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Damascus ware

(Encyclopedia)Damascus ware, early siliceous-glazed semiporcelain produced in Damascus. The most common decoration is in blue and black. However, purple, sage green, and, rarely, a red can be found. Made mainly in ...

crowberry

(Encyclopedia)crowberry, evergreen alpine and arctic shrub of the genus Empetrum (or, sometimes, other related species), bearing black, red, or purple berrylike fruits. Some are cultivated in rock gardens. Crowberr...

Lead, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Lead lēd [key], city (1990 pop. 3,632), Lawrence co., W S.Dak., in the Black Hills; laid out 1876 after the discovery of gold there, inc. 1890. It is the site of the famous Homestake Mine, which was ...

Symplegades

(Encyclopedia)Symplegades sĭmplĕgˈədēz [key], in Greek mythology, two floating cliffs that swung together and crushed anything going between them until Jason's ship, the Argo, passed safely through them. They ...

sharecropping

(Encyclopedia)sharecropping, an agricultural system in which a landowner allows a tenant to use their land in return for a share of the crop produced. In the United S...

color

(Encyclopedia)color, effect produced on the eye and its associated nerves by light waves of different wavelength or frequency. Light transmitted from an object to the eye stimulates the different color cones of the...

rock music

(Encyclopedia)rock music, type of music originating in the United States in the mid-1950s and increasingly popular throughout much of the world. A turning point in rock music occurred in the mid-1970s in the ...

Exekias

(Encyclopedia)Exekias ĕksĕkˈēəs [key], c.555–530 b.c., Greek potter and painter. He worked mainly in the black-figure style. Eleven vases and a series of fifteen plaques have been attributed to him, includin...

Hoyerswerda

(Encyclopedia)Hoyerswerda hoiˌərsvĕrˈdä [key], city, Saxony, SE Germany, on the Black Elster River; chartered ...

houri

(Encyclopedia)houri ho͞oˈrē, houˈ– [key] [Arab.,=black-eyed], one of the beautiful maidens said by some Muslims to dwell in paradise for the enjoyment of the faithful. The passages in the Qur'an detailing the...