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Carnarvon, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Carnarvon, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th earl of kärnärˈvən [key], 1866–1923, English Egyptologist. With Howard Carter he excavated in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, fro...

Powell, William

(Encyclopedia)Powell, William, 1892–1984, American movie actor, b. Pittsburgh. Powell made his stage debut in 1912. He played the dapper villain in such early films as Sherlock Holmes (1921), Romola (1924), and B...

ballade

(Encyclopedia)ballade bəlädˈ [key], in literature, verse form developed in France in the 14th and 15th cent. The ballade usually contains three stanzas of eight lines with three rhymes and a four-line envoy (a s...

vielle

(Encyclopedia)vielle vyĕl [key], bowed string instrument used throughout Europe from the 13th cent. through the 15th cent. The vielle resembles the violin, of which it is a direct precursor, but it has a longer bo...

inflection

(Encyclopedia)inflection, in grammar. In many languages, words or parts of words are arranged in formally similar sets consisting of a root, or base, and various affixes. Thus walking, walks, walker have in common ...

Germanic religion

(Encyclopedia)Germanic religion, pre-Christian religious practices among the tribes of Western Europe, Germany, and Scandinavia. The main sources for our knowledge are the Germania of Tacitus and the Elder Edda and...

Germans

(Encyclopedia)Germans, great ethnic complex of ancient Europe, a basic stock in the composition of the modern peoples of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, N Italy, the Netherlands, Be...

Duarte, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Duarte dwärˈtə [key], 1391–1438, king of Portugal (1433–38), eldest of the five sons of John I. He was a “philosopher-king,” notable for his legal reforms and as the author of O leal consel...

Hamilton, Andrew, colonial governor of New Jersey

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, Andrew, d. 1703, colonial governor of New Jersey, b. Scotland. Becoming deputy governor of East Jersey in 1687, Hamilton defended the proprietors against popular opposition and shortly had t...

Anquetil, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Anquetil, Jacques zhäk äNkətēlˈ [key], 1934–87, French bicycle racer, b. Mont-Saint-Aignan, Normandy. Beginning to race in 1951, he won the French amateur championship a year later. Anquetil wa...