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Shaw, Lemuel

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Lemuel, 1781–1861, American jurist, b. Barnstable, Mass. After a career in the Massachusetts state legislature, Shaw served as chief justice for the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts (18...

ice cream

(Encyclopedia)ice cream, sweet frozen dessert, made from milk fat and solids, sugar, flavoring, a stabilizer (usually gelatin), and sometimes eggs, fruits, or nuts. The mix is churned at freezing temperature to att...

hajj

(Encyclopedia)hajj häj [key], the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, one of the five basic requirements (arkan or “pillars”) of Islam. Its annual observance corresponds to the major holy day id al-adha, itself...

asbestos, mineral

(Encyclopedia)asbestos, common name for any of a variety of silicate minerals within the amphibole and serpentine groups that are fibrous in structure and more or less resistant to acid and fire. Chrysotile asbesto...

Langland, William

(Encyclopedia)Langland, William, c.1332–c.1400, putative author of Piers Plowman. He was born probably at Ledbury near the Welsh marshes and may have gone to school at Great Malvern Priory. Although he took minor...

Blake, William

(Encyclopedia)Blake, William, 1757–1827, English poet and artist, b. London. Although he exerted a great influence on English romanticism, Blake defies characterization by school, movement, or even period. At the...

Aleut

(Encyclopedia)Aleut əlo͞otˈ, ălˈēo͞otˌ [key], native inhabitant of the Aleutian Islands and W Alaska. Like the Eskimo, the Aleuts are racially similar to Siberian peoples. Their language is a member of the ...

Leidy, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Leidy, Joseph līˈdē [key], 1823–91, American scientist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania medical school. From 1853 he taught anatomy at his alma mater. He was also professor of natura...

pragmatism

(Encyclopedia)pragmatism prăgˈmətĭzəm [key], method of philosophy in which the truth of a proposition is measured by its correspondence with experimental results and by its practical outcome. Thought is consid...

Ginsburg, Ruth Bader

(Encyclopedia)Ginsburg, Ruth Bader, 1933–2020, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1993–2020), b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Joan Ruth Bader. A graduate (1954) of Cornell, she attended Harvard Law School, then...