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Wayland Smith

(Encyclopedia)Wayland Smith, in English folklore, a skillful blacksmith and great armor maker, whose forge was near the White Horse (Oxfordshire). He appears in the Old English Beowulf and Deor and in Sir Walter Sc...

Kansa

(Encyclopedia)Kansa kănˈsô [key], people whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages), also known as the Kansas or Kaw. Closely related to the ...

jade

(Encyclopedia)jade, common name for either of two minerals used as gems. The rarer variety of jade is jadeite, a sodium aluminum silicate, NaAl(SiO3)2, usually white or green in color; the green variety is the more...

jasmine

(Encyclopedia)jasmine jĕsˈəmĭn [key], any plant of the genus Jasminum of the family Oleaceae (olive family). The genus, which includes shrubs and clambering plants, is an Old World group, chiefly of tropical an...

crossbill

(Encyclopedia)crossbill, bird of the genus Loxia, in the finch family. Its bill, crossed at the tips, is specialized for pulling apart pine cones and picking out the seeds. Crossbills are found in the evergreen for...

Cornell University

(Encyclopedia)Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of ...

piculet

(Encyclopedia)piculet pĭkˈyələt [key], common name for a small bird of the family Picidae, which includes the woodpecker and the wryneck. Like the true woodpeckers, piculets are large-headed and have long, stic...

Avedon, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Avedon, Richard, 1923–2004, American photographer, b. New York City. Son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, he studied philosophy at Columbia, served in the photographic section of the U.S. Merchant Mari...

azalea

(Encyclopedia)azalea əzālˈyə [key] [Gr.,=dry], any species of the genus Rhododendron, North American and Asian shrubs of the family Ericaceae (heath family) that are distinguished by the usually deciduous leave...

O'Neill, Paul Henry

(Encyclopedia)O'Neill, Paul Henry, 1935–2020, American business executive and government official, b. St. Louis, Mo., grad. Fresno State College (B.A.) and Indiana Univ. (M.P.A.). A Republican, O'Neill began his ...