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plaid

(Encyclopedia)plaid, a long shawl or blanketlike outer wrap of woolen cloth, usually patterned in checks or tartan figures. Now a distinctive feature of the Highland costume, it was formerly worn in all parts of Sc...

Autun

(Encyclopedia)Autun ōtöNˈ [key], town, Saône-et-Loire dept., E central France, on the Arroux River. It is an industrial center producing metals, machinery, leather, cloth, timber, a...

Wakefield, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Wakefield, city and metropolitan borough (1991 pop. 74,764), N central England, on the Calder River. Wakefield has been a center of the cloth industry from the 14th cent. Other manufactures include wo...

Surakarta

(Encyclopedia)Surakarta or Soerakarta both: so͞oräkärˈta [key], city (1990 pop. 503,827), on central Java, Indonesia, on the Solo River. Connected by rail with Surabaya and Jakarta, it is a trade center for an ...

Calef, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Calef, Robert kāˈləf [key], 1648–1719, known primarily as author of More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700). A Boston cloth merchant, probably born in England, he bitterly attacked Cotton Math...

Mas i Gavarró, Artur

(Encyclopedia)Mas i Gavarró, Artur, 1956–, Catalonian nationalist leader, b. Barcelona, grad. Univ. of Barcelona. An economist, he was the head of the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC), a centrist Catala...

Sabatier, Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Sabatier, Auguste ôgo͞ostˈ säbätyāˈ [key], 1839–1901, French Protestant theologian. He was professor (1867–72) of reformed dogmatics at Strasbourg, and from 1877 until his death he was a me...

Zechariah, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Zechariah zĕkˌərīˈə [key], prophetic book of the Bible, which dates from 520 b.c.–518 b.c. at Jerusalem. The prophet was associated with Haggai in a movement to restore the Temple. The book, a...

Carbonari

(Encyclopedia)Carbonari kärbōnäˈrē [key] [Ital.,=charcoal burners], members of a secret society that flourished in Italy, Spain, and France early in the 19th cent. Possibly derived from Freemasonry, the societ...

Baudrillard, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Baudrillard, Jean, 1929–2007, French social theorist and cultural critic. Trained as a sociologist, he taught at the Univ. of Paris X, Nanterre, from 1966 to 1987 and was a prolific writer. Influenc...