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X

(Encyclopedia)X, 24th letter of the alphabet. In English it has no peculiar sound, but stands for the combination ks as in fox, or gz as in exempt, or, initially, for the sound of z as in xenia. In words from Greek...

Apollonius of Perga

(Encyclopedia)Apollonius of Perga, fl. 247–205 b.c., Greek mathematician of the Alexandrian school. He produced a treatise on conic sections that included, as well as his own work, much of the work of his predece...

Thersites

(Encyclopedia)Thersites thərsīˈtēz [key], in Greek legend, member of the Greek army in the Trojan War. He was famous for his ugliness, his unpleasant temper, and his love of argument. When he mocked Achilles fo...

Matthiessen, F. O.

(Encyclopedia)Matthiessen, F. O. (Francis Otto Matthiessen) măthˈĭsĕn [key], 1902–50, American critic, b. Pasadena, Calif., grad. Yale Univ., 1923, B.Litt., Oxford, 1925, Ph.D., Harvard, 1927. A Rhodes schola...

Kook, Abraham Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Kook, Abraham Isaac ko͞ok [key], 1864–1935, Jewish scholar and philosopher, b. Latvia. He settled (1904) in Palestine, where he became the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in 1921. He attempt...

Natsume Soseki

(Encyclopedia)Natsume Soseki näˈtso͞oˈmĕ sōˈsĕˈkē [key], 1867–1916, Japanese writer. Soseki ranks along with Mori Ogai as one of two giants of early modern Japanese letters. Although Soseki began his ca...

Guo Moruo

(Encyclopedia)Guo Moruo or Kuo Mo-jo both: gwôˈ môrhwôˈ, –zhôˈ [key], 1892–1978, Chinese writer and scholar. He co-founded the Creation Society, which promoted a romantic style of writing. His love stori...

Gottheil, Richard James Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Gottheil, Richard James Horatio, 1862–1936, American Orientalist and Semitic scholar, b. Manchester, England; son of Gustav Gottheil. He taught Semitic languages at Columbia from 1886 and was head o...

Amram ben Scheschna

(Encyclopedia)Amram ben Scheschna gäˈōn [key], d. c.875, Hebrew scholar, head of the Jewish academy at Sura in Persia. He is chiefly known as the author of the Seder Rab Amram, a compilation of the order of pray...

Gasquet, Francis Aidan

(Encyclopedia)Gasquet, Francis Aidan găsˈkĭt [key], 1846–1929, English prelate and scholar, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, a Benedictine. In historical studies of English religious and social life in t...