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sundial

(Encyclopedia)sundial, instrument that indicates the time of day by the shadow, cast on a surface marked to show hours or fractions of hours, of an object on which the sun's rays fall. Although any object whose sha...

hornpipe

(Encyclopedia)hornpipe, English folk dance known since the 16th cent., when it obtained its name from the wind instrument that accompanied it. The hornpipes of the 17th and 18th cent. have moderate 3–2 time and 4...

Hodgson, Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Hodgson, Ralph, 1871–1962, English poet. He wrote five volumes of poetry before his collected poems appeared in 1917. After a silence of nearly 40 years—during which time he taught in Japan and em...

Wadai

(Encyclopedia)Wadai wädīˈ [key], former sultanate, N Chad, E of Lake Chad. Founded in the 16th cent., it was from time to time loosely subject to Darfur. Toward the end of the 19th cent., Wadai came under the in...

clepsydra

(Encyclopedia)clepsydra klĕpˈsĭdrə [key] or water clock, ancient device for measuring time by means of the flow of water from a container. A simple form of clepsydra was an earthenware vessel with a small openi...

anomalistic year

(Encyclopedia)anomalistic year ənŏmˌəlĭsˈtĭk [key], time required for the earth to go from the perihelion point once around the sun and back to the perihelion point. It is 365 days, 6 hr, 13 min, 53.0 sec of...

Vatel, François

(Encyclopedia)Vatel, François fräNswäˈ vätĕlˈ [key], fl. 17th cent., French chef, famous in the time of Louis XIV. Mme Marie de Sévigné, in her letters, speaks of him as the chef of the prince of Condé an...

hedging

(Encyclopedia)hedging, in commerce, method by which traders use two counterbalancing investment strategies so as to minimize any losses caused by price fluctuations. It is generally used by traders on the commoditi...

uniformitarianism

(Encyclopedia)uniformitarianism, in geology, doctrine holding that changes in the earth's surface that occurred in past geologic time are referable to the same causes as changes now being produced upon the earth's ...

Induráin, Miguel

(Encyclopedia)Induráin, Miguel (Miguel Angel Induráin Larraya) mēgĕlˈ ängˈkhāl ĭndo͞oräˈēn läˈräyä [key], 1964–, Spanish bicycle racer. In a career lasting from 1985 to 1997, he dominated Europea...