(Encyclopedia) ArmageddonArmageddonärˌməgedˈən [key], in the New Testament, great battlefield where, at the end of the world, the powers of evil will fight the powers of good. If the usual etymology…
(Encyclopedia) Widener, Harry ElkinsWidener, Harry Elkinswīdˈnər [key], 1885–1912, American bibliophile, b. Philadelphia. He had the greatest Robert Louis Stevenson collection in existence. Widener…
(Encyclopedia) Tucker, Abraham, 1705–74, English philosopher, b. London. He studied law at Merton College, Oxford, and later devoted himself to independent study. He advanced the ethical view that…
(Encyclopedia) self-fulfilling prophecy, a concept developed by Robert K. Merton to explain how a belief or expectation, whether correct or not, affects the outcome of a situation or the way a person…
(Encyclopedia) conduction, transfer of heat or electricity through a substance, resulting from a difference in temperature between different parts of the substance, in the case of heat, or from a…
(Encyclopedia) syphilissyphilissĭfˈəlĭs [key], contagious sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum (described by Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann in 1905). Syphilis…
(Encyclopedia) domino theory, the notion that if one country becomes Communist, other nations in the region will probably follow, like dominoes falling in a line. The analogy, first applied (1954) to…
(Encyclopedia) Gog, in the Bible. In the Book of Ezekiel, Gog is a leader, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal who will attack Israel and be defeated in the last days. Magog is his country. The…
(Encyclopedia) Jameson, Storm (Margaret Storm Jameson), 1891–1986, English novelist and critic, b. Whitby, Yorkshire, grad. Leeds Univ., 1912. Descended from a shipbuilding family, she drew on her…
(Encyclopedia) Roddenberry, Gene (Eugene Wesley Roddenberry), 1921–91, American television writer and producer, b. El Paso, Tex. After being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal…
