(Encyclopedia) abbreviation, in writing, arbitrary shortening of a word, usually by cutting off letters from the end, as in U.S. and Gen. (General). Contraction serves the same purpose…
(Encyclopedia) suspension, in chemistry, mixture of two substances, one of which is finely divided and dispersed in the other. Common suspensions include sand in water, fine soot or dust in air, and…
(Encyclopedia) sweet fern, common name for several plants belonging to different botanical divisions. One is a shrub of the family Myricaceae (bayberry family) in the division Magnoliophyta; others…
(Encyclopedia) tanzanitetanzanitetănzănˈīt [key], beautiful gemstone discovered in 1967 in the Umba Valley near the Usambara Mts. in Tanzania, a precious variety of the mineral zoisite, a calcium…
(Encyclopedia) Šafařik, Pavel JosefŠafařik, Pavel Josefpäˈvĕl yôˈzĕf shäˈfär-zhēk [key], 1795–1861, Czech philologist and archaeologist; his name is also spelled Schafarik and Schafřík. Šafařik…
(Encyclopedia) transcendentalism, in philosophy, term descriptive of systems that hold that there are modes of being and principles of existence beyond the reach of mundane experience and…
(Encyclopedia) Briggs, Henry, 1561–1630, English mathematician. He was the first professor of geometry at Gresham College, London (1596–1619), and Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford (from 1619…
(Encyclopedia) Bermuda grass, perennial pasture, lawn, and hay grass (Cynodon dactylon) of the family Poaceae (grass family), native to Africa and Asia and now common in warm regions of both…
(Encyclopedia) screwpine, any plant of the genus Pandanus, tropical shrubs or trees characterized by aerial prop roots, ranging throughout the Old World tropics, especially in the Pacific. The…
(Encyclopedia) salpiglossissalpiglossissălˌpəglŏsˈəs [key], any plant of the genus Salpiglossis of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family), herbs native to Chile and widely cultivated elsewhere as…
