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jargon

(Encyclopedia)jargon, pejorative term applied to speech or writing that is considered meaningless, unintelligible, or ugly. In one sense the term is applied to the special language of a profession, which may be unn...

Du Cange, Charles du Fresne, sieur

(Encyclopedia)Du Cange, Charles du Fresne, sieur shärl dü frĕn syör dü käNzh [key], 1610–88, French medieval historian and philologist. He is principally known for his Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitat...

Oriya

(Encyclopedia)Oriya ôdēˈə [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian. ...

Čelakovsky, František

(Encyclopedia)Čelakovsky, František fränˈtĭshĕk chĕˈläkôfskĭ [key], 1799–1852, Czech folklorist and poet. A disciple of Herder and a romantic Pan-Slavist, he collected Slavic folk songs from 1822 to 18...

hexameter

(Encyclopedia)hexameter hĕksămˈətər [key] [Gr.,=measure of six], in prosody, a line to be scanned in six feet (see versification). The most celebrated hexameter measure is dactylic, which was the meter for mos...

Akkadian

(Encyclopedia)Akkadian əkāˈdēən [key], extinct language belonging to the East Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). Also called Assyro...

Provençal literature

(Encyclopedia)Provençal literature, vernacular literature of S France. Provençal, or Occitan, as the language is now often called, appears to have been the first vernacular tongue used in French commerce and lite...

Avicenna

(Encyclopedia)Avicenna ăvĭsĕnˈə [key], Arabic Ibn Sina, 980–1037, Islamic philosopher and physician, of Persian origin, b. near Bukhara. He was the most renowned philosopher of medieval Islam and the most in...

Münster, Sebastian

(Encyclopedia)Münster, Sebastian sābäsˈtyänˌ münˈstər [key], 1489–1552, German scholar and geographer. He was a Franciscan monk but after the Reformation became a Protestant and taught at Heidelberg and ...

Ham, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Ham, in the Bible, son of Noah. In biblical ethnography, Ham is the father of the nations Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. In a story separate from the flood narrative, the legend related in the Book ...