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smoke

(Encyclopedia)smoke, visible gaseous product of incomplete combustion. Smoke varies with its source, but it usually comprises hot gas and suspended particles of carbon and tarry substances, or soot. To reduce the a...

prohibition

(Encyclopedia)prohibition, legal prevention of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, the extreme of the regulatory liquor laws. The modern movement for prohibition had its main growth in...

Cecrops

(Encyclopedia)Cecrops sēˈkrŏps [key], in Greek mythology, founder and first king of Athens. A primeval being, he was half man and half serpent. As a maker of laws, he abolished human sacrifice, established monog...

amateur

(Encyclopedia)amateur, in sports, one who engages in athletic competition without material recompense. Upper-class Englishmen in the 19th cent. used the concept to help define their social status, first applying th...

Truffaut, François

(Encyclopedia)Truffaut, François fräNswäˈ trüfōˈ [key], 1932–84, French film director and critic. Known in his early 20s as a writer for the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, he was noted...

O'Casey, Sean

(Encyclopedia)O'Casey, Sean shôn [key], 1884–1964, Irish dramatist, one of the great figures of the Irish literary renaissance. A Protestant, he grew up in the slum district of Dublin and was active in various s...

Valéry, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Valéry, Paul pōl välārēˈ [key], 1871–1945, French poet and critic. A follower of the symbolists, Valéry was one of the greatest French poets of the 20th cent. He was encouraged by Pierry Loü...

Ch'in, dynasty of China (221–206 b.c.)

(Encyclopedia)Ch'in chĭn [key], dynasty of China, which ruled from 221 b.c. to 206 b.c. The word China is derived from Ch'in, the first dynasty to unify the country by conquering the warring feudal states of the l...

Nuzi

(Encyclopedia)Nuzi no͞oˈzē [key], site near Kirkuk, N Iraq. Thousands of clay tablets unearthed there bear inscriptions said to have been made by the Horims (or Horites) of the Bible. The tablets, which are in A...

Peters, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Peters, Samuel, 1735–1826, American clergyman and historian, b. Hebron, Conn. Because of his Loyalist sympathies, he fled to England in 1774. There he wrote for English periodicals and published A G...