ruler of northern Syria who was the founder and the most prominent prince of the Arab Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo. He was famous for his patronage of scholars and for ...
(Arabic: "master," or "lord"), Arabic title of respect, sometimes restricted, as is the title sharif, to the Banu Hashim, members of Muhammad's clan; in particular, the descendants of Muhammad's uncles ...
rulers of India's Delhi sultanate (c. 1414-51) as successors of the Tughluq dynasty until displaced by the Afghan Lodis; this family claimed to be sayyids, or descendants of the Prophet ...
statesman and diplomat, Russia's minister of foreign affairs (1910-16) during the period immediately preceding and following the outbreak of World War I.
in botany, any of several bacterial or fungal diseases of plants characterized by crustaceous lesions on fruit, tuber, leaf, or stem. The term is also used for the symptom of ...
skin inflammation accompanied by severe nighttime itching caused by the itch mite (Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis). The mite passes from person to person by ...
(genus Scabiosa), any of about 100 species of annual and perennial herbs of the teasel family, Dipsacaceae, order Dipsacales. They are native to temperate Eurasia, the Mediterranean region, and the ...
any of several species of fishes in the family Carangidae (order Perciformes), which also includes the jacks, amberjacks, and pompanos. The name scad is usually restricted to certain species in ...
legendary Roman hero who is said to have saved Rome (c. 509 BC) from conquest by the Etruscan king Lars Porsena. According to the legend, Mucius volunteered to assassinate Porsena, ...
in building construction, temporary platform used to elevate and support workers and materials during the construction, repair, or cleaning of a structure or machine; it consists of one or more ...
in U.S. history, any Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction after the Civil War or who joined with the black freedman and the carpetbagger (q.v.) in support of ...
in zoology, small plate that forms part of the skin of certain animals. Scales provide protection from the environment and from predators. Fish scales are formed of bone from the ...
any member of several families of the insect order Homoptera. The females are wingless, with reduced legs and antennae; the males have one pair of delicate wings, well-developed legs and ...
any member of the order Aphroditamorpha (class Polychaeta, phylum Annelida), a group of widely distributed free-moving, segmented marine worms. Scale worms range in size from 0.5 to 25 cm (about ...
any of the more than 90 species of marine fishes constituting the family Melanostomiatidae (order Salmoniformes), with representatives inhabiting tropical regions of the major oceans. The name refers to the ...
associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986, well known for his strong legal conservatism. He was the first Supreme Court justice of Italian ancestry.
Dutch philologist and historian whose works on chronology were among the greatest contributions of Renaissance scholars to revisions in historical and classical studies.
French classical scholar of Italian descent who worked in botany, zoology, grammar, and literary criticism. He claimed to be a descendant of the Della Scala family, whose Latinized name was ...
any of the marine bivalve mollusks of the family Pectinidae, particularly the species of the genus Pecten. The family, which includes about 50 genera and subgenera and more than 400 ...
removal of all or part of the scalp, with hair attached, from an enemy's head. Although best known as a practice of North American Indian warfare, scalping was not exclusive ...
(Nephrops norvegicus), edible lobster of the order Decapoda (class Crustacea). It is widespread in the Mediterranean and northeastern Atlantic, from North Africa to Norway and Iceland, and as a gastronomic ...
part of northern Europe, generally held to consist of the two countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Norway and Sweden, with the addition of Denmark. Some authorities argue for the inclusion ...
one of the largest Pleistocene glacial masses, covering most of northern Europe (the Pleistocene Epoch began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). At its maximum extent, ...
languages forming the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. The modern standard languages are Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (Dano-Norwegian and New Norwegian), Icelandic, and Faroese. These languages are usually divided ...
in medieval times, a separate and independent branch of early Germanic law, and, in modern times, in the form of codifications, the basis of the legal systems of Norway, Denmark, ...
in medieval times, a separate and independent branch of early Germanic law. It originated within what are now Norway, Denmark, and Sweden and was extended between the 9th and 13th ...
the body of writings in the North Germanic group of languages, the modern forms of which include Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish, and Faeroese. The literary works written in these languages, ...
large promontory of northern Europe, occupied by Norway and Sweden. It is about 1,150 mi (1,850 km) long and extends southward from the Barents Sea of the Arctic Ocean between ...
(Sc), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. Scandium is a silvery-white, rather soft metal. After Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev predicted (1871) its existence, tentatively calling ...
the analysis and visual representation of a poem's metrical pattern. Adapted from the classical method of analyzing ancient Greek and Roman quantitative verse, scansion in English prosody employs a system ...
extensive landlocked anchorage in Scotland's Orkney Islands, which lie off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland. The anchorage is approximately 15 miles (24 km) long from north to south ...
("goat for Azazel"), in the Old Testament ritual of Yom Kippur (Lev. 16:8-10), a goat symbolically burdened with the sins of the Jewish people. Some scholars believe that the animal ...
extinct genus of cephalopods (animals related to the modern octopus, squid, and nautilus) found as fossils in marine deposits. Because Scaphites is restricted to certain divisions of Cretaceous time (the ...
(Italian: "bohemianism"), a mid-19th-century avant-garde movement found mostly in Milan; influenced by Baudelaire, the French Symbolist poets, Edgar Allan Poe, and German Romantic writers, it sought to replace the classical, ...
(from Italian scappare, "to flee"), stock character of the Italian commedia dell'arte; one of the comic servants, or zanni, who was especially noted for his cowardice, taking flight at the ...
any of a group of feldspathoid minerals found in calcium-rich metamorphic rocks, particularly marble, gneiss, granulite, greenschist, and skarns. Principal occurrences are Quebec and Ontario, Canada; Kiruna, Swed.; Pennsylvania, United ...
either of two large bones of the shoulder girdle in vertebrates. In humans they are triangular and lie on the upper back between the levels of the second and eighth ...
mark left on the skin after the healing of a cut, burn, or other area of wounded tissue. As part of the healing process, specialized cells called fibroblasts in adjacent ...
in ancient Egyptian religion, important symbol in the form of the dung beetle (Scarabaeus sacer). This beetle may be seen on sunny days forming a ball of dung and rolling ...
any member of the beetle family Scarabaeidae (order Coleoptera), which contains about 30,000 species found throughout the world. Scarab beetles are compact and heavy-bodied insects with robustly oval outlines. They ...
stock character of the Italian theatrical form known as the commedia dell'arte; an unscrupulous and unreliable servant. His affinity for intrigue often landed him in difficult situations, yet he always ...
town, Cumberland county, southwestern Maine, U.S. It lies at the mouth of the Nonesuch River on the Atlantic coast. The town includes the communities of Scarborough, Higgins Beach, Prouts Neck, ...
town and borough on the North Sea coast, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England. Scarborough town originated from a 10th-century Viking fishing settlement in the shelter ...
chief town and deepwater harbour of Tobago island in the Trinidad and Tobago group in the southern Caribbean Sea. Formerly called Port Louis, it overlooks Scarborough Harbour, formerly Rockly Bay, ...
former city (1983-98), southeastern Ontario, Canada. In 1998 it amalgamated with the borough of East York and the cities of Etobicoke, York, North York, and Toronto to form the City ...
device posted on cultivated ground to deter birds or other animals from eating or otherwise disturbing seeds, shoots, and fruit; its name derives from its use against the crow. The ...
Italian composer noted particularly for his 555 keyboard sonatas, which substantially expanded the technical and musical possibilities of the harpsichord.
acute infectious disease caused by group A hemolytic streptococcal bacteria, in particular Streptococcus pyogenes. Scarlet fever can affect people of all ages, but it is most often ...
(Cemophora coccinea), small, burrowing, nocturnal member of the family Colubridae. It occurs in the United States from New Jersey to Florida and as far west as Texas.
French writer who contributed significantly to the development of three literary genres: the drama, the burlesque epic, and the novel. He is remembered today for a single work, Le Roman ...
village and town (township), Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S. It is a northern residential suburb of New York City. The site was settled in 1701, following its purchase by ...
in music, jazz vocal style using emotive, onomatopoeic, and nonsense syllables instead of words in solo improvisations on a melody. Scat has dim antecedents in the West African practice of ...
in biology, any of four species of fishes constituting the family Scatophagidae (order Perciformes). The few species are placed into two genera, Selenotoca and Scatophagus. They are found in marine ...
deviant sexual practice in which sexual pleasure is obtained through the compulsive use of obscene language. The affected person commonly satisfies his desires through obscene telephone calls, usually to strangers. ...
in physics, a change in the direction of motion of a particle because of a collision with another particle. As defined in physics, a collision can occur between particles that ...
(genus Aythya), any of three species of diving ducks (family Anatidae). The greater scaup (A. marila), also called the big bluebill, breeds across Eurasia and most of the Nearctic region. ...
a leader of the Optimates (conservative senatorial aristocrats) and one of the most influential men in the Roman government about 100 BC. Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote that the world was ...
animal that feeds partly or wholly on the bodies of dead animals. Many invertebrates, such as carrion beetles, live almost entirely on decomposing animal matter. The burying beetles actually enter ...
tin-glazed earthenware and porcelain made at a factory in Sceaux, Fr., from 1748 to 1794. Both were skillfully painted in a large range of enamel colours with landscape and figure ...
(Old Irish: "story"; pl. scela), in the Gaelic literature of Ireland, early prose and verse legends of gods and folk heroes, most of which originated during or before the 11th ...
in film making, original idea for a film translated into a visually oriented text. The scenario plan gives the mood of each image and its relationship with the other shots ...
