• Pehlevi language

    Pahlavi language, extinct member of the Iranian language group, a subdivision of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Pahlavi is a Middle Persian (sometimes called Middle Iranian) language, meaning that it was primarily used from the end of Achaemenian dynasty (559–330 bce)

  • Pehm, József (Hungarian bishop)

    József Mindszenty was a Roman Catholic clergyman who personified uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary for more than five decades of the 20th century. Politically active from the time of his ordination as a priest in 1915, Mindszenty was arrested as an enemy of totalitarian

  • Pehowa (India)

    Pehowa, town, north-central Haryana state, northwestern India. It lies along the Saraswati River. Pehowa is an important Hindu pilgrimage centre housing the Pirthudakeshwar (Pirthuveshwar) temples built by the Marathas in honour of the goddess Sarasvati. The name is derived from the Sanskrit name

  • PEI (chemical compound)

    major industrial polymers: Polyimides: …Torlon by Amoco Corporation) and polyetherimide (PEI; trademark Ultem); these two compounds combine the imide function with amide and ether groups, respectively.

  • Pei Chiang (river, China)

    Bei River, river in central Guangdong province, southeastern China. It is formed by the union of two smaller rivers, the Wu and the Zhen, at Shaoguan, in northern Guangdong. The Bei flows about 220 miles (350 km) south to join the Xi (West) River, west of Guangzhou (Canton). For centuries the Bei

  • Pei Chih-li (national capital, China)

    Beijing, city, province-level shi (municipality), and capital of the People’s Republic of China. Few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. The city has been an integral part of China’s history over the past

  • Pei Cobb Freed & Partners (American architectural firm)

    I.M. Pei: Founding of I.M. Pei & Associates and projects from the late 1950s to the early ’80s: Pei & Associates (later Pei Cobb Freed & Partners), in 1955. Among the notable early designs of the firm were the Luce Memorial Chapel, Taiwan; the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, which, located near mountains, mimics the broken silhouettes of the surrounding peaks;…

  • Pei Ju (Chinese official)

    China: Foreign affairs under Yangdi: In 613 Pei Ju, Yangdi’s principal agent in dealing with the foreign states of the north, attempted unsuccessfully to dethrone the eastern Turkish khan and split up his khanate. Relations with the Turks rapidly deteriorated, and in the last years of his reign Yangdi had to contend…

  • Pei Tao (Chinese author)

    Bei Dao is a Chinese poet and writer of fiction who was commonly considered the most influential poet in China during the 1980s; he went into exile in 1989. The eruption of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 interrupted Zhao Zhenkai’s formal education. A member of the Red Guards for a short time and

  • Pei Wei (Chinese history [386-534/535])

    Wei dynasty, (386–534/535 ce), the longest-lived and most powerful of the northern Chinese dynasties that existed before the reunification of China under the Sui and Tang dynasties. The Wei dynasty was founded by Tabgatch (Tuoba) tribesmen who, like many of the nomads inhabiting the frontiers of

  • Pei Wen-zhong (Chinese archaeologist)

    Qijia culture: …Cuijiazhuang by the Chinese archaeologists Pei Wenzhong and Xia Nai. More sites associated with the Qijia culture were later found in Qinghai province and in the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningxia.

  • Pei, I.M. (American architect)

    I.M. Pei was a Chinese-born American architect noted for his large, elegantly designed urban buildings and complexes. He received the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1983. Although Pei is perhaps best known for the glass pyramid (1989) he designed for the Louvre in Paris, other familiar works include

  • Pei, Ieoh Ming (American architect)

    I.M. Pei was a Chinese-born American architect noted for his large, elegantly designed urban buildings and complexes. He received the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1983. Although Pei is perhaps best known for the glass pyramid (1989) he designed for the Louvre in Paris, other familiar works include

  • Pei, Mario (American linguist)

    Mario Pei was an Italian-born American linguist whose many works helped to provide the general public with a popular understanding of linguistics and philology. Pei immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was seven years old. By the time he was out of high school he knew not only

  • Pei-ching (national capital, China)

    Beijing, city, province-level shi (municipality), and capital of the People’s Republic of China. Few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. The city has been an integral part of China’s history over the past

  • Pei-ching Ta-hsüeh (university, Beijing, China)

    Peking University, university in Beijing, one of the oldest and most important institutions of higher learning in China. Its total enrollment is about 35,000. The school originated as the Capital College, which was founded in 1898 by the Guangxu emperor as part of his short-lived program to

  • Pei-erh Hu (lake, Asia)

    Lake Buir, lake largely in eastern Mongolia, on the border with northeastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. It has an area of 235 square miles (609 square km). It receives the Halhïn (Halaha) River from the southeast, and its outlet, the Orxon (Orshun) River, flows into Lake Hulun to

  • Pei-hai (China)

    Beihai, city and port, southern Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi, China. For a time the city was in Guangdong province, but in 1965 it became part of Guangxi. It is located on the western shore of a small peninsula on the eastern side of Qinzhou Bay on the Gulf of Tonkin, immediately south of

  • Pei-kang (Taiwan)

    Yün-lin: …Goddess of the Sea, at Pei-kang, attracts multitudes of pilgrims from all over Taiwan for annual celebrations. Tou-liu is the administrative seat of the hsien and is linked by road and railway with T’aichung to the north and with Chia-i to the south. Area 498 square miles (1,291 square km).…

  • Pei-p’iao (China)

    Beipiao, mining town, western Liaoning sheng (province), northeastern China. It is located northwest of Daling Stream and east of the Nuluerhu Mountains and is the site of a coal combine. The vertical shafts, which extend nearly 3,280 feet (1,000 metres) into the ground, are among the deepest mines

  • Pei-p’ing (national capital, China)

    Beijing, city, province-level shi (municipality), and capital of the People’s Republic of China. Few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. The city has been an integral part of China’s history over the past

  • Pei-t’ou (Taiwan)

    Taipei: The contemporary city: …mountain and the town of Pei-t’ou (Beituo) at its base are known for their hot springs. Pi (Bi) Lake has boating and water sports. There are ocean beaches not far from the city, and Tan-shui to the north on the Taiwan Strait is a popular resort town.

  • Pei-ta (university, Beijing, China)

    Peking University, university in Beijing, one of the oldest and most important institutions of higher learning in China. Its total enrollment is about 35,000. The school originated as the Capital College, which was founded in 1898 by the Guangxu emperor as part of his short-lived program to

  • Peierls, Sir Rudolf Ernst (British physicist)

    Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls was a German-born British physicist who laid the theoretical foundations for the creation of the first atomic bomb. From 1925 to 1929 Peierls studied at universities in Berlin and Munich before working with Werner Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig in studying the Hall

  • Peigan (North American people)

    Blackfoot: …three closely related bands, the Piegan (officially spelled Peigan in Canada), or Piikuni; the Blood, or Kainah (also spelled Kainai or Akainiwa); and the Siksika, or Blackfoot proper (often referred to as the Northern Blackfoot). The three groups, often called the Blackfoot confederacy, traditionally lived in what is now Alberta,…

  • Peiligang (ancient site, China)

    China: 6th millennium bce: …northern China the people of Peiligang (north-central Henan) made less use of cord marking and painted design on their pots than did those at Dadiwan I; the variety of their stone tools, including sawtooth sickles, indicates the importance of agriculture. The Cishan potters (southern Hebei) employed more cord-marked decoration and…

  • Peille (France)

    Côte d’Azur: Èze, Utelle, and Peille; many such towns are perched on cliffs. Their streets are narrow and paved with flagstones or cobbles; houses are built of stone and roofed with rounded tiles. The doors of larger houses feature elaborate bronze knockers and hinges of wrought iron. The mas is…

  • peine forte et dure (English law)

    peine forte et dure, in English law, punishment that was inflicted upon those who were accused of a felony and stood silent, refusing to plead either guilty or not guilty, or upon those who challenged more than 20 prospective jurors. For example, English law permitted defendants the right to

  • Peintre de la vie moderne, Le (essay by Baudelaire)

    Charles Baudelaire: The last years: …“Salon de 1859” and “Le Peintre de la vie moderne” (“The Painter of Modern Life”). The latter essay, inspired by the draftsman Constantin Guys, is widely viewed as a prophetic statement of the main elements of the Impressionist vision and style a decade before the actual emergence of that…

  • Peinture et de Sculpture, Académie Royale de (historical art academy, Paris, France)

    Jacques-Louis David: Formative years: …in the school of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. After four failures in the official competitions and years of discouragement that included an attempt at suicide (by the stoic method of avoiding food), he finally obtained, in 1774, the Prix de Rome, a government scholarship that not only…

  • Peintures-Cartonniers de Tapisserie, Association des (artists association)

    tapestry: 19th and 20th centuries: …des Peintures-Cartonniers de Tapisserie (Association of Cartoon Painters of Tapestry). Also active in this organization were the important French tapestry designers Marc Saint-Saëns and Jean Picart Le Doux, who were Lurçat’s foremost disciples. Lurçat was held in great esteem by Dom Robert, a Benedictine monk whose tapestries of poetic…

  • Peiper, Tadeusz (Polish poet)

    Awangarda Krakowska: Tadeusz Peiper, the first poet in Poland to advance a poetics opposed to that of the Skamander group of poets (who had turned toward the classical in their effort to forge a modernist poetry), was Zwrotnica’s editor from 1922 to 1923 and again from 1926…

  • Peipsi Järv (lake, Europe)

    Lake Peipus, lake forming part of the boundary between Estonia and Pskov oblast (province) of Russia. It is connected by the narrow Lake Tyoploye to a southern extension, Lake Pskov. Lake Peipus has an area of 1,370 square miles (3,550 square km), although this varies. The lake bottom, reaching a

  • Peipsi, Battle of Lake (Russian history)

    Lake Peipus: …“Battle on the Ice” (Ledovoye Poboishche). His victory (April 5) forced the grand master of the Knights to relinquish all claims to the Russian lands that he had conquered and substantially reduced the Teutonic threat to northwestern Russia.

  • Peipus, Lake (lake, Europe)

    Lake Peipus, lake forming part of the boundary between Estonia and Pskov oblast (province) of Russia. It is connected by the narrow Lake Tyoploye to a southern extension, Lake Pskov. Lake Peipus has an area of 1,370 square miles (3,550 square km), although this varies. The lake bottom, reaching a

  • Peirce’s Park (garden, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States)

    Longwood Gardens, botanical gardens in Kennett Square, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. The gardens are operated by Longwood Gardens, Inc., a private foundation, which, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other public horticultural institutions, sponsors expeditions to

  • Peirce, Benjamin (American mathematician and astronomer)

    Benjamin Peirce was an American mathematician, astronomer, and educator who computed the general perturbations of the planets Uranus and Neptune. Peirce graduated from Harvard University in 1829 and accepted a teaching position with George Bancroft at his Round Hill School in Northampton,

  • Peirce, Charles Sanders (American philosopher and scientist)

    Charles Sanders Peirce was an American scientist, logician, and philosopher who is noted for his work on the logic of relations and on pragmatism as a method of research. Peirce was one of four sons of Sarah Mills and Benjamin Peirce, who was Perkins professor of astronomy and mathematics at

  • Peirce-Smith converter (metallurgy)

    metallurgy: Matte smelting: …this operation has been the Peirce-Smith converter. This is a rotatable, refractory-lined, horizontal steel drum with an opening at the centre of the top for charging and discharging and a row of tuyeres across the back through which air, oxygen-enriched air, or oxygen can be blown into the liquid bath.…

  • Peiresc, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de (French humanist)

    Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc was a French antiquary, humanist, and influential patron of learning who discovered the Orion Nebula (1610) and was among the first to emphasize the study of coins for historical research. Travels in Italy (1599–1602), studies at Padua, and acquaintance there with

  • Peirithous (Greek mythology)

    Pirithous, in Greek mythology, the son of Ixion and the companion and helper of the hero Theseus in his many adventures, including the descent into Hades to carry off Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter. They were detained in Hades until the Greek hero Heracles rescued Theseus but not

  • Peisistratids (ancient Greek family)

    Areopagus: The fall of the Peisistratids, who during their tyranny (546–510) had filled the archonships with their adherents, left the Areopagus full of their nominees and thus in low esteem; its reputation was restored by its patriotic posture during the Persian invasion. In 462 the reformer Ephialtes deprived the Areopagus…

  • Peisistratus (tyrant of Athens)

    Peisistratus was a tyrant of ancient Athens whose unification of Attica and consolidation and rapid improvement of Athens’s prosperity helped to make possible the city’s later preeminence in Greece. In 594 Peisistratus’s mother’s relative, the reformer Solon, had improved the economic position of

  • Peithon (Median satrap)

    Antigonus I Monophthalmus: Military campaigns: …the aid of Seleucus and Peithon (the satraps of Babylonia and Media, respectively) at Gabiene. Then, wishing to eliminate all possible rivals, Antigonus had both Eumenes and Peithon executed; Seleucus escaped to Egypt.

  • peito (form of slavery)

    South American forest Indian: Social organization: …a servile group known as peito—the same term applied to a fiancé during the period in which he is obliged to work for his future father-in-law. The Rucuyen, a Carib tribe of French Guiana, for some time maintained in servitude a great number of the Oyampī, their Tupí neighbours. In…

  • Peiwenyunfu (Chinese dictionary)

    Kangxi: Administration of the empire: …rhyming dictionary of Chinese compounds, Peiwenyunfu (1711); and the encyclopaedia of subject matter, Yuanjian leihan (1710). Another great encyclopaedia, the Gujin tushu jicheng, which was to consist of 10,000 chapters, was also started in Kangxi’s reign.

  • Peixoto, Floriano (president of Brazil)

    Florianópolis: …the government of Brazilian president Floriano Peixoto. When the revolution collapsed, the city was renamed to honour the president.

  • Pejë (Kosovo)

    Pejë, town, western Kosovo. It lies on a small tributary of the Beli Drim River, between the North Albanian Alps (Prokletije) and the Mokra Mountain Range. It is populated largely by ethnic Albanians, who are primarily Muslim. It is noted for its mosques, narrow streets, and old Turkish houses.

  • Pejepscot (Maine, United States)

    Brunswick, town, Cumberland county, southwestern Maine, U.S., at the falls of the Androscoggin River, 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Portland. First known as Pejepscot, the town originated in 1628 as a trading post, but Indian hostility retarded its early development. Growth began with its

  • pejerrey (fish)

    Río de la Plata: Animal life: …as it is long), the pejerrey (a marine fish, silver in colour, with two darker bands on each side), and the corbina (white sea bass); the stretch of the Paraná upstream from Corrientes is popular for its dorado sport fishing. Also of note is the meat-eating piranha, a fish resembling…

  • PEK (chemical compound)

    major industrial polymers: Polyetherketone (PEK) and polyetheretherketone (PEEK): PEK and PEEK are high-strength, radiation-resistant engineering plastics whose structures combine both ether and ketone groups. Both are thermally stable and highly resistant to chemicals. Principal uses are in machine parts, nuclear power-plant equipment, automobile parts, aerospace components, cable insulation,…

  • Pekah (king of Israel)

    Tiglath-pileser III: Military campaigns.: …subject through the assassination of Pekah (Pakaha) and his replacement by a pro-Assyrian vassal Hoshea (Ausi). Galilee was made part of an adjacent province.

  • Pekalongan (Indonesia)

    Pekalongan, kota (city) and kabupaten (regency), Central Java (Jawa Tengah) propinsi (or provinsi; province), Indonesia. The city, which is the capital of the regency, is situated on the northern coastal plain of the island of Java. The population of the regency is primarily Javanese, with a

  • pékan (mammal)

    fisher, (Martes pennanti), North American carnivore of northern forests (taiga), trapped for its valuable brownish black fur (especially fine in the female). It is a member of the weasel family (Mustelidae). The fisher has a weasel-like body, bushy tail, tapered muzzle, and low rounded ears. Adults

  • Pekanbaru (Indonesia)

    Pekanbaru, kota (city) and capital of Riau propinsi (or provinsi; province), Indonesia. It is a port city, located on the Siak River, about 100 miles (160 km) upstream from the Strait of Malacca, in the east-central region of the island of Sumatra. The city was established in the late 18th century

  • pekea nut (food)

    souari nut, any of the seeds borne in large, clustered fruits of trees of the genus Caryocar (family Caryocaraceae), which has about 15 species. C. nuciferum, from Panama and northern South America, is typical. Its coconut-sized fruit has four nuts, surrounded by edible flesh. The warty, red,

  • Pekepoo (dog)

    Poodle: Schnoodle (Schnauzer + Poodle), and Pekepoo (Pekingese + Poodle). However, many Poodle breeders deplored the trend and regretted the dilution of carefully managed bloodlines.

  • Peker, Recep (prime minister of Turkey)

    Turkey: World War II and the postwar era, 1938–50: …CHP, led by Prime Minister Recep Peker (served 1946–47), wished to suppress the DP, but they were prevented from doing so by İnönü. In his declaration of July 12, 1947, İnönü stated that the logic of a multiparty system implied the possibility of a change of government. Prophetically, he renounced…

  • Peki-tan-oui (river, United States)

    Missouri River, longest tributary of the Mississippi River and second longest river in North America. It is formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers in the Rocky Mountains area of southwestern Montana (Gallatin county), U.S., about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) above sea

  • Pekin (Illinois, United States)

    Pekin, city, seat (1849) of Tazewell county, central Illinois, U.S. It lies along the Illinois River (bridged) just south of Peoria. French explorers wintered in the area in 1680. The first settler was Jonathan Tharp in 1824. Tharp opened a smokehouse in 1827, and in 1829 the town was laid out and

  • Pekin duck (breed of duck)

    poultry farming: Ducks and geese: …market competition from the yellow-fleshed Pekin duck have led to its decline.

  • Pekin man (anthropology)

    Peking man, extinct hominin of the species Homo erectus, known from fossils found at Zhoukoudian near Beijing. Peking man was identified as a member of the human lineage by Davidson Black in 1927 on the basis of a single tooth. Later excavations yielded several skullcaps and mandibles, facial and

  • Pekin robin (bird)

    Leiothrix: argentauris), and the red-billed leiothrix (L. lutea), which is known to cage-bird fanciers as the Pekin, or Chinese, robin (or nightingale). Both range from the Himalayas to Indochina; L. lutea has been introduced into Hawaii, where it is commonly called hill robin. The silver-ear has yellow, gray, red,…

  • Peking (national capital, China)

    Beijing, city, province-level shi (municipality), and capital of the People’s Republic of China. Few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. The city has been an integral part of China’s history over the past

  • Peking duck (dish)

    Peking duck, one of the most celebrated dishes of Beijing, or Mandarin Chinese, cuisine, with a history of more than 400 years. In its classic form, the dish calls for a specific breed of duck, the Imperial Peking, that is force-fed and housed in a small cage so that inactivity will ensure tender

  • Peking man (anthropology)

    Peking man, extinct hominin of the species Homo erectus, known from fossils found at Zhoukoudian near Beijing. Peking man was identified as a member of the human lineage by Davidson Black in 1927 on the basis of a single tooth. Later excavations yielded several skullcaps and mandibles, facial and

  • Peking Man (work by Cao Yu)

    Chinese performing arts: The 20th and 21st centuries: …important plays, including Beijingren (1940; Beijing Man); heavily influenced by Eugene O’Neill and Henrik Ibsen, he portrayed dissolute members of the old gentry class and new rising entrepreneur class.

  • Peking opera (Chinese theatre)

    jingxi, popular Chinese theatrical form that developed in the mid-19th century. It incorporated elements of huidiao from Anhui, dandiao from Hubei, and kunqu, the traditional opera that had predominated since the 16th century. Sung in Mandarin, the dialect of Beijing and of the traditional elite,

  • Peking sauce (food)

    hoisin sauce, commercially prepared, thick reddish-brown sauce used in Chinese cuisine both as an ingredient in cooking and as a table condiment. Made from soybeans, flour, sugar, water, spices, garlic, and chili, it is sweet and spicy. It is used in cooking shellfish and fatty meats such as pork

  • Peking Spring (Chinese history)

    education: Communism and the intellectuals: A movement called “Beijing (Peking) Spring” was launched in November 1978. Huge wall posters condemning the communist regime appeared on Beijing’s so-called Democracy Wall. The movement’s leaders expanded the modernization program by adding a fifth modernization, which clearly emphasized democracy, freedom, and human rights. The “Beijing Spring” movement…

  • Peking Syllabary (work by Wade)

    Sir Thomas Francis Wade: …extensively on Chinese studies, his Peking Syllabary (1859) providing the basis of the Wade-Giles system of Chinese romanization, which was long the most popular form of romanization in the West as well as in China (even after the official introduction of Pinyin in 1958 and its adoption in 1979). On…

  • Peking University (university, Beijing, China)

    Peking University, university in Beijing, one of the oldest and most important institutions of higher learning in China. Its total enrollment is about 35,000. The school originated as the Capital College, which was founded in 1898 by the Guangxu emperor as part of his short-lived program to

  • Peking Zoo (zoo, Beijing, China)

    Beijing Zoo, zoological garden on the western outskirts of Beijing, founded in 1906 by the empress dowager Cixi. The zoo is financed with government funds and is noted for its collection of rare Asian species. The Beijing Zoo served chiefly as an experimental farm from 1911 to 1949, when the

  • Peking Zoological Garden (zoo, Beijing, China)

    Beijing Zoo, zoological garden on the western outskirts of Beijing, founded in 1906 by the empress dowager Cixi. The zoo is financed with government funds and is noted for its collection of rare Asian species. The Beijing Zoo served chiefly as an experimental farm from 1911 to 1949, when the

  • Peking, Treaty of (China-Russia [1860])

    China: The anti-foreign movement and the second Opium War (Arrow War): …his mediatory effort, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, which confirmed the Treaty of Aigun and ceded to Russia the territory between the Ussuri and the sea.

  • Pekingese (breed of dog)

    Pekingese, breed of toy dog developed in ancient China, where it was held sacred and kept as a palace dog by members of the imperial family. It was introduced to the West by English forces that looted the Imperial Palace at Peking (Beijing) in 1860. The Pekingese has been known, both in the East

  • Pekkanen, Toivo (Finnish author)

    Finnish literature: The early 20th century: …writers included Pentti Haanpää and Toivo Pekkanen, two autodidacts. In his short stories and novels, Haanpää observed with sharp irony and a keen sense of social justice the life of the rural poor, revealing himself as a skillful stylist who frequently criticized the army and the church, two sacrosanct institutions…

  • Peko (Estonian deity)

    Peko, in Estonian religion, an agricultural deity who aided the growth of grain, especially barley. Peko was represented by a wax image that was kept buried in the grain in the granary and brought out in early spring for a ritual of agricultural increase. An entire village might participate in such

  • Pel’s anomalure (rodent)

    anomalure: …of the seven species is Pel’s anomalure (A. pelii), with a body 40 to 46 cm (16 to 18 inches) long and a tail of nearly the same length. The little anomalure (A. pusillus) is about half the size of Pel’s and has a proportionally shorter tail. The pygmy anomalures…

  • Pel’s fishing owl (bird)

    fish owl: Pel’s fishing owl (Scotopelia peli), whose range extends discontinuously from Senegal eastward to Ethiopia and southward to the east coast of South Africa, is the largest of the group, at about 50 to 60 cm (20 to 24 inches) long. It is brown above with…

  • Peláez, Amelia (Cuban artist)

    Latin American art: Cubism to Formalism: The Cuban artist Amelia Peláez, who had studied with Leopoldo Romañach, went to Paris and adopted a style that recalled the later, more-ornamental Cubist work produced by Braque, as well as the work of Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse. Upon her return to Cuba in 1934, she painted…

  • pelage (hair)

    pelage, hairy, woolly, or furry coat of a mammal, distinguished from the underlying bare skin. The pelage is significant in several respects: as insulation; as a guard against injury; and, in its coloration and pattern, as a species adornment for mutual recognition among species members,

  • Pelagia Of Antioch, Saint (Christian saint)

    Saint Pelagia of Antioch ; feast day June 9) was a 15-year-old Christian virgin who, probably during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian, threw herself from a housetop to save her chastity and died instantly. Her authenticity was endorsed and praised by St. Ambrose and St.

  • Pelagian heresy (Christian history)

    Pelagianism, a 5th-century Christian heresy taught by Pelagius and his followers that stressed the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will. Pelagius was concerned about the slack moral standards among Christians, and he hoped to improve their conduct by his teachings.

  • Pelagianism (Christian history)

    Pelagianism, a 5th-century Christian heresy taught by Pelagius and his followers that stressed the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will. Pelagius was concerned about the slack moral standards among Christians, and he hoped to improve their conduct by his teachings.

  • pelagic bird

    migration: Lower invertebrates: The daily activity of pelagic birds (those living on the open sea), such as petrels and shearwaters, which feed on planktonic crustaceans and squids, follows this same rhythm.

  • pelagic division (oceanography)

    pelagic zone, ecological realm that includes the entire ocean water column. Of all the inhabited Earth environments, the pelagic zone has the largest volume, 1,370,000,000 cubic kilometres (330,000,000 cubic miles), and the greatest vertical range, 11,000 metres (36,000 feet). Pelagic life is found

  • pelagic environment (oceanography)

    pelagic zone, ecological realm that includes the entire ocean water column. Of all the inhabited Earth environments, the pelagic zone has the largest volume, 1,370,000,000 cubic kilometres (330,000,000 cubic miles), and the greatest vertical range, 11,000 metres (36,000 feet). Pelagic life is found

  • pelagic sea snake (reptile)

    reptile: Distribution and ecology: The yellow-bellied sea snake (Pelamis platurus) spends all its life in marine environments. It feeds and gives birth far from any coastline and is helpless if washed ashore, whereas other sea snakes live in coastal waters of estuaries and coral reefs. The sea turtles are also predominately…

  • pelagic sealing (hunting)

    Pribilof Islands: …sealing at sea (also called pelagic sealing) permits no selectivity, and, moreover, many of the animals killed are lost. In 1870 sealing rights were leased to the Alaska Commercial Company. During the 1880s vessels of several countries engaged in pelagic sealing, which depleted the islands’ herds. In 1886 U.S. vessels…

  • pelagic sediment (geology)

    Atlantic Ocean: Bottom deposits: …by several inches of normal pelagic sediment. Study of the shells of planktonic foraminifera in these cores shows that the climatic changes, ice ages, and interglacial ages of the last two million years have been recorded in the sediments as alternations of species adapted to cold or to warm water.…

  • pelagic zone (oceanography)

    pelagic zone, ecological realm that includes the entire ocean water column. Of all the inhabited Earth environments, the pelagic zone has the largest volume, 1,370,000,000 cubic kilometres (330,000,000 cubic miles), and the greatest vertical range, 11,000 metres (36,000 feet). Pelagic life is found

  • Pelagie Islands (island group, Italy)

    Pelagie Islands, group of islands in the Mediterranean Sea between Malta and Tunisia, south of Sicily; administratively they form the commune of Lampedusa. The group consists of the islands of Lampedusa and Linosa and the Isolotto (islet) Lampione, standing on the eastern edge of the submarine

  • Pélagie-la-charrette (work by Maillet)

    Canadian literature: The Quiet Revolution of French Canadian minorities: …Prix Goncourt for Pélagie-la-charrette (1979; Pélagie: The Return to a Homeland), an epic novel about the fate of Acadians after the deportation of 1755, she created an awareness of Acadia and its history. Her novel Les Confessions de Jeanne de Valois (1992; “The Confessions of Jeanne de Valois”) reviews the…

  • Pélagie: The Return to a Homeland (work by Maillet)

    Canadian literature: The Quiet Revolution of French Canadian minorities: …Prix Goncourt for Pélagie-la-charrette (1979; Pélagie: The Return to a Homeland), an epic novel about the fate of Acadians after the deportation of 1755, she created an awareness of Acadia and its history. Her novel Les Confessions de Jeanne de Valois (1992; “The Confessions of Jeanne de Valois”) reviews the…

  • Pelagius (Christian cardinal and crusader)

    Crusades: The Fifth Crusade: …arrived under the legate Cardinal-Legate Pelagius. Since Pelagius maintained that the Crusaders were under the jurisdiction of the church, he declined to accept the leadership of John of Brienne and often interfered in military decisions.

  • Pelagius (Christian theologian)

    Pelagius was a monk and theologian whose heterodox theological system known as Pelagianism emphasized the primacy of human effort in spiritual salvation. Coming to Rome about 380, Pelagius, though not a priest, became a highly regarded spiritual director for both clergy and laity. The rigorous

  • Pelagius I (pope)

    Pelagius I was the pope from 556 to 561. His ecclesiastical roles under the popes St. Agapetus I, St. Silverius, and Vigilius were highly important in the history of the church. As a deacon, Pelagius accompanied Agapetus to Constantinople to help him dissuade the Byzantine emperor Justinian I from

  • Pelagius II (pope)

    Pelagius II was pope from 579 to 590. Pelagius, who was of Gothic descent, was consecrated as Pope Benedict I’s successor on November 26, 579, without imperial confirmation. His pontificate was continually troubled by the Lombards who were besieging Rome and threatening the Italian peoples, for

  • Pelagophyceae (organism)

    protozoan: Annotated classification: Pelagophyceae Group contains autotrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic taxa. Most are marine and have a paraxial rod in the hairy flagellum. Silicoflagellates form a successful group of marine phytoplankton. Raphidophyceae Flagellated unicells that possess peripherally aligned trichocysts and chloroplasts; some possess many plastids (20–100).