• Płowce, Battle of (Polish history)

    Poland: Władysław I: …the invading Knights fought at Płowce in 1331 was a Pyrrhic victory for Władysław.

  • plowing (agriculture)

    plow, most important agricultural implement since the beginning of history, used to turn and break up soil, to bury crop residues, and to help control weeds. The antecedent of the plow is the prehistoric digging stick. The earliest plows were doubtless digging sticks fashioned with handles for

  • Plowright, Dame Joan Anne (English actress)

    Joan Plowright was an English dramatic actress who was known for her versatility, and she found success on both the stage and screen. Plowright received her dramatic training at the Laban Art of Movement Studio in Manchester and at the Old Vic Theatre School in London. She made her first

  • Plowright, Joan (English actress)

    Joan Plowright was an English dramatic actress who was known for her versatility, and she found success on both the stage and screen. Plowright received her dramatic training at the Laban Art of Movement Studio in Manchester and at the Old Vic Theatre School in London. She made her first

  • plowshare (plow)

    history of technology: Agriculture: …of the iron (or iron-tipped) plowshare, which opened up the possibility of deeper plowing and of cultivating heavier soils than those normally worked in the Greco-Roman period. The construction of plows improved slowly during these centuries, but the moldboard for turning over the earth did not appear until the 11th…

  • Plowshare, Project (United States government program)

    Edward Teller: …he was a champion of Project Plowshare, an unsuccessful federal government program to find peaceful uses for atomic explosives. In the 1970s Teller remained a prominent government adviser on nuclear weapons policy, and in 1982–83 he was a major influence in Pres. Ronald Reagan’s proposal of the Strategic Defense Initiative,…

  • PLP (political party, Bermuda)

    Bermuda: History of Bermuda: …first Bermudian political party, the Progressive Labour Party (PLP), organized in 1963, claimed to represent the nonwhite citizens. In 1968 a new constitution gave strong powers to the elected head of the majority political party in the legislature, and the next election placed the multiracial United Bermuda Party (UBP) in…

  • PLP (political party, United Kingdom)

    Labour Party: Policy and structure: …role in party affairs; the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comprising Labour members of Parliament; and a variety of small socialist groups such as the Fabian Society. Delegates from these organizations meet in an annual conference, where they are given formal authority in policy-making matters. The Labour Party’s various ancillary bodies…

  • PLP (political party, The Bahamas)

    The Bahamas: Political process: …main political parties are the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP; founded 1953), which led the movement for government by the majority in the 1950s and ’60s, and the Free National Movement (FNM; 1972), which grew out of the PLP.

  • PLR (political party, Ecuador)

    Ecuador: Shift to liberalism (1875–97): …anticlerical liberals, proclaiming themselves the Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Radical; PLR), gradually removed the church from state education: they instituted civil marriage and burial, proclaimed freedom of religion, permitted divorce, and eased controls on the press. The church’s tithe was abolished, and many of its large estates were confiscated…

  • PLR. I Liberali (political party, Switzerland)

    FDP. The Liberals, centrist political party of Switzerland formed in 2009 by the merger of the Radical Democratic Party (German: Freisinnig-Demokratische Partei der Schweiz [FDP]) and the Liberal Party (German: Liberale Partei der Schweiz [LPS]). FDP. The Liberals assumed the role previously held

  • PLR. Les Libéraux-Radicaux (political party, Switzerland)

    FDP. The Liberals, centrist political party of Switzerland formed in 2009 by the merger of the Radical Democratic Party (German: Freisinnig-Demokratische Partei der Schweiz [FDP]) and the Liberal Party (German: Liberale Partei der Schweiz [LPS]). FDP. The Liberals assumed the role previously held

  • Plücker, Julius (German mathematician and physicist)

    Julius Plücker was a German mathematician and physicist who made fundamental contributions to analytic and projective geometry as well as experimental physics. Plücker attended the universities in Heidelberg, Bonn, Berlin, and Paris. In 1829, after four years as an unsalaried lecturer, he became a

  • plucking (music)

    musical sound: Chordophones: …are sounded by plucking (pizzicato) on occasion, which provides a brittle tone of extremely brief duration. The harp is the best known orchestral instrument whose tone depends upon the noise components added by plucking. Other plucked instruments are the guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukelele, zither, lyre, lute, and the

  • plucking, glacial (geology)

    glacial landform: Glacial erosion: …generally included under the terms glacial plucking or quarrying. This process involves the removal of larger pieces of rock from the glacier bed. Various explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed. Some of the mechanisms suggested are based on differential stresses in the rock caused by ice being forced to…

  • plug bayonet (weapon)

    bayonet: The plug bayonet, as this first type was called, had some serious defects; once it was inserted into the muzzle, the gun could not be fired, and if driven in too tightly, it could not easily be removed. Before 1689 a new bayonet was developed with…

  • plug gauge (measurement instrument)

    gauge: …hole, a cylindrical bar (plug gauge) with highly finished ends of different diameters is used. If the hole size is correct within tolerable limits, the small end (marked “go”) will enter the hole, while the large end (“not go”) will not. Ring gauges for checking the dimensions of cylindrical…

  • plug valve (device)

    valve: A plug valve, or cock, is a conical plug with a hole perpendicular to its axis fitting in a conical seat in the valve body at right angles to the pipe. By turning the plug the hole is either lined up with the pipe to permit…

  • plug-in (software)

    plug-in, computer software that adds new functions to a host program without altering the host program itself. Widely used in digital audio, video, and Web browsing, plug-ins enable programmers to update a host program while keeping the user within the program’s environment. Plug-ins first gained

  • Plugger Lockett (Australian rules football player)

    Tony Lockett is an Australian rules football player who holds the record for most goals scored in a career (1,360). After making his senior-level debut with North Ballarat in 1982, Lockett began his Australian Football League (AFL) career with St. Kilda in 1983. He became a powerful and often

  • plum (plant and fruit)

    plum, any of various trees or shrubs in the genus Prunus and their edible fruits. Plums are closely related to peaches and cherries and are widely eaten fresh as a dessert fruit, cooked as compote or jam, or baked in a variety of pastries. The European plum (P. domestica) and the Japanese plum (P.

  • Plum Brandy (painting by Manet)

    Édouard Manet: Later life and works of Édouard Manet: …that same year he painted Plum Brandy, one of his major works, in which a solitary woman rests her elbow on the marble top of a café table. He followed these works with The Blonde with Bare Breasts (c. 1878), in which the pearl-white flesh tones gleam with light, and…

  • plum brandy (alcoholic beverage)

    brandy: …from cherries; and the French plum wines, from Alsace and Lorraine, including Mirabelle, made from a yellow plum, and quetsch, from a blue plum.

  • Plum Bun (novel by Fauset)

    Jessie Redmon Fauset: …include There Is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1928), and The Chinaberry Tree (1931).

  • plum curculio (insect)

    plum curculio, (Conotrachelus nenuphar), North American insect pest of the family Curculionidae (order Coleoptera); it does serious damage to a variety of fruit trees. The adult has a dark brown body, about six millimetres (14 inch) long, with gray and white patches and conspicuous humps on each

  • Plum in the Golden Vase; or, Chin P’ing Mei, The (Chinese literature)

    Jinpingmei, the first realistic social novel to appear in China. It is the work of an unknown author of the Ming dynasty, and its earliest extant version is dated 1617. Two English versions were published in 1939 under the titles The Golden Lotus and Chin P’ing Mei: The Adventurous History of Hsi

  • plum pine (tree)

    yellowwood: …of the genus include the brown pine, plum pine, or yellow pine (Podocarpus elatus) of southeastern Australia; the black pine, or matai (P. spicatus), the kahikatea, or white pine (P. dacrydioides), the miro (P. ferrugineus), and the totara (P. totara), all native to New Zealand; kusamaki, or broad-leaved

  • plum pudding atomic model (physics)

    Thomson atomic model, earliest theoretical description of the inner structure of atoms, proposed about 1900 by William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and strongly supported by Sir Joseph John Thomson, who had discovered (1897) the electron, a negatively charged part of every atom. Though several alternative

  • Plum Pudding in Danger, The (cartoon by Gillray)

    James Gillray: …in a celebrated cartoon, “The Plum Pudding in Danger.” Among Gillray’s best satires on the king are “The Anti-Saccharites,” in which the king and queen propose to dispense with sugar to the great horror of the family, and the companion plates of Farmer George and his wife “Frying Sprats”…

  • plum subfamily (plant subfamily)

    Rosales: Evolution: The subfamily Amygdaloideae is represented by fossil fruit pits of Prunus from the Eocene to the Pleistocene and of Prinsepia from the Oligocene to the Pliocene.

  • plum wine (alcoholic beverage)

    brandy: …from cherries; and the French plum wines, from Alsace and Lorraine, including Mirabelle, made from a yellow plum, and quetsch, from a blue plum.

  • Plum, Stephanie (fictional character)

    Janet Evanovich: …smart-mouthed New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

  • plum-fir yew (tree)

    yellowwood: falcatus) of southern Africa; plum-fir, or plum-fruited, yew (P. andinus) and willowleaf podocarpus, or mañío (P. salignus), of the Chilean Andes; and the yacca (P. coriaceus) of the West Indies.

  • plum-fruited yew (tree)

    yellowwood: falcatus) of southern Africa; plum-fir, or plum-fruited, yew (P. andinus) and willowleaf podocarpus, or mañío (P. salignus), of the Chilean Andes; and the yacca (P. coriaceus) of the West Indies.

  • plum-yew (plant)

    plum-yew, (Cephalotaxus species), any of about seven species of small coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus Cephalotaxus, comprising the plum-yew family (Cephalotaxaceae). Native to central and eastern Asia, these plants are used in many temperate-zone areas as ornamentals. A fleshy aril

  • plumage (bird anatomy)

    plumage, collective feathered covering of a bird. It provides protection, insulation, and adornment and also helps streamline and soften body contours, reducing friction in air and water. Plumage of the newborn chick is downy, called neossoptile; that which follows is termed teleoptile. Juvenal

  • Plumb (work by Gee)

    Maurice Gee: The first book, Plumb (1978), covers the period from the 1890s through 1949; it is based on the career of Gee’s grandfather, a Presbyterian minister who was tried for heresy by his church and jailed for sedition by the state. Like the succeeding volumes of the trilogy, Plumb…

  • plumb line (tool)

    hand tool: Plumb line, level, and square: A plumb line is a light line with a weight (plumb bob) at one end that, when suspended next to a workpiece, defines a vertical line. Plumb comes from the Latin plumbum, or “lead,” the material that replaced stone as…

  • Plumb Line (film by Schneemann)

    Carolee Schneemann: …in her Autobiographical Trilogy were Plumb Line (1968–71), about the dissolution of her relationship with Tenney, and Kitch’s Last Meal (1973–78), chronicling the day-to-day life of her cat, Kitch, until he died.

  • Plumb, Eve (American actress)

    The Brady Bunch: …Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb), and Cindy (Susan Olsen); and Alice Nelson (Ann B. Davis), the wisecracking live-in housekeeper. While the initial season’s stories sometimes touched on the difficulties of adjusting to life in a combined family, the overall focus of the series was on the ordeals of…

  • Plumbaginaceae (plant family)

    Caryophyllales: Plumbaginaceae: Economically, Plumbaginaceae, the leadwort family, is important mainly for its many garden ornamentals. Among these are a number of species of Armeria that go by the common name thrift, especially A. maritima, also called sea pink, a plant with small red flowers that is…

  • plumbago (carbon)

    graphite, mineral consisting of carbon. Graphite has a greasy feel and leaves a black mark, thus the name from the Greek verb graphein, “to write.” Graphite has a layered structure that consists of rings of six carbon atoms arranged in widely spaced horizontal sheets. Graphite thus crystallizes in

  • Plumbago (plant genus)

    Caryophyllales: Plumbaginaceae: …are the juices of other Plumbago species—for example, whorled plantain, or scarlet leadwort (P. indica), grown for its rose or scarlet flowers. The leaves and roots of Ceylon leadwort, or doctorbush (P. zeylanica), have been used as a remedy for skin disease, especially in the tropical Far East. The active…

  • plumbate ware (pottery)

    pottery: Central America: …appearance and incised ornament (plumbate ware). Both of these types were widely distributed throughout Central America from the 11th to the 14th century. Little is known of the Aztecs until about 1325, the date of the foundation of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City). Much of their later pottery utilizes an orange-burning…

  • plumbing (construction)

    plumbing, system of pipes and fixtures installed in a building for the distribution and use of potable (drinkable) water and the removal of waterborne wastes. It is usually distinguished from water and sewage systems that serve a group of buildings or a city. One of the problems of every

  • plumbism (pathology)

    lead poisoning, deleterious effect of a gradual accumulation of lead in body tissues, as a result of repeated exposure to lead-containing substances. In humans the main sources of lead are usually lead-based paint and drinking water carried through lead pipes; lead-based paints are especially

  • plumbojarosite (mineral)

    plumbojarosite, a widespread iron and lead sulfate mineral, PbFe6(So4)4(OH)12, that has been found in the oxidized zone of lead deposits, particularly in arid regions. It is an important ore mineral of lead in Bolkar Daǧi, Tur., and in Clark County, Nev. It also occurs in many places in the western

  • plume (geology)

    marine ecosystem: Seasonal cycles of production: …can result in nutrient-rich turbid plumes (i.e., estuarine or riverine plumes) that extend into waters of the continental shelf. Changes in production, therefore, may depend on the season, the proximity to fresh water, and the timing and location of upwelling, currents, and patterns of reproduction.

  • plume grass (plant)

    plume grass, (genus Saccharum), genus of about 20 species of grasses in the family Poaceae, native to warm regions of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The genus comprises the sugarcanes (notably Saccharum officinarum) and several ornamental species, including Ravenna grass (S. ravennae).

  • plume moss (plant species)

    feather moss, (Ptilium, formerly Hypnum, crista-castrensis), the only species of the genus Ptilium, it is a widely distributed plant of the subclass Bryidae that forms dense light green mats on rocks, rotten wood, or peaty soil, especially in mountain forests of the Northern Hemisphere. The erect

  • plume moth (insect)

    plume moth, (family Pterophoridae), any of about 1,000 species of delicate moths (order Lepidoptera) that are named for the deep wing divisions that resemble plumes or lobes. The clefts in the wings divide them for about half their length, with the forewings usually divided into two plumes and the

  • plume poppy (plant)

    poppy: Other poppies: …to southwestern North America; the plume poppies, members of the Asian genus Macleaya, grown for their interestingly lobed giant leaves and 2-metre- (6.6-foot-) tall flower spikes; plants of the genus Bocconia, mild-climate woody shrubs native to tropical America, prized for their large cut leaves; the snow poppy (Eomecon chionantha), a…

  • plumebird (bird)

    plumebird, any of several bird-of-paradise species. See

  • plumed quail (bird)

    quail: …mountain, or plumed, quail (Oreortyx pictus), gray and reddish with a long straight plume, is perhaps the largest New World quail, weighing as much as 0.5 kg (about 1 pound). The singing, or long-clawed, quail (Dactylortyx thoracicus), of Central America, has a musical call. The tree quail, or long-tailed…

  • Plumed Serpent, The (novel by Lawrence)

    D.H. Lawrence: Later life and works: …embarked on the ambitious novel The Plumed Serpent (1926). In this novel Lawrence maintains that the regeneration of Europe’s crumbling postwar society must come from a religious root, and if Christianity is dead, each region must return to its own indigenous religious tradition. The Plumed Serpent’s prophet-hero, a Mexican general,…

  • plumeless thistle (plant)

    thistle: …the genus Carduus, sometimes called plumeless thistles, have spiny stems and flower heads without ray flowers. Canadian thistle (Cirsium arvense) is a troublesome weed in agricultural areas of North America, and more than 10 species of sow thistle (Sonchus) are widespread throughout Europe. Some species of globe thistle (Echinops) are…

  • Plumer, Sir Herbert (British officer)

    Battle of Messines: The tunneling companies of General Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army completed nineteen mines containing around one million pounds of high explosive. Plumer was well aware of the siege-warfare nature of fighting on the Western Front; he planned his offensives with meticulous detail, and his cautious approach saved lives and earned…

  • plumeria (plant)

    frangipani, (genus Plumeria), genus of about 12 species of deciduous shrubs or small trees in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), native to the New World tropics. Several species, especially Plumeria rubra, are widely cultivated as ornamentals in warm climates for their attractive and fragrant

  • Plumeria (plant)

    frangipani, (genus Plumeria), genus of about 12 species of deciduous shrubs or small trees in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), native to the New World tropics. Several species, especially Plumeria rubra, are widely cultivated as ornamentals in warm climates for their attractive and fragrant

  • Plumeria rubra (plant)

    frangipani: Several species, especially Plumeria rubra, are widely cultivated as ornamentals in warm climates for their attractive and fragrant flowers and are easily propagated from stem cuttings. Perfumes are also derived from or imitate the odour of the flowers. The white-edged yellow flowers of the Mexican frangipani (P. rubra…

  • Plumeria rubra acutifolia (plant)

    frangipani: …white-edged yellow flowers of the Mexican frangipani (P. rubra acutifolia) are a popular component of the Hawaiian lei.

  • Plumes du coq, Les (work by Detrez)

    Conrad Detrez: …World War II childhood, and Les Plumes du coq (1975; “The Plumes of the Rooster”) treats the 1951 abdication of the Belgian king Leopold III. Detrez’s most celebrated novel is L’Herbe à brûler (1978; A Weed for Burning), in which he recounts with carnivalesque glee the fatal return of his…

  • Plummer disease (pathology)

    Plummer disease, thyroid condition characterized by marked enlargement of the thyroid gland (goitre), firm thyroid nodules, and overproduction of thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism). Plummer disease, which usually occurs in older people, is of unknown etiology. Its symptoms resemble those of

  • Plummer, Amanda (actress)

    Pulp Fiction: Plot and themes: …Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) decide to rob a diner they are sitting in. Two hitmen, Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta), retrieve a stolen briefcase belonging to mob boss Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Vincent also takes Marcellus’s trophy wife, Mia (Uma Thurman

  • Plummer, Arthur Christopher Orme (Canadian actor)

    Christopher Plummer was a Canadian actor known for his interpretations of classical roles on the stage as well as his starring and supporting roles in motion pictures. Plummer made his first professional appearance in 1950 in Ottawa and spent several years performing with Canadian repertory theatre

  • Plummer, Christopher (Canadian actor)

    Christopher Plummer was a Canadian actor known for his interpretations of classical roles on the stage as well as his starring and supporting roles in motion pictures. Plummer made his first professional appearance in 1950 in Ottawa and spent several years performing with Canadian repertory theatre

  • Plummer, Jake (American football player)

    Arizona Cardinals: …continued until 1998, when quarterback Jake Plummer led the team to a nine-win season and its first playoff victory in 51 years. The team’s momentum did not continue into the next year, and yet another long playoff drought ensued. In 2008 the Cardinals had their most successful season since their…

  • Plummer, William (American minister)

    Church of God and Saints of Christ: …mantle of leadership to Bishop William Plummer, who announced himself as “Grand Father Abraham.” This group believes that all Jews were originally black and that modern-day blacks are descendants of the “lost tribes of Israel.” Their beliefs centre on the “Seven Keys,” the “Stone of Truth,” and the Ten Commandments.…

  • Plummer-Vinson syndrome (pathology)

    digestive system disease: Cancer: …by long-standing iron deficiency, or Plummer-Vinson (Paterson-Kelly) syndrome. Dysphagia is the first and most prominent symptom. Later swallowing becomes painful as surrounding structures are involved. Hoarseness indicates that the nerve to the larynx is affected. The diagnosis is suggested by X ray and proved by endoscopy with multiple biopsies from…

  • Plumpe, Friedrich Wilhelm (German director)

    F.W. Murnau was a German film director who revolutionized the art of cinematic expression by using the camera subjectively to interpret the emotional state of a character. Murnau studied philosophy, art history, and literature at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1908 he joined the

  • Plumstead Marshes (area, Greenwich, London, United Kingdom)

    Greenwich: East of Woolwich is Plumstead Marshes, which was long the site of military firing ranges. In the 1970s a mass housing development known as Thamesmead was erected there. Other residential districts in the borough have grown up around the earlier settlements of Eltham, Blackheath, and Kidbrooke. Major sources of…

  • Plumtree (Zimbabwe)

    Plumtree, town, southwestern Zimbabwe. At the Botswana border, it is the last major Zimbabwean station on the Bulawayo–Cape Town railway and has customs, immigration, and quarantine facilities. Founded in 1897, it serves the Bulalima-Mangwe district as administrative centre. Local industries

  • plumule (plant shoot)

    plant development: The emergence of the seedling: The young shoot, or plumule, is said to be negatively geotropic, because it moves away from the soil; it rises by the extension of either the hypocotyl, the region between the radicle and the cotyledons, or the epicotyl, the segment above the level of the cotyledons. If the hypocotyl…

  • plumule (feather)

    bird: Feathers: Down feathers have loose-webbed barbs, all rising from the tip of a very short shaft. Their function is insulation, and they may be found in both pterylae and apteria in adult birds. They also constitute the first feather coat of most young birds. Filoplumes are…

  • PLUNA (airline, Uruguay)

    Uruguay: Transportation and telecommunications: The government-owned airline, Primeras Líneas Uruguayas de Navegación Aérea (PLUNA), links Montevideo with the provincial capitals and international destinations.

  • plunderfish (fish)

    perciform: Annotated classification: Family Harpagiferidae (plunderfishes) Body naked; 1–7 flexible spines in spinous dorsal fin. Marine, Antarctic and southern South America. 5 genera with about 29 species. Suborder Icosteoidei (Malacichthyes) Family Icosteidae (ragfish) A single species (Icosteus

  • plunge (geology)

    fold: …the horizontal, is called the plunge. The portions of the fold between adjacent axes form the flanks, limbs, or slopes of a fold.

  • plunge pool (geology)

    waterfall: …is the presence of a plunge pool, a basin that is scoured out of the river channel beneath the falling water. In some instances the depth of a plunge pool may nearly equal the height of the cliff causing the falls. Plunge pools eventually cause the collapse of the cliff…

  • Plunger (submarine)

    submarine: Toward diesel-electric power: This was to be the Plunger, propelled by steam on the surface and by electricity when submerged. The craft underwent many design changes and finally was abandoned before completion. Holland returned the funds advanced by the navy and built his next submarine (his sixth) at his own expense. This was…

  • plunger (mechanics)

    pressed glass: …mold by means of a plunger. Pressed glass can generally be distinguished from hand-cut glass because of its blunt-edged facets, mold seams (which are often removed by polishing, however), and precise, regular faceting.

  • plunger pollination (plant reproduction)

    Asteraceae: Pollination: …pollination known as plunger, or secondary, pollination. In this system the flowers are such that the stamens form a tube around the immature style, with their pollen surfaces facing inward. As the style elongates within the tube of anthers, it pushes the pollen out on specialized hairs located beneath the…

  • plunger pump (mechanics)

    pump: Positive displacement pumps.: The plunger pump is the oldest type in common use. Piston and plunger pumps consist of a cylinder in which a piston or plunger moves back and forth. In plunger pumps the plunger moves through a stationary packed seal and is pushed into the fluid, while…

  • Plunket of Newton, William Conyngham Plunket, 1st Baron (British-Irish lawyer)

    William Conyngham Plunket, 1st Baron Plunket was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, parliamentary orator, successor to Henry Grattan as chief spokesman for Roman Catholic emancipation—i.e., admission of Catholics to the British House of Commons, a goal that was achieved in 1829. Called to the Irish bar in

  • Plunket, Saint Oliver (Irish martyr)

    Saint Oliver Plunket ; canonized 1975; feast day July 11) was the Roman Catholic primate of all Ireland and the last man to suffer martyrdom for the Catholic faith in England. Plunket was educated and ordained in Rome, serving there as professor of theology at the College of Propaganda Fide and as

  • Plunket, William Conyngham Plunket, 1st Baron (British-Irish lawyer)

    William Conyngham Plunket, 1st Baron Plunket was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, parliamentary orator, successor to Henry Grattan as chief spokesman for Roman Catholic emancipation—i.e., admission of Catholics to the British House of Commons, a goal that was achieved in 1829. Called to the Irish bar in

  • Plunkett, Edward John Moreton Drax (Irish dramatist)

    Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th baron of Dunsany was an Irish dramatist and storyteller, whose many popular works combined imaginative power with intellectual ingenuity to create a credible world of fantasy. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, Dunsany served in the South African War and World

  • Plunkett, James (Irish writer)

    James Plunkett was an Irish novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer whose works, which deal with Ireland’s political and labour problems, contain vivid portraits of working-class and middle-class Dubliners. Educated by the Christian Brothers, Plunkett left school at age 17. He later studied

  • Plunkett, Roy (American chemist)

    polytetrafluoroethylene: …discovered serendipitously in 1938 by Roy Plunkett, an American chemist for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (now DuPont Company), who found that a tank of gaseous tetrafluoroethylene refrigerant had polymerized to a white powder. During World War II it was applied as a corrosion-resistant coating to protect metal…

  • Plunkett, Sir Horace Curzon (British agriculturalist)

    Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett was a pioneer of Irish agricultural cooperation who strongly influenced the rise of the agricultural cooperative movement in Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Plunkett, whose father was a baron in the Irish peerage and whose family seat was at Dunsany, County Meath, was

  • Plurabelle, Anna Livia (fictional character)

    Anna Livia Plurabelle, fictional character in James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake (1939) who symbolizes the eternal and universal

  • plural (linguistics)

    noun: Plurality: The plural of most nouns is made by adding -s to the end of the singular. The singular cat thus becomes cats, and likewise dog becomes dogs. When a word ends in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, then -

  • pluralis fractus (linguistics)

    Semitic languages: Nouns and adjectives: …constitute the class of “broken” plurals, while the remaining nouns, which use a long-vowel ending to mark plurality, are called the “sound” type. In the other Semitic languages, the sound method of plural formation predominates, though residual traces in the remaining Semitic languages, as in Syriac ḥemrā, plural of…

  • pluralism (politics)

    pluralism, in political science, the view that in liberal democracies power is (or should be) dispersed among a variety of economic and ideological pressure groups and is not (or should not be) held by a single elite or group of elites. Pluralism assumes that diversity is beneficial to society and

  • pluralism and monism (philosophy)

    pluralism and monism, philosophical theories that answer “many” and “one,” respectively, to the distinct questions: how many kinds of things are there? and how many things are there? Different answers to each question are compatible, and the possible combination of views provide a popular way of

  • pluralistic sovereignty (political science)

    sovereignty: History: …who developed the theory of pluralistic sovereignty (pluralism) exercised by various political, economic, social, and religious groups that dominate the government of each state. According to this doctrine, sovereignty in each society does not reside in any particular place but shifts constantly from one group (or alliance of groups) to…

  • Pluralistic Universe, A (work by James)

    William James: Career in philosophy of William James: …lectures, published in 1909 as A Pluralistic Universe, state, in a more systematic and less technical way than the Essays, the same essential positions. They present, in addition, certain religious overbeliefs of James’s, which further thinking—if the implications of the posthumous Some Problems of Philosophy may be trusted—was to mitigate.…

  • Plurality of Worlds, A (work by Fontenelle)

    Bernard Le Bovier, sieur de Fontenelle: …la pluralité des mondes (1686; A Plurality of Worlds, 1688). These charming and sophisticated dialogues were more influential than any other work in securing acceptance of the Copernican system, still far from commanding universal support in 1686. Fontenelle’s basis of scientific documentation was meagre, and some of his figures were…

  • plurality system (politics)

    plurality system, electoral process in which the candidate who polls more votes than any other candidate is elected. It is distinguished from the majority system, in which, to win, a candidate must receive more votes than all other candidates combined. Election by a plurality is the most common

  • pluriarc (musical instrument)

    pluriarc, west African stringed musical instrument having a deep boxlike body from which project between two and eight slender, curved arms; one string runs from the end of each arm to a string holder on the belly. The strings are plucked, usually by the fingers, occasionally by plectra attached to

  • pluriform monotheism (religion)

    monotheism: Pluriform monotheism: The complicated relations that exist between monotheism and polytheism become clear when one considers pluriform monotheism, in which the various gods of the pantheon, without losing their independence, are at the same time considered to be manifestations of one and the same divine…