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  • Centre Canal (canal, Belgium)
    ...now closed, but heavy industry continues in the form of blast furnaces and steelworks at La Louvière, a petroleum refinery at Felay, and an automobile assembly plant at Seneffe-Manage. The Centre Canal serves the district and has antique canal lifts of archaeological interest. At Mariemont, north of Morlanwelz, the 16th-century castle built by Mary of Hungary, Charles V’s sister, ...
  • Centre Democrat (political party, Denmark)
    ...Jørgensen, who had to call an election in November 1973. An electoral landslide resulted in heavy losses for the four “old” parties and the emergence of three new parties: the Centre Democrats (Centrum-Demokraterne), the Christian People’s Party (Kristeligt Folkeparti), and the Progress Party (Fremskridtspartiet), an antitax party. A weak minority government under Po...
  • Centre Démocrate (political party, France)
    ...to General Charles de Gaulle and the candidate of the left, François Mitterrand. Lecanuet attempted to solidify the parties that supported him, including the MRP, into a centre party, the Centre Démocrate, founded in February 1966. Legislative elections in 1967 and 1968, however, brought fresh defeats for the centre, which failed to win more than 13 percent of the vote in......
  • Centre Democratic Union (political party, Switzerland)
    conservative Swiss political party....
  • centre fielder (baseball)
    The three outfielders are positioned so as to best be able to catch or field balls that are batted over or through the infield. The three outfield positions are left fielder, centre fielder, and right fielder. Outfielders must be able to judge the trajectory of flies and have enough speed to run to the point where the ball will come down. Batted or thrown balls that pass beyond the infielders......
  • Centre Georges Pompidou (cultural centre, Paris, France)
    French national cultural centre on the Rue Beaubourg and on the fringes of the historic Marais section of Paris. It is named after the French president Georges Pompidou, under whose administration the museum was commissioned....
  • Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (cultural centre, Paris, France)
    French national cultural centre on the Rue Beaubourg and on the fringes of the historic Marais section of Paris. It is named after the French president Georges Pompidou, under whose administration the museum was commissioned....
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (French research organization)
    ...of 1936. As undersecretary of state for scientific research, she helped to lay the foundations, with Jean Perrin, for what would later become the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Centre for Scientific Research)....
  • Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans (political party, France)
    French political party founded in 1949. It grew out of the National Centre of Independents, formed in 1948 by Roger Duchet, who, by the following year, had accomplished a coalition of various parliamentarians of the right and had absorbed the small peasant party, the Republican Party of Liberty (Parti Républicain de la Liberté); the new grouping became the CNIP. Thereafter it took pa...
  • centre of buoyancy (physics)
    ...submerged in a liquid for which ρ = 2ρ′; they are separated by rotations of 22.5°. In each of these diagrams, C is the centre of mass of the prism, and B, a point known as the centre of buoyancy, is the centre of mass of the displaced water. The distributed forces acting on the prism are equivalent to its weight acting downward through C and to the equal weight of th...
  • centre of mass (physics)
    The word particle has been used in this article to signify an object whose entire mass is concentrated at a point in space. In the real world, however, there are no particles of this kind. All real bodies have sizes and shapes. Furthermore, as Newton believed and is now known, all bodies are in fact compounded of smaller bodies called atoms. Therefore, the science of mechanics must deal not......
  • Centre of Social Action (political party, Guatemala)
    ...century include the National Union for Hope (Unión Nacional de Esperanza; UNE), the Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota; PP), the Grand National Alliance (Gran Alianza Nacional; GANA), and the Centre of Social Action (Centro de Acción Social; CASA), which represents the interests of indigenous people. Generally, Guatemalan voters still appear to have little faith in government......
  • centre of symmetry (physics)
    ...and redistributions of electrons within the unit cell. Only certain crystal structures are piezoelectric. They are those which, like BaTiO3, lack what is known as an inversion centre, or centre of symmetry—that is, a centre point from which the structure is virtually identical in any two opposite directions. In the case of BaTiO3, the centre of symmetry is lost owin...
  • Centre Party (political party, Sweden)
    Historically, the political party system in Sweden has been relatively stable. Prominent parties include three nonsocialist parties—the Moderate Party (formerly the Conservative Party), the Centre Party, and the Liberal Party—and two socialist parties—the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SAP; commonly called the Social Democratic Labour Party) and the Left Part...
  • Centre Party (political party, Germany)
    in Germany, political party active in the Second Reich from the time of Otto von Bismarck in the 1870s to 1933. It was the first party of imperial Germany to cut across class and state lines, but because it represented the Roman Catholics, who were concentrated in southern and western Germany, it was unable to win a parliamentary majority....
  • Centre Party (political party, Finland)
    ...farmers and landless labourers their own smallholdings. More than 90,000 smallholdings were created, and since then the independent smallholders, who form the majority of the Agrarian Party (now the Centre Party), have been a major factor in Finnish politics....
  • Centre Pompidou (cultural centre, Paris, France)
    French national cultural centre on the Rue Beaubourg and on the fringes of the historic Marais section of Paris. It is named after the French president Georges Pompidou, under whose administration the museum was commissioned....
  • Centre, the (region, Australia)
    town, Northern Territory, Australia. It is the main focus of the Centre, a name given to approximately 100,000 square miles (260,000 square km) of central Australia that includes large areas of desert and rocky ridges. Alice Springs lies on the intermittent Todd River and the Stuart Highway, 1,028 road miles (1,654 km) north of Adelaide and 954 miles (1,535 km) south of Darwin. The town......
  • Centre Union (political party, Greece)
    ...posts in several governments. During a subsequent period in opposition, he merged his Democratic Socialist Party with the Liberal Party and in 1961 organized a new centre-left coalition, the Centre Union....
  • Centre Union Party (political party, Greece)
    ...posts in several governments. During a subsequent period in opposition, he merged his Democratic Socialist Party with the Liberal Party and in 1961 organized a new centre-left coalition, the Centre Union....
  • centre wheel (watch part)
    ...or sprocket, which is raised by turning the winding square or, in some cases, by pulling on the line. The main wheel engages with the centre pinion, on the arbor (axle) of which is also mounted the centre wheel. The front pivot of this wheel and pinion carries the minute hand and part of the gearing necessary to drive the hour hand....
  • centre-fire cartridge
    ...into the cartridge by the hammer action; in the other, a primer charge of fulminate of mercury was exploded in the cartridge rim. Later improvements changed the point of impact from the rim to the centre of the cartridge, where a percussion cap was inserted. The cartridge with a percussion cap, or cup, centred on the base of the cartridge—centre-fire—predominated in all larger......
  • Centre-Left (political party, Poland)
    ...(BBWR) became his political instrument, used at first against the opposition rightist National Democrats. In 1930 Piłsudski responded to the challenge of the centre-left opposition (Centrolew) by ordering the arrest and trial of its leaders, including three-time premier Witos. The brutal Brześć affair (named for the fortress in which the politicians involved were......
  • Centre-Man (Melanesian culture)
    ...an ephemeral sort of near-chiefdom arises, founded on the capabilities of a charismatic leader. In Melanesia, where a well-established form of personal politics thrives, the leader is called Big Man or Centre Man....
  • centre-of-mass coordinate system (physics)
    ...line at constant speed. Without any loss of generality, one can imagine observing the system from a frame of reference moving along with that same speed and direction. This is sometimes called the centre-of-mass frame. In this frame, the momentum of the two-body system—i.e., the constant in equation (51)—is equal to zero. Writing each of the v’s as the......
  • centre-of-mass reference frame (physics)
    ...line at constant speed. Without any loss of generality, one can imagine observing the system from a frame of reference moving along with that same speed and direction. This is sometimes called the centre-of-mass frame. In this frame, the momentum of the two-body system—i.e., the constant in equation (51)—is equal to zero. Writing each of the v’s as the......
  • centre-of-momentum coordinate system (physics)
    ...line at constant speed. Without any loss of generality, one can imagine observing the system from a frame of reference moving along with that same speed and direction. This is sometimes called the centre-of-mass frame. In this frame, the momentum of the two-body system—i.e., the constant in equation (51)—is equal to zero. Writing each of the v’s as the......
  • centre-of-momentum reference frame (physics)
    ...line at constant speed. Without any loss of generality, one can imagine observing the system from a frame of reference moving along with that same speed and direction. This is sometimes called the centre-of-mass frame. In this frame, the momentum of the two-body system—i.e., the constant in equation (51)—is equal to zero. Writing each of the v’s as the......
  • centre-stick-mounted rocket (missile)
    ...jet issued through five equally spaced holes rather than a single orifice. The forward portion of the guide stick, which screwed into the rocket, was sheathed with brass to prevent burning. The centre-stick-mounted rockets were significantly more accurate. Also, their design permitted launching from thin copper tubes....
  • Centre-Val-de-Loire (region, France)
    région of France encompassing the central départements of Cher, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, and Eure-et-Loir. Centre is bounded by the régions of Haute-Normandie and Île-de-France to the north, Burgundy (Bourgogne) to the ...
  • centreboard (shipbuilding)
    The backbone keel may be supplemented by other keels (see Figure). A “centreboard”—also called a drop keel, or sliding keel—is a retractable keel midships that may be lowered to increase lateral resistance and prevent sideslip. A “skeg” is an aftward extension of the keel intended to keep the boat moving straight and to protect the propeller and rud...
  • Centrechinus setosum (echinoderm)
    ...(known from a single specimen) is Sperostoma giganteum of deep waters off Japan. Hatpin urchins, such as Centrostephanus longispinus of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, Diadema (formerly Centrechinus) setosum of the Indo-Pacific, and D. antillarum of Florida and the West Indies, have toxic spines up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) long. The......
  • “Centres of Gravity of Planes” (work by Archimedes)
    On the Equilibrium of Planes (or Centres of Gravity of Planes; in two books) is mainly concerned with establishing the centres of gravity of various rectilinear plane figures and segments of the parabola and the paraboloid. The first book purports to establish the “law of the lever” (magnitudes balance at distances from......
  • Centreville (British Columbia, Canada)
    city, southern British Columbia, Canada. It lies in Okanagan Lake country, 274 miles (441 km) northeast of Vancouver. Pioneers called the early settlement Priest’s Valley owing to a missionary outpost maintained there by Paul Durieu. It was also known as Forge Valley (for its blacksmithing) and, in 1885, as Centreville (the name of the original town sit...
  • centrifugal casting (metallurgy)
    Centrifugal casting forces the metal into a mold by spinning it. It is used for the casting of small precious-metal objects, so that essentially all of the metal goes into the casting instead of the gates and risers. It is also used to produce long, hollow objects without resorting to cores—for example, to cast pipe. Here the long, cylindrical mold is horizontal and is spun about the axis.....
  • centrifugal clarifier
    Basket centrifuges are often called centrifugal filters or clarifiers. They have a perforated wall and cylindrical tubular rotor. In many cases the outer wall of a basket centrifuge consists of a fine mesh screen or a series of screens with the finer mesh screens supported by the heavier coarse screen, which in turn is supported by the bowl. The liquid passes through the screen, and the......
  • centrifugal clutch (device)
    Automatic engagement is obtained with a centrifugal clutch in which the friction shoes are segments of rings that are pivoted to or carried around by the driving member and make firmer and firmer contact with the internal cylindrical surface of the driven member as the driver’s speed increases....
  • centrifugal compressor (device)
    Centrifugal compressors increase the kinetic energy of the gas with a high-speed impeller and then convert this energy into increased pressure in a divergent outlet passage called the diffuser. Centrifugal compressors are particularly suited for compressing large volumes of gas to moderate pressures. In axial compressors the gas flows parallel to the axis of rotation of the rotor, which has......
  • centrifugal fan
    Enclosed fans may be classified as centrifugal or axial-flow. In centrifugal fans air is led through an inlet pipe to the centre, or eye, of the impeller, which forces it radially outward into the volute, or spiral, casing from which it flows to a discharge pipe....
  • centrifugal filter
    Basket centrifuges are often called centrifugal filters or clarifiers. They have a perforated wall and cylindrical tubular rotor. In many cases the outer wall of a basket centrifuge consists of a fine mesh screen or a series of screens with the finer mesh screens supported by the heavier coarse screen, which in turn is supported by the bowl. The liquid passes through the screen, and the......
  • centrifugal force (physics)
    a fictitious force, peculiar to a particle moving on a circular path, that has the same magnitude and dimensions as the force that keeps the particle on its circular path (the centripetal force) but points in the opposite direction....
  • centrifugal pump
    device for moving liquids and gases. The two major parts of the device are the impeller (a wheel with vanes) and the circular pump casing around it. In the most common type, called the volute centrifugal pump, fluid enters the pump at high speed near the centre of the rotating impeller and is thrown against the casing by the vanes. The centrifugal pressure forces the fluid through an opening in t...
  • centrifuge (instrument)
    any device that applies a sustained centrifugal force; that is, a force due to rotation. Effectively, the centrifuge substitutes a similar, stronger, force for that of gravity. Every centrifuge contains a spinning vessel; there are many configurations, depending on use. A perforated rotating drum in a laundry that throws off excess water from clothes, for example, is a type of ...
  • centrilobular emphysema (pathology)
    This irreversible disease consists of destruction of alveolar walls. It occurs in two forms, centrilobular emphysema, in which the destruction begins at the centre of the lobule, and panlobular (or panacinar) emphysema, in which alveolar destruction occurs in all alveoli within the lobule simultaneously. In advanced cases of either type, this distinction can be difficult to make. Centrilobular......
  • centring (construction)
    temporary construction to support arches and similar structures while the mortar or concrete is setting or the steel is being joined. As soon as the work is set, the centring is carefully removed; this process is called striking the centring. The same method is used in building brick sewers. The name centring originated from the primary use in centred arches, but the same term is applied to the us...
  • centriole (biology)
    The two pronuclei next approach, meet midway in the egg cytoplasm, and lose their nuclear membranes. Each resolves its diffuse chromatin material into a complete, single set of 23 chromosomes. Centrioles (complex particles involved in cell division), apparently supplied by the sperm, appear, and a mitotic spindle organizes with the two sets of chromosomes arranged midway on it—ready to......
  • centripedal selection (genetics)
    Natural selection can be studied by analyzing its effects on changing gene frequencies, but it can also be explored by examining its effects on the observable characteristics—or phenotypes—of individuals in a population. Distribution scales of phenotypic traits such as height, weight, number of progeny, or longevity typically show greater numbers of individuals with intermediate......
  • centripetal acceleration (physics)
    property of the motion of a body traversing a circular path. The acceleration is directed radially toward the centre of the circle and has a magnitude equal to the square of the body’s speed along the curve divided by the distance from the centre of the circle to the moving body. The force causing this acceleration is directed also toward the centre of the circle and is named centripetal f...
  • centripetal drainage pattern
    Similarly, on structural domes where the rocks of the core vary in strength, valleys and master streams locate on weak outcrops in annular patterns. Centripetal patterns are produced where drainage converges on a single outlet or sink, as in some craters, eroded structural domes with weak cores, parts of some limestone country, and enclosed desert depressions. Trellis (or espalier) drainage......
  • centripetal force (physics)
    ...is required to produce this acceleration. In the case of an orbiting planet, the force is gravity. The situation is illustrated in Figure 9. The gravitational attraction of the Sun is an inward (centripetal) force acting on the Earth. This force produces the centripetal acceleration of the orbital motion....
  • Centris (bee)
    Some species of orchids are pollinated by bees that are attracted by means of deception. The flowers of the large genus Oncidium, for example, are pollinated by male Centris bees in what appears to be a case of pseudoantagonism. The flower seems to simulate an enemy insect, which the male bee tries to drive away from his territory. As the bee strikes at the flower, the pollinia......
  • Centriscidae (fish)
    any of four species of small, tropical marine fishes of the family Centriscidae (order Gasterosteiformes), found in the Indo-Pacific. The name razor fish derives from the shrimpfishes’ characteristic sharp-edged belly. Shrimpfishes are nearly transparent, long-snouted, shrimplike fishes, flattened from side to side and covered with a cuirass of fused, transparent armour plates. The armour e...
  • Centro de Acción Social (political party, Guatemala)
    ...century include the National Union for Hope (Unión Nacional de Esperanza; UNE), the Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota; PP), the Grand National Alliance (Gran Alianza Nacional; GANA), and the Centre of Social Action (Centro de Acción Social; CASA), which represents the interests of indigenous people. Generally, Guatemalan voters still appear to have little faith in government......
  • Centro Democrático, Unión de (political party, Spain)
    ...in 1977, national politics have been dominated by a small number of parties. From 1977 until 1982 Spain was governed by the Union of the Democratic Centre (Unión de Centro Democrático; UCD), and the major opposition party was the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español; PSOE). The only other national parties of importance were the right-wi...
  • Centrocercus urophasianus (bird)
    Two species that display spectacularly are the sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and the sharp-tailed grouse (Pedioecetes phasianellus). The former is the largest New World grouse, exceeded in the family only by the capercaillie (see below). A male may be 75 cm (30 in.) long and weigh 3 12 kg (about 7 12......
  • centroid (physics)
    The word particle has been used in this article to signify an object whose entire mass is concentrated at a point in space. In the real world, however, there are no particles of this kind. All real bodies have sizes and shapes. Furthermore, as Newton believed and is now known, all bodies are in fact compounded of smaller bodies called atoms. Therefore, the science of mechanics must deal not......
  • centrolecithal yolk (nutrition)
    ...egg are termed telolecithal. This occurs in many invertebrates and in all vertebrates lower than marsupial mammals. In arthropods, the yolk is massed near the centre of the egg; such eggs are termed centrolecithal....
  • Centrolenidae (amphibian)
    any of a group of tree frogs found in the New World tropics, some species of which have transparent bellies and chests. In glass frogs the viscera are visible, and an observer can see the heart pumping blood into the arteries and food moving through the gut. There is no satisfactory explanation for this transparency, and n...
  • Centrolew (political party, Poland)
    ...(BBWR) became his political instrument, used at first against the opposition rightist National Democrats. In 1930 Piłsudski responded to the challenge of the centre-left opposition (Centrolew) by ordering the arrest and trial of its leaders, including three-time premier Witos. The brutal Brześć affair (named for the fortress in which the politicians involved were......
  • centromere (biology)
    When the chromosomes condense during cell division, they have already undergone replication. Each chromosome thus consists of two identical replicas, called chromatids, joined at a point called the centromere. During mitosis the sister chromatids separate, one going to each daughter cell. Chromosomes thus meet the first criterion for being the repository of genes: they are replicated, and a......
  • Centrophorus harrissoni (shark species)
    little-known shark of the family Squalidae that is related to the dogfishes. Like all members of the genus Centrophorus, it has large green eyes. The dumb gulper shark grows to up to 43 inches (109 cm) in length. It has been found almost solely off the coast of Australia at depths of 820 to 1,260 feet (250 to 385 metres). No details are known of its diet....
  • Centropomidae (fish)
    any of about eight species of marine fishes constituting the genus Centropomus and the family Centropomidae (order Perciformes). Snooks are long, silvery, pikelike fishes with two dorsal fins, a long head, and a rather large mouth with a projecting lower jaw. Tropical fishes, they are found along the American Atlantic and Pacific coasts, often in estuaries and among mangroves and, sometimes...
  • Centroport U.S.A. (economy)
    The Dock Board formulated a plan, called Centroport U.S.A., by which much of the port’s activities would be switched from the Mississippi River to wharves and industrial complexes along the Gulf Outlet and the river frontage thus retired from maritime use would be diverted to such projects as high-rise apartments and public recreation areas. The Julia, Erato, and upper Poydras wharves were....
  • Centropristis striata (fish)
    Among the many serranid sea basses valued for food and sport are grouper (q.v.); the black sea bass (Centropristis striata), a gray, brownish, or blackish species of the western Atlantic; and the graysby (Petrometopon cruentatus), of tropical western Atlantic waters....
  • Centropristis striatus (fish)
    Among the many serranid sea basses valued for food and sport are grouper (q.v.); the black sea bass (Centropristis striata), a gray, brownish, or blackish species of the western Atlantic; and the graysby (Petrometopon cruentatus), of tropical western Atlantic waters....
  • Centropus (bird)
    any of about 27 species of medium to large birds of the genus Centropus of the cuckoo family (Cuculidae). They are found from Africa and Madagascar across southern Asia to Australia and the Solomon Islands. About 30 to 90 cm (12 to 36 inches) long, coucals are loose-plumaged birds with rather stout, down-curved bills, short wings, and long, graduated tails. Weak fliers, they feed chiefly o...
  • Centropus phasianinus (bird)
    bird species of the cuckoo family (Cuculidae). See coucal....
  • Centropus senegalensis (bird)
    The senegal coucal (C. senegalensis), 40 cm (16 inches) long, is brown above with black crown and white underparts. It is found in tropical Africa, as is a similar species, C. superciliosus, the white-browed coucal. ...
  • Centropus sinensis (bird)
    The great, or common, coucal (C. sinensis), called crow pheasant in India, is 48 to 56 cm (19 to 22 inches) long. It is black with brown mantle and wings. Its range is from India to southern China and Malaysia....
  • Centropus toulou (bird)
    The black, or black-chested, coucal (C. toulou) is 33 cm (13 inches) long. All black except for brown wings, it is whitish streaked in nonbreeding plumage (the only cuckoo to have seasonal coloration change). It ranges from eastern Africa to Southeast Asia....
  • Centropyge bicolor (fish)
    Among the better-known species are the black and gold angelfish (Centropyge bicolor) of the Indo-Pacific; the French angelfish, Pomacanthus paru (or P. arcuatus), a black and yellow species of the Atlantic; and the queen angelfish (Holacanthus ciliaris), a blue and yellow fish of the Atlantic....
  • Centrosaurus (dinosaur)
    Among the better-known species are the black and gold angelfish (Centropyge bicolor) of the Indo-Pacific; the French angelfish, Pomacanthus paru (or P. arcuatus), a black and yellow species of the Atlantic; and the queen angelfish (Holacanthus ciliaris), a blue and yellow fish of the Atlantic.......
  • centrosome (biology)
    In most cells, microtubules grow outward, from the cell centre to the cell membrane, from a special region of the cytoplasm near the nuclear envelope called the centrosome. The minus ends of these microtubules are embedded in the centrosome, while the plus ends terminate near the cell membrane. The plus ends grow and shrink rapidly, a process known as dynamic instability. At the start of cell......
  • Centrostephanus longispinus (echinoderm)
    The largest urchin (known from a single specimen) is Sperostoma giganteum of deep waters off Japan. Hatpin urchins, such as Centrostephanus longispinus of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, Diadema (formerly Centrechinus) setosum of the Indo-Pacific, and D. antillarum of Florida and the West Indies, have toxic spines up to 30 centimetres (12......
  • centrum (bone)
    Each vertebra, in higher vertebrates, consists of a ventral body, or centrum, surmounted by a Y-shaped neural arch. The arch extends a spinous process (projection) downward and backward that may be felt as a series of bumps down the back, and two transverse processes, one to either side, which provide attachment for muscles and ligaments. Together the centrum and neural arch surround an......
  • Centrum-Demokraterne (political party, Denmark)
    ...Jørgensen, who had to call an election in November 1973. An electoral landslide resulted in heavy losses for the four “old” parties and the emergence of three new parties: the Centre Democrats (Centrum-Demokraterne), the Christian People’s Party (Kristeligt Folkeparti), and the Progress Party (Fremskridtspartiet), an antitax party. A weak minority government under Po...
  • Centruroides (scorpion)
    ...by molting (ecdysis). Scorpions molt an average of five times (the range is four to nine) before reaching maturity. The number of molts in some species is variable. In some Centruroides, for example, small males mature after four molts and large males after five. There are no reports of molting’s occurring after reproductive maturity has been reached....
  • Centula (historical building, Saint-Riquier, France)
    ...the three-aisle nave on pillars is original. In the style of the great basilicas of Rome, this church had a hall-shaped, wide transept with a semicircular apse adjoining it. Some churches, such as Centula (Saint-Riquier, France), which is known only through pictures, had a second choir on the west side. A fairly well-preserved west choir, forerunner of the later Romanesque westwork, is to be......
  • centum language group
    ...(Proto-Indo-European *kmtóm), which illustrates the change. The languages that preserve the palatal stops as k-like sounds are known as “centum” languages, from centum (/kentum/), the corresponding word in Latin. The satem languages are not geographically separated from one another by any recorded languages that preserve the palatals as stops; it is......
  • centumviri (ancient Rome)
    in ancient Rome, court of civil jurisdiction that gained distinction for its hearing of inheritance claims, through which it influenced succession. The court, instituted in c. 150 bc, was composed of three men from each tribe, a total of 105 judges; hence, the name centumviri (“100 men”), which remained unaltered even when the number increased to 180 by t...
  • centunculus (Roman garment)
    The garment peculiar to mime productions was a coloured patchwork jacket called a centunculus, and this name became applied to mime actors in general. At Corneto, a tomb painting depicts Stupidus (the fool of the mimes) wearing another coat covered with coloured patches, a tall pointed cap decorated with a tassel, and a square, short cloak known as a......
  • Centunculus (Roman play)
    ...pandering to the taste of the emperor. By the time of the Christian persecutions under Nero and Domitian, mimes were used to ridicule the Christian faith on stage. In Centunculus, for example, a clown was baptized and martyred, being grotesquely crucified in a way calculated to burlesque his faith. Sometimes the shows were spiced with sexual acts and......
  • centuriae (ancient Rome)
    ...gave greater influence to the rich than to the poor. All Roman citizens were registered in tribus (tribes), and a census was made of their property. They were then assigned to classes and centuriae (centuries) according to their wealth and the equipment they could provide for military service. Voting in the Comitia Centuriata proceeded by centuries according to precedence,......
  • Centuriae Magdeburgenses (work by Flacius Illyricus)
    ...built into the Christian worldview. This conception of the period between the 4th and 16th centuries was laid out in the great Protestant history by Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Centuriae Magdeburgensis (1559–74; “The Magdeburg Centuries”), which also introduced the practice of dividing the past into ostensibly neutral centuries. The Roman Catholic.....
  • centuriate assembly (ancient Roman assembly)
    During the republic there were two different popular assemblies, the centuriate assembly and the tribal assembly. The centuriate assembly was military in nature; it voted on war and peace and elected all those magistrates who exercised imperium (military power). The tribal assembly was a nonmilitary civilian assembly that elected those magistrates who did not exercise imperium. It did most of......
  • centuriation (urban planning)
    ...own. Moreover, the grid of the central part of the city was matched, and sometimes extended on the same lines, by another grid laid across the surrounding territory. The process, referred to as centuriation, typically made use of squares of 2,330 feet (710 metres) on a side, intended for land distribution to settlers and general purposes of inventory. Signs of it were first detected in......
  • Centuries (work by Nostradamus)
    ...for his innovative medicine and treatment during outbreaks of the plague at Aix and Lyon in 1546–47. He began making prophecies about 1547, which he published in 1555 in a book entitled Centuries. The work consisted of rhymed quatrains grouped in hundreds, each set of 100 called a century. Astrology was then at a peak, and an enlarged second edition, dedicated to the French......
  • Centuries of Meditations (work by Traherne)
    ...particularly in his mystical evocations of the joy and innocence of childhood, but he lacked discipline in his use of metre and rhyme. Indeed, his poetry is overshadowed by the prose work Centuries of Meditations, in which he instructs an acquaintance in his personal philosophy of “felicity”; the latter was based on Traherne’s Christian training, his retention...
  • Centurion (British tank)
    ...war did the U.S. Army introduce a few M26 Pershing heavy tanks with a 90-millimetre gun comparable to that of the original German Tiger. Similarly, the British army introduced the prototypes of the Centurion tank with a 76-millimetre gun comparable to that of the German Panther. Otherwise, U.S. and British tanks were well behind the German and Soviet tanks in their gun power....
  • Centurion (British warship)
    ...Cape Horn but went on to raid Spanish mining settlements on the coast of Chile. Although he and his crew suffered incredible hardships while crossing the Pacific in their one remaining ship, the Centurion, Anson managed to capture a Spanish treasure galleon near the Philippines. He sold this prize for £400,000 in Canton, China, the Centurion being the first British warship....
  • centurion (Roman military officer)
    the principal professional officer in the armies of ancient Rome and its empire. The centurion was the commander of a centuria, which was the smallest unit of a Roman legion. A legion was nominally composed of 6,000 soldiers, and each legion was divided up into 10 cohorts, with each cohort containing 6 centuria. The centurion thus nominally commanded about 100 men...
  • Centurione II Zaccaria (prince of Achaea)
    ...in the southern Peloponnese; he died in 1402. He was succeeded by his widow, Maria Zaccaria, representative of an important Genoese merchant and naval family. She passed the title to her nephew Centurione II Zaccaria, who, however, lost much territory to the Byzantine despotate of the Morea. In 1430 he married his daughter to the Byzantine despotēs Thomas Palaeologus, handing......
  • Centuripae (Italy)
    town, east-central Sicily, Italy. The town lies at an elevation of 2,402 feet (732 m) on a ridge between the Simeto and Dittaino rivers, northwest of Catania. The ancient Centuripae, which the Greek historian Thucydides called a city of the Siculi (an ancient Sicilian tribe), allied itself with Athens against Syracuse. Centuripae remained independent of Syracuse, except for a pe...
  • Centuripe (Italy)
    town, east-central Sicily, Italy. The town lies at an elevation of 2,402 feet (732 m) on a ridge between the Simeto and Dittaino rivers, northwest of Catania. The ancient Centuripae, which the Greek historian Thucydides called a city of the Siculi (an ancient Sicilian tribe), allied itself with Athens against Syracuse. Centuripae remained independent of Syracuse, except for a pe...
  • Centurus carolinus (bird)
    ...Picus viridis) ranges throughout the woodlands of temperate Eurasia and south to North Africa. The deciduous forests of the southeastern United States are the habitat of the red-bellied woodpecker (Centurus carolinus)....
  • century (Christian literature)
    ...a highly cultivated convert in 382 in Evagrius Ponticus. He was the first monk to write extensively and was in the habit of arranging his material in groups of a hundred aphorisms, or “centuries,” a literary form that he invented and that was to have a great vogue in Byzantine times. A master of the spiritual life, he classified the eight sins that undermine the monk’s......
  • Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (American English dictionary)
    dictionary of American English that is generally regarded as one of the greatest ever produced. The first edition (1889–91) contained six volumes; a supplementary Cyclopedia of Names, including personal and geographic names, famous works of art and literature, and the like, was published in 1894. The entire work was under the superintendence of William Dwight Whitney...
  • Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains, A (work by Gould)
    ...1827 he became taxidermist to the Zoological Society of London. The arrival in 1830 of a collection of exotic bird skins from the Himalayas enabled him to produce the first of many folio volumes, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1831–32). Gould’s sketches were transferred to the lithographer’s stone by his wife, the former Elizabeth Coxon, whose artist...
  • Century of the Child, The (work by Key)
    ...misfortune obliged her to take up teaching in Stockholm in the late 1870s, and for the next 20 years she also lectured at the workers’ institute there. Barnets århundrade (1900; The Century of the Child, 1909) made her world famous. This book and numerous other publications concerning the issues of marriage, motherhood, and family life were translated into many......
  • century plant (plant)
    member of the agave family of flowering plants. See Agavaceae....
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