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Allingham, Margery ... Almendros, Nestor

Allingham, Margery British detective-story writer of unusual subtlety, wit, and imaginative power who created the bland, bespectacled, keen-witted Albert Campion, one of the most interesting of fictional detectives. Allison, William B. U.S. representative (1863-71) and senator (1873-1908) from Iowa, cosponsor of the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which expanded U.S. Treasury purchase of silver bullion and restored the silver dollar as legal tender. alliteration in prosody, the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or stressed syllables. Sometimes the repetition of initial vowel sounds (head rhyme) is also referred to as alliteration. As a poetic device, it is often discussed with assonance and consonance. In languages (such as Chinese) that emphasize tonality, ... alliterative prose prose that uses alliteration and some of the techniques of alliterative verse. Notable examples are from Old English and Middle English, including works by the Anglo-Saxon writer Aelfric and the so-called Katherine Group of five Middle English devotional works. alliterative verse early verse of the Germanic languages in which alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or stressed syllables, is a basic structural principle rather than an occasional embellishment. Although alliteration is a common device in almost all poetry, the only Indo-European languages that used it as ... allium any plant of a large genus (Allium) of onion- or garlic-scented bulbous herbs of the Alliaceae family, including the onion, garlic, chive, leek, and shallot. Allium species are found in most regions of the world except the tropics and New Zealand and Australia. Some are cultivated as ornamental border plants. Allman Brothers Band, the American rock band whose bluesy, jam-oriented sound helped spark the Southern rock movement of the 1970s and set the stage for several generations of roots-oriented improvisational rock bands. The members were Duane Allman (in full Howard Duane Allman; b. Nov. 20, 1946, Nashville, Tenn., U.S., -d. Oct. 29, 1971, Macon, ... Allobroges ancient Celtic tribe that lived in the part of southeastern France bounded by the Rhone and Isere rivers and in the area around present-day Geneva. The Allobroges are first mentioned by the 2nd-century-BC Greek historian Polybius as inhabitants of a territory Hannibal passed through in 218 BC. In 122 BC ... allocation of resources apportionment of productive assets among different uses. Resource allocation arises as an issue because the resources of a society are in limited supply, whereas human wants are usually unlimited, and because any given resource can have many alternative uses. allodium land freely held, without obligation of service to any overlord. Allodial land tenure was of particular significance in western Europe during the Middle Ages, when most land was held by feudal tenure. allometry in biology, the change in organisms in relation to proportional changes in body size. An example of allometry can be seen in mammals. Ranging from the mouse to the elephant, as the body gets larger, in general hearts beat more slowly, brains get bigger, bones get proportionally shorter and thinner, ... Allon, Yigal Israeli soldier and politician who was best known as the architect of the Allon Plan, a peace initiative that he formulated after Israel captured Arab territory in the Six-Day War of June 1967. allophone one of the phonetically distinct variants of a phoneme (q.v.). The occurrence of one allophone rather than another is usually determined by its position in the word (initial, final, medial, etc.) or by its phonetic environment. Speakers of a language often have difficulty in hearing the phonetic differences between allophones ... allopurinol drug used in the treatment of gout, a disease that is characterized by severe inflammation in one or more of the joints of the extremities. Allopurinol inhibits an enzyme that is necessary to form uric acid, a substance present in abnormally large amounts in the blood of persons with gout ... Allosaurus large carnivorous dinosaurs that lived from 150 million to 144 million years ago during the Late Jurassic Period; they are best known from fossils found in the western United States, particularly from the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in Utah and the Garden Park Quarry in Colorado. allosteric control in enzymology, inhibition or activation of an enzyme by a small regulatory molecule that interacts at a site (allosteric site) other than the active site (at which catalytic activity occurs). The interaction changes the shape of the enzyme so as to affect the formation at the active site of the ... allotropy the existence of a chemical element in two or more forms, which may differ in the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids or in the occurrence of molecules that contain different numbers of atoms. The existence of different crystalline forms of an element is the same phenomenon that in the ... Allouez, Claude-Jean Jesuit missionary to New France who has been called the founder of Catholicism in the West. Alloway southern suburb of the town of Ayr, South Ayrshire council area, historic county of Ayrshire, Scotland, famous as the birthplace of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. There is a museum alongside the thatched cottage where he was born in 1759 and a memorial built in 1820 in the form of ... Alloway, Lawrence English-born American curator and art critic who wrote widely on a variety of popular art topics. He is credited with coining the now-common term Pop art, although its meaning came to be understood as "art about popular culture" rather than "the art of popular culture," as he had suggested. alloy metallic substance composed of two or more elements, as either a compound or a solution. The components of alloys are ordinarily themselves metals, though carbon, a nonmetal, is an essential constituent of steel. Allport, Gordon W. American psychologist and educator who developed an original theory of personality. allspice tropical evergreen tree (Pimenta diocia, formerly P. officinalis) of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), native to the West Indies and Central America and valued for its berries, the source of a highly aromatic spice. Allspice was so named because the flavour of the dried berry resembles a combination of cloves, cinnamon, ... Allston, Robert rice planter and governor of South Carolina whose papers, South Carolina Rice Plantation, provide important agricultural, political, and social information about the pre-Civil War South. By scientifically draining and reclaiming swamps in his state, he developed one of the last great rice plantations in the Atlantic coast lowlands. He was ... Allston, Washington painter and author, commonly held to be the first important American Romantic painter. Allston is known for his experiments with dramatic subject matter and his use of light and atmospheric colour. Although his production was small, it shaped future American landscape painting by its dramatic portrayals of mood. Allston's work ... allusion in literature, an implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text. Allusion is distinguished from such devices as direct quote and imitation or parody. Most allusions are based on the assumption that there is a body of knowledge that is shared ... alluvial deposit Material deposited by rivers. It consists of silt, sand, clay, and gravel, as well as much organic matter. Alluvial deposits are usually most extensive in the lower part of a river's course, forming floodplains and deltas, but they may form at any point where the river overflows its banks or ... alluvial fan unconsolidated sedimentary deposit that accumulates at the mouth of a mountain canyon because of a dimunition or cessation of sediment transport by the issuing stream. The deposits, which are generally fan-shaped in plan view, can develop under a wide range of climatic conditions and have been studied in the Canadian ... alluvium material deposited by rivers. It is usually most extensively developed in the lower part of the course of a river, forming floodplains and deltas, but may be deposited at any point where the river overflows its banks or where the velocity of a river is checked-for example, where it runs ... Allworthy, Squire fictional character, a kindhearted widower who acts as a surrogate father to the foundling in Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones (1749). Squire Allworthy initially is misled into believing ill of Tom, but in the end his good nature wins out and he brings about a happy ending to the story. Alma city, Gratiot county, central Michigan, U.S., located on the Pine River about 50 miles (80 km) north of Lansing. Founded as Elyton by Gen. Ralph Ely in 1853, it is in the heart of an agricultural area that produces beans, corn (maize), and sugar beets. The manufacture of automobile parts, ... Alma, Battle of the (Sept. 20, 1854), victory by the British and the French in the Crimean War that left the Russian naval base of Sevastopol vulnerable and endangered the entire Russian position in the war. Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence Dutch-born painter of scenes from everyday life in the ancient world whose work was immensely popular in its time. Almaden town, Ciudad Real provincia (province), in the comunidad autonoma (autonomous community) of Castile-La Mancha, west-central Spain. Almaden is located in one of the world's richest mercury-producing regions. Almagest astronomical manual written about AD 150 by Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria). It served as the basic guide for Islamic and European astronomers until about the beginning of the 17th century. Its original name was Mathematike Syntaxis ("The Mathematical Arrangement"); Almagest arose as an Arabic corruption of the Greek word ... Almagro, Diego de Spanish soldier who played a leading role in the Spanish conquest of Peru. almanac book or table containing a calendar of the days, weeks, and months of the year; a record of various astronomical phenomena, often with climate information and seasonal suggestions for farmers; and miscellaneous other data. An almanac provides data on the rising and setting times of the Sun and Moon, the ... almandine either of two semiprecious gemstones: a violet-coloured variety of ruby spinel (q.v.) or iron aluminum garnet, which is most abundant of the garnets. Specimens of the garnet, frequently crystals, contain up to 25 percent grossular or andradite and are commonly brownish red; gem-quality stone is deep red and slightly purple. ... Almansa Dam dam on the Vega de Belen River, in Albacete province, Castile-La Mancha autonomous community, Spain. It is said to be the oldest masonry gravity dam still in use. Probably built in the 16th century, the slender structure has cut-stone facing and a rubble masonry interior. It is 82 feet (25 ... Almaty city, southeastern Kazakhstan. It was formerly the capital of the Kazakh S.S.R. (1929-91) and of independent Kazakhstan (1991-97). Almaty lies in the northern foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau at an elevation of 2,300-3,000 feet (700-900 m), where the Bolshaya and Malaya Almaatinka rivers emerge into the plain. The modern city ... Almaviva, Count character in two plays, Le Barbier de Seville (1775; The Barber of Seville) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784; The Marriage of Figaro), by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Almaviva is introduced in The Barber of Seville as a young count in love with the heroine, Rosine. With the help of ... Almeida de Portugal, Leonor de Portuguese poet whose work forms a bridge between the literary periods of Arcadia and Romanticism in Portugal; her style leans toward the Romantic, but she favoured such classical forms as the ode and epithet and made many allusions to mythology and the classics. Her influential verse, translations, and letters are ... Almeida, Francisco de soldier, explorer, and the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Almeida, Jose Americo de novelist whose works marked the beginning of a major Brazilian generation of northeastern regional writers. Their fiction presents a largely socioeconomic interpretation of life in Brazil's most impoverished and drought-stricken region and is filled with local colour and appeals for justice and concern. Almeida, Lourenco de Portuguese sea captain and leader of a 1505 expedition to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), probably the first Portuguese voyage to that island. Almeida, Manuel Antonio de author of what is now considered to have been the first great novel in Brazilian literature, Memorias de um sargento de milicias (anonymously in parts, 1852-53; as a novel, 1854-55; Memoirs of a Militia Sergeant), his only fictional work. Its realism was not only far in advance of the Romanticism ... Almelo gemeente (municipality), eastern Netherlands, at the junction of the Overijssel Canal and the Almelo-Nordhorn branch of the Twente Canal; it comprises the former municipalities of Ambt-Almelo, Stad-Almelo, and Vriezenveen. Almendares River river of western Cuba, rising at about 740 ft (225 m) in the Alturas (heights) de Bejucal and flowing in a semicircle north and west, then northward across the Cuban coastal plain through the city of Havana, forming the boundary between the neighbourhoods of Vedado and Miramar. It empties into ... Almendralejo city, Badajoz provincia (province), in Extremadura comunidad autonoma (autonomous community), southwestern Spain. Founded in the 13th century, the city has a number of fine old mansions, notably that of the marqueses de Monsalud, which contains a collection of local Roman antiquities. Almendralejo is the centre of the fertile Tierra de ... almendro tree of the Central American tropical forest canopy whose trunk forks repeatedly, resulting in a graceful, rounded crown. Bunches of flowers are produced at the end of the tree's branches after the onset of the rainy season, so that, within a month or two, the forest canopy is speckled with ... Almendros, Nestor cinematographer and recipient of an Oscar from the U.S. Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences for the best cinematography for his work on Days of Heaven (1978).