars believe, because of his preoccupation with clearly defined shapes in light, that Savoldo was influenced by ...
Savon, Felix: Cuban heavyweight boxer, who became the second fighter to win three Olympic gold medals in the same weight class and the first to capture six world amateur boxing titles.
Savona: city, seaport, and capital of Savona province, Liguria region, northwestern Italy, on the Riviera di Ponente, southwest of Genoa. First recorded as the Gallo-Roman town of Savo, an ally of ...
Savona faience: tin-glazed earthenware made in the 17th and 18th centuries at Savona, Liguria, Italy, and at nearby Genoa and Albissola. It is painted in a highly individual and seemingly artless style.
Savonarola, Girolamo: Italian Christian preacher, reformer, and martyr, renowned for his clash with tyrannical rulers and a corrupt clergy. After the overthrow of the Medici in 1494, Savonarola was the sole leader ...
Savonnerie carpet: French pile floor covering, usually large, whether made at the Savonnerie workshop or made in that manner and style. The Savonnerie factory (on the site of a former soap factory, ...
savora: any of a group of 6th-century-AD Jewish scholars who determined the final internal form of the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), a collection of authoritative interpretations and explanations of Jewish oral ...
savory: (species Satureia hortensis), aromatic annual herb of the mint family (Lamiaceae, or Labiatae), the dried leaves and flowering tops of which are used to flavour many foods, particularly poultry and ...
Savoy: historic and cultural region encompassing the southeastern French departements of Haute-Savoie and Savoie and coextensive with the historic region of Savoy.
Savoy Alps: northwestern spurs of the Graian Alps (q.v.) in southeastern France between Lake Geneva (north), the middle Rhone River (west), and the Arc and Isere river valleys (south). The highest peak ...
Savoy Conference: meeting held in 1661 at the Savoy Palace, London, attended by 12 Anglican bishops and 12 Puritan ministers, with nine assistants from each side, in order to decide on revisions ...
Savoy Declaration: statement of faith prepared in 1658 by a conference of English Congregationalists who met at Savoy Palace, London. The declaration consisted of three parts: a preface, a confession of faith, ...
Savoy, House of: historic dynasty of Europe, the ruling house of Italy from 1861 to 1946. During the European Middle Ages the family acquired considerable territory in the western Alps where France, Italy, ...
Savu Sea: portion of the Pacific Ocean surrounded by the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. It is bounded by the volcanic inner Banda Island arc (Flores, Solor, Lomblen, Pantar, and Alor) on ...
saw: tool for cutting solid materials to prescribed lengths or shapes. Most saws take the form of a thin metal strip with teeth on one edge or a thin metal disk ...
saw shark: any of about four species of long-snouted marine sharks of the family Pristiophoridae. Saw sharks are found off South Africa, Australia, and eastern Asia and are characterized by a long, ...
Saw, U: also called Galon U Saw Burmese political leader who conspired in the assassination of Aung San, the resistance leader who negotiated Burma's independence from the British.
saw-scaled viper: (Echis carinatus), venomous snake of the family Viperidae, found in deserts and other arid regions from northern Africa to Ceylon. Though probably the most venomous of vipers, with a bite ...
Sawai Madhopur: town, eastern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. Sawai Madhopur, a walled town, was laid out on a plan somewhat similar to that of Jaipur city by Madho Singh, maharaja of Jaipur ...
Sawakin: town, northeastern Sudan, on the Red Sea coast south of Port Sudan. Originating in the 12th century as a rival port to 'Aydhab (Aidhab) to the north, where dues were ...
Sawankhalok: town, north-central Thailand, on the Yom River north of Sukhothai town. A few miles north of the present town are the remains of the ancient walled city of Sawankhalok. The ...
Sawara: city, Chiba ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the lower Tone River. From the 17th to the early 20th century, Sawara was a commercial centre and river port whose importance was ...
Sawatch Range: segment of the southern Rocky Mountains in central Colorado, U.S., extending southeastward for 100 miles (160 km) from the Eagle River to the city of Saguache (a variant spelling of ...
Sawchuk, Terry: professional North American ice hockey goalie, who is considered one of the greatest in the game.
sawfish: any of several species of sharklike rays forming the genus Pristis and the family Pristidae. Sawfishes are found in shallow water in subtropical and tropical regions of the world. They ...
sawfly: any member of the superfamily Tenthredinoidea (order Hymenoptera), a large and widely distributed group of insects. The superfamily consists of five families: Argidae, argid sawflies; Pergidae, pergid sawflies; Cimbicidae, cimbicid ...
Sawhaj: muhafazah (governorate) in Upper Egypt, south of Asyut and north of Qina governorates. It is a ribbonlike stretch of the fertile Nile River valley about 60 miles (100 km) long, ...
Sawhaj: town and capital of Sawhaj muhafazah (governorate) in the Nile River valley of Upper Egypt. The town is located on the Nile's western bank between Asyut and Jirja, immediately across ...
sawing machine: device for cutting up bars of material or for cutting out shapes in plates of raw material. The cutting tools of sawing machines may be thin metallic disks with teeth ...
sawm: (Arabic: "fasting"), in Islam, any religious fast, but particularly the fast of the month of Ramadan (q.v.).
sawmill: machine or plant with power-driven machines for sawing logs into rough-squared sections or into planks and boards. A sawmill may be equipped with planing, molding, tenoning, and other machines for ...
Sawu Island: island and island group in the Savu Sea, Nusa Tenggara Timur provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. The island group includes Sawu (160 square miles [414 square km]), Raijua (14 square miles [36 ...
Sax, Antoine-Joseph: also called Adolphe Sax Belgian-French maker of musical instruments and inventor of the saxophone.
Saxe, Maurice, comte de: (count of) general and military theorist who successfully led French armies during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48).
Saxecoburggotski, Simeon: the last king of Bulgaria, reigning as a child from 1943 to 1946 as Simeon II. He later served as the country's prime minister (2001-05).
saxhorn: any of a family of brass wind instruments patented by the Belgian instrument-maker Antoine-Joseph Sax, known as Adolphe Sax, in Paris in 1845. Saxhorns, one of many 19th-century developments from ...
Saxifragaceae: the saxifrage family of flowering plants, in the order Rosales, comprising 36 genera of mostly perennial dicotyledonous herbs. The members are cosmopolitan in distribution but native primarily to northern cold ...
saxifrage: any of a genus of flowering plants, of the family Saxifragaceae, native in temperate, subarctic, and alpine areas. About 300 species have been identified. Many of them are valued as ...
Saxo Grammaticus: historian whose Gesta Danorum ("Story of the Danes) is the first important work on the history of Denmark and the first Danish contribution to world literature.
Saxon: member of a Germanic people who in ancient times lived in the area of modern Schleswig and along the Baltic coast. The period of Roman decline in the West was ...
Saxon duchies: several former states in the Thuringian region of east-central Germany, ruled by members of the Ernestine branch of the house of Wettin between 1485 and 1918; today their territory occupies ...
Saxon Dynasty: ruling house of German kings (Holy Roman emperors) from 919 to 1024. It came to power when the Liudolfing duke of Saxony was elected German king as Henry I (later ...
Saxony: any of several major territories in German history. It has been applied: (1) before AD 1180, to an extensive far-north German region including Holstein but lying mainly west and southwest ...
Saxony: Land (state), eastern Germany. Saxony Land was re-created in the process of the reunification of East with West Germany in 1990 from the former East German Bezirke (districts) of Dresden, ...
Saxony-Anhalt: Land (state), east-central Germany. Saxony-Anhalt had its origins in the principality of Anhalt (q.v.), which was a duchy from 1863 to 1918 and a Land of Germany from 1918 until ...
saxophone: any of a family of single-reed wind instruments ranging from soprano to bass and characterized by a conical metal tube and finger keys. The first saxophone was patented by Antoine-Joseph ...
Say, J.-B: French economist, best known for his law of markets, which postulates that supply creates its own demand.
Say, Leon: economist who served as finance minister in the Third Republic of France.
Say, Thomas: naturalist often considered to be the founder of descriptive entomology in the United States. His work, which was almost entirely taxonomic, was quickly recognized by European zoologists.
Sayan Mountains: large upland region lying along the frontiers of east-central Russia and Mongolia. Within Russia the mountains occupy the southern parts of the Krasnoyarsk kray (region) and Irkutsk oblast (province), the ...
Sayat-Nova: Armenian troubadour known for his love songs.
Sayce, Archibald H: British language scholar whose many valuable contributions to ancient Middle Eastern linguistic research included the first grammar in English of Assyrian.
Saye and Sele, William Fiennes, 1st Viscount, 8th Lord Saye And Sele: English statesman, a leading opponent of James I and Charles I in the House of Lords and a supporter of Parliament in the English Civil Wars.
Sayers, Dorothy L.: English scholar and writer whose numerous mystery stories featuring the witty and charming Lord Peter Wimsey combined the attractions of scholarly erudition and cultural small talk with the puzzle of ...
Sayers, Gale: American gridiron football player who in 1977 became the youngest player ever voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Though knee injuries shortened his career, Sayers showed in his ...