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Slavs

(Encyclopedia)Slavs slävz, slăvz [key], the largest ethnic and linguistic group of peoples in Europe belonging to the Indo-European linguistic family. It is estimated that the Slavs number over 300 million in the...

Gresset, Jean Baptiste Louis

(Encyclopedia)Gresset, Jean Baptiste Louis zhäN bätēstˈ lwē grĕsāˈ [key], 1709–77, French poet and dramatist. He was the author of a mock epic, Vairvert (1734), and of a successful comedy, Le Méchant (17...

Niles, Hezekiah

(Encyclopedia)Niles, Hezekiah, 1777–1839, American journalist, b. Jefferis's Ford, Pa. Editor (1805–11) of the Baltimore Evening Post and founder (1811) of Niles' Weekly Register, he was one of the most influen...

Arrowsmith, Aaron

(Encyclopedia)Arrowsmith, Aaron, 1750–1823, English cartographer and geographer. He founded the map-making and publishing business carried on by his sons and by his nephew John Arrowsmith, 1790–1873. John Arrow...

Tull, Jethro

(Encyclopedia)Tull, Jethro, 1674–1741, English agriculturist and inventor. He studied methods of agriculture in England, France, and Italy and influenced British agriculture through his writings, which include Th...

Biggs, E. Power

(Encyclopedia)Biggs, E. Power (Edward George Power Biggs), 1906–77, Anglo-American organist. Biggs studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He emigrated to the United States in 1930. Through many recitals, ...

Acosta, José de

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, José de hōsāˈ ᵺā äkōˈstä [key], c.1539–1600, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Peru. He wrote a well-known history of the Spanish colonial period, The Natural and Moral History of the ...

Ur

(Encyclopedia)Ur ûr [key], ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia. The city is also known as Ur of the Chaldees. It was an important center of Sumerian culture (see Sumer) and is identified in the Bible as the home ...

étude

(Encyclopedia)étude āˈto͞od [key], a brief musical composition, usually for piano, fashioned to instruct an instrumentalist in a particular technical problem, such as scales or trills. Succeeding the toccata, p...

Midland, town, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Midland, town (1991 pop. 13,865), S Ont., Canada, on Georgian Bay, NW of Toronto. Midland is a port and has grain elevators and plants that manufacture textiles, cameras, optical goods, and other prod...