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dogtooth violet

(Encyclopedia)dogtooth violet, originally a name for the Old World plant Erythronium denscanis, now applied also to several North American species of the same genus of the family Liliaceae (lily family). The most c...

Cyclopean

(Encyclopedia)Cyclopean sīkləpēˈən [key], name often applied to a primitive method of prehistoric masonry construction, found throughout Greece, Italy, and the Middle East. The term is derived from Cyclopes, t...

Ironside, William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Ironside, William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron, 1880–1959, British general. After serving with distinction in the South African War and World War I, he was chosen (1918) to command the Allied forces a...

Mattei, Enrico

(Encyclopedia)Mattei, Enrico ānrēˈkō mät-tāˈ [key], 1906–62, Italian public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency, a Fascist state enterprise. ...

phalanx

(Encyclopedia)phalanx, ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of t...

Carpaccio, Vittore

(Encyclopedia)Carpaccio, Vittore vēt-tôˈrā kärpätˈchō [key], c.1450–1522, Venetian painter, influenced by Gentile and Giovanni Bellini. His delightful narrative paintings reflect the pageantry of 15th-cen...

Sandys, George

(Encyclopedia)Sandys, George, 1578–1644, English poet and traveler, b. Yorkshire, son of Archbishop Edwin Sandys. He was educated at Oxford and in 1610 began an extended tour of Europe and the Middle East, which ...

Hammarskjöld, Dag

(Encyclopedia)Hammarskjöld, Dag däg hämˈərshōldˌ, Swed. hämˈärshöldˈ [key], 1905–61, Swedish statesman, secretary-general of the United Nations (1953–61). He attended the universities of Uppsala and...

chinoiserie

(Encyclopedia)chinoiserie shēnwäzrēˈ [key], decorative work produced under the influence of Chinese art, applied particularly to the more fanciful and extravagant manifestations. Intimations of Eastern art reac...

Fès

(Encyclopedia)Fès fĕz [key], Arab. Fas, city, N central Morocco. In a rich agricultural region, it is con...