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  • J (unit of energy measurement)
    unit of work or energy in the International System of Units (SI); it is equal to the work done by a force of one newton acting through one metre. Named in honour of the English physicist James Prescott Joule, it equals 107 ergs, or approximately 0.7377 foot-pounds. In electrical terms, the jou...
  • J & M Studio (American recording studio)
    Initially located in the back room of a music shop, J & M Studio moved twice en route to becoming the crucible of the New Orleans sound of the 1950s. Nearly all of the biggest hits by Fats Domino and Little Richard—as well as landmark records by Lloyd Price, Guitar Slim, and Clarence (“Frogman”) Henry—were recorded at J & M under the watchful eye of......
  • J/psi particle (subatomic particle)
    type of meson consisting of a charmed quark and a charmed antiquark. It has a mass of 3.1 GeV/c2, which is about 3.5 times larger than the mass of a proton. The particle was first detected in 1974 by two groups of American physicists working independently of each other, one headed by Burton Richter at SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) in Menlo Park, Calif., a...
  • J source (biblical criticism)
    ...Most High”—i.e., by both Yahweh and El ʿElyon. It is known that, on the matter of the revelation of Yahweh to man, the biblical traditions differ. According to what scholars call the Yahwistic source (J) in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), Yahweh had been known and worshiped since Adam’s time. According to the so-called Priestly source (P), the nam...
  • J-1 Blechesel (airplane)
    Junkers patented a flying-wing design in 1910, the same year in which he established an aircraft factory at Dessau. His J-1 Blechesel (“Sheet Metal Donkey”) monoplane was the first successful all-metal airplane (1915), and his F-13 was the first all-metal transport (1919). Many Junkers aircraft had a corrugated sheet-metal skin, which was copied by several American builders,......
  • j-j coupling (physics)
    ...remain constant quantities for a given state of an atom, but their values can no longer be generated by the addition of the L and S values. A coupling scheme known as jj coupling is sometimes applicable. In this scheme, each electron n is assigned an angular momentum j composed of its orbital angular momentum l and its spin......
  • J-League (Asian sports organization)
    Asian economic growth during the 1980s and early 1990s and greater cultural ties to the West helped cultivate club football. Japan’s J-League was launched in 1993, attracting strong public interest and a sprinkling of famous foreign players and coaches (notably from South America). Attendance and revenue declined from 1995, but the league survived and was reorganized into two divisions of 1...
  • J-particle (subatomic particle)
    type of meson consisting of a charmed quark and a charmed antiquark. It has a mass of 3.1 GeV/c2, which is about 3.5 times larger than the mass of a proton. The particle was first detected in 1974 by two groups of American physicists working independently of each other, one headed by Burton Richter at SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) in Menlo Park, Calif., a...
  • J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (American organization)
    ...with projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book, concluded that a small fraction of the most-reliable UFO reports gave definite indications for the presence of extraterrestrial visitors. Hynek founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), which continues to investigate the phenomenon....
  • J. Craig Venter Research Institute (American institute)
    In addition to the human genome, Venter contributed to the sequencing of the genomes of the rat, mouse, and fruit fly. In 2006 he founded the J. Craig Venter Research Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit genomics research support organization. In 2007, researchers funded in part by the JCVI successfully sequenced the genome of the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which transmits the......
  • J. Dixon and Sons (British company)
    ...silvered by electrolysis. The good conducting qualities, together with its cheapness and ductility, made the alloy ideal for this purpose. Perhaps the best-known manufacturer of britannia metal is J. Dixon and Sons, Sheffield, whose name, initials, or bugle mark are found on a large number of pieces....
  • J. Paul Getty Museum (museum, Malibu, California, United States)
    ...was married and divorced five times. After World War II he spent little time in the United States and eventually settled down at Sutton Place, a large estate near Surrey, Eng. In 1953 he founded the J. Paul Getty Museum, sited on an estate in Malibu, west of Los Angeles, where he displayed many of the art objects that he had accumulated during his life. The museum moved to larger quarters in......
  • J. Paul Getty Trust, The (American foundation)
    private operating foundation that was founded by the American oil billionaire J. Paul Getty in 1953 for the purpose of establishing the J. Paul Getty Museum, which opened to the public in 1954. The Getty Trust has become a multibillion-dollar philanthropic foundation dedicated to enlarging and exhibiting its deceased founder’s art collection in the Gett...
  • J. S. Bach: le musicien-poète (work by Schweitzer)
    ...Charles-Marie Widor, his organ teacher in Paris, recognized Schweitzer as a Bach interpreter of unique perception and asked him to write a study of the composer’s life and art. The result was J.S. Bach: le musicien-poète (1905). In this work Schweitzer viewed Bach as a religious mystic and likened his music to the impersonal and cosmic forces of the natural world....
  • J. Walter Thompson Co. (American advertising company)
    American advertising agency that was long one of the largest such enterprises in the world. In 1980 it became a subsidiary of JWT Group Inc., a Delaware-based holding company....
  • J.C. Penney Company (American company)
    American retail company founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney and today engaged in marketing apparel, home furnishings, jewelry, cosmetics, and cookware. The firm serves consumers principally through stores, catalog sales, and Internet marketing. The company was called J.C. Penney Stores Company from 1913 to 1924, when it was reincorporated as J.C. Penney Co. Its present name was adopted in 1968. I...
  • J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc. (American company)
    American retail company founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney and today engaged in marketing apparel, home furnishings, jewelry, cosmetics, and cookware. The firm serves consumers principally through stores, catalog sales, and Internet marketing. The company was called J.C. Penney Stores Company from 1913 to 1924, when it was reincorporated as J.C. Penney Co. Its present name was adopted in 1968. I...
  • J.C. Penney Stores Company (American company)
    American retail company founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney and today engaged in marketing apparel, home furnishings, jewelry, cosmetics, and cookware. The firm serves consumers principally through stores, catalog sales, and Internet marketing. The company was called J.C. Penney Stores Company from 1913 to 1924, when it was reincorporated as J.C. Penney Co. Its present name was adopted in 1968. I...
  • J.P. Morgan and Company, Inc. (American bank)
    American banking and financial services company formed through the December 2000 merger of J.P. Morgan & Co. and The Chase Manhattan Corporation. It is headquartered in New York City....
  • J.P. Stevens & Co. (American company)
    merchant who founded J.P. Stevens, one of the biggest firms in the American textile industry....
  • J79 (aircraft engine)
    ...The F-104 had a wingspan of 21 feet 11 inches (6.68 m) and a length of 54 feet 9 inches (16.7 m). It was a single-seat, single-engine midwing monoplane, powered with a General Electric J79 series turbojet engine with afterburner delivering 15,800 pounds of thrust. Its normal top speed was about Mach 2.1 (i.e., about 1,550 miles per hour [2,500 km/h]) at 35,000 feet (11,000......
  • Ja, vi elsker dette landet (work by Nordraak)
    Norwegian composer perhaps best known as the composer of the music for the Norwegian national anthem, “Ja, vi elsker dette landet” (1864; “Yes, We Love This Land”)....
  • Jaafari, Ibrahim al- (prime minister of Iraq)
    Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a physician who had spent more than 20 years outside Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein, became the country’s new prime minister in 2005. Jaafari, the leader of the Islamic Daʿwah Party, had returned to Iraq from the U.K. following the overthrow of Saddam’s regime by U.S.-led coalition forces in April 2003. The general elections of January 2005 brought...
  • Jaar, Alfredo (Chilean artist)
    Latin American artists also used video, an emerging international medium, to address political concerns. After moving to New York City, the Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar in 1987 used a computerized light board over Times Square to confront viewers with his message; he superimposed the statement “This is not America” on a map of the United States. When the image electronically changed,....
  • Jäätteenmäki, Anneli (Finnish political leader)
    ...Finland’s membership in the EU and the Finns’ cautious approach to internationalization. In 2000 Finland also elected its first female president, Tarja Halonen of the Social Democratic Party. When Anneli Jäätteenmäki, of the Centre Party, was appointed prime minister in April 2003, Finland became the first European country with women as both president and prim...
  • jab (boxing)
    There are four basic punches: the jab, hook, uppercut, and straight right (straight left for a southpaw), which is sometimes referred to as a “cross.” All other punches are modifications of these basic punches. The jab, whether thrown from an orthodox or a southpaw stance, is a straight punch delivered with the lead hand, which moves directly out from the shoulder. The......
  • Jabal al-Awliyāʾ Dam (dam, The Sudan)
    ...level falls again. The rise at Khartoum averages more than 20 feet. When the Blue Nile is in flood it holds back the White Nile water, turning it into an extensive lake and delaying its flow. The Jabal al-Awliyāʾ Dam south of Khartoum increases this ponding effect....
  • Jabal al-Lawdh (sanctuary, Yemen)
    In South Arabia pilgrims were entertained in the temples on the proceeds of the tithe. The sanctuary of Jabal al-Lawdh, in al-Jawf of northern Yemen, consisted of two temples: the first, at the foot of the mountain, was connected to another one near the summit, some 3,000 feet higher up, by a 3.7-mile processional way. Open courtyards contained many rows of low masonry benches, more than 30......
  • Jabal Al-Ṭūr (mountain, West Bank)
    mountain located in the West Bank just south of Nāblus, near the site of biblical Shechem. In modern times it was incorporated as part of the British mandate of Palestine (1920–48) and subsequently as part of Jordan (1950–67). After 1967 it became part of the West Bank (territory known within Israel by its biblical names...
  • Jabal aṭ-Ṭur (mountain, Lower Galilee, Israel)
    historic elevation of northern Israel, in Lower Galilee near the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon (ʿEmeq Yizreʿel). Though comparatively low (1,929 feet [588 m]), it dominates the level landscape around it, leading to the biblical expression “like Tabor among the mountains” (Jeremiah 46:18). It is first mentioned in the 13th century bc in Egyptian inscriptio...
  • Jabal aṭ-Ṭūr (ridge, Jerusalem)
    multisummited limestone ridge just east of the Old City of Jerusalem and separated from it by the Kidron valley. Frequently mentioned in the Bible and later religious literature, it is holy both to Judaism and to Christianity. Politically, it is part of the municipality of Greater Jerusalem placed under direct Israeli administration following the Six-Day War of 1967; it is not part of the West Ban...
  • Jabal, Baḥr al- (river, The Sudan)
    that section of the Nile River between Nimule near the Uganda border and Malakāl in south-central Sudan. Below Nimule the river flows northward over the Fula Rapids, past Juba (the head of navigation), and through as-Sudd, an enormous, papyrus-choked swamp where half its water is lost. It receives the Baḥr al-Ghazāl at Lake No and then turns east to join with the Sobat River o...
  • Jabal River, Al- (river, The Sudan)
    that section of the Nile River between Nimule near the Uganda border and Malakāl in south-central Sudan. Below Nimule the river flows northward over the Fula Rapids, past Juba (the head of navigation), and through as-Sudd, an enormous, papyrus-choked swamp where half its water is lost. It receives the Baḥr al-Ghazāl at Lake No and then turns east to join with the Sobat River o...
  • Jabal Shammar (region, Saudi Arabia)
    mountainous area, northwestern Saudi Arabia, bounded by the regions of Hejaz on the west and Ash-Sharqīyah on the east. The principal features of the region are the two great mountain ranges of Ajāʾ (granites) and Salmā (basalts) and the immense rolling sand dunes of An-Nafūd. The oasis town of Ḥāʾil is situated on the southern flank of the ...
  • Jabal Sinjār (mountains, Iraq)
    North of the alluvial plains, between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, is the arid Al-Jazīrah plateau. Its most prominent hill range is the Sinjār Mountains, whose highest peak reaches an elevation of 4,448 feet (1,356 metres). The main watercourse is the Wadi Al-Tharthār, which runs southward for 130 miles (210 km) from the Sinjār Mountains to the Tharthār.....
  • Jabalpur (India)
    city, central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. Jabalpur lies just north of the Narmada River in a rocky basin surrounded by low hills that are dotted with lakes and temples. On one of the hills stands the Madan Mahal, an old Goṇḍ castle. Garha, just west, was the chief city of the four independent Goṇḍ kingdoms that arose in the 14th century. Jabalpur was selected a...
  • Jabara, Paul (American songwriter and sound man)
    ...Joe Renzetti for The Buddy Holly StoryOriginal Score: Giorgio Moroder for Midnight ExpressOriginal Song: “Last Dance” from Thank God It’s Friday; music and lyrics by Paul JabaraHonorary Award: Linwood G. Dunn, Walter Lantz, the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film, Laurence Olivier, Loren L. Ryder, King Vidor, Waldon O. Watson...
  • Jabartī, al- (Egyptian historian)
    ...of its historians, partly because the emirs patronized court historians; by contrast, in almost three centuries of Ottoman rule, Egypt produced only one historian worthy of note, Abd al-Rahman al-Jabartī in the late 18th to early 19th century, famous for his observations on the French occupation. The Ottomans also fell short of the Mamlūks’ achievement in architecture; ther...
  • Jabartī, Sheikh Ismāʿīl (Arabian leader)
    ...century, the stage was set for the great movements of expansion of the Somali toward the south and of the Oromo to the south and west. The first known major impetus to Somali migration was that of Sheikh Ismāʿīl Jabartī, ancestor of the Daarood Somali, who apparently came from Arabia to settle in the northeastern corner of the Somali Peninsula in the 11th century. Th...
  • Jabavu, Davidson Don Tengo (South African politician)
    black educator and South African political leader....
  • Jabbar, Kareem Abdul- (American athlete)
    collegiate and professional basketball player, who as a 7-ft-1.75-in centre dominated the game throughout the 1970s and early ’80s....
  • Jabberwocky (poem by Carroll)
    ...This was followed by the inspired fantasy of Lewis Carroll, whose Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872) both contain brilliant nonsense rhymes. “Jabberwocky,” from Through the Looking-Glass, may be the best-known example of nonsense verse. It begins thus:’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves...
  • Jabbūl, Al- (lake, Syria)
    Scattered lakes are found in Syria. The largest is Al-Jabbūl, a seasonal saline lake that permanently covers a minimum area of about 60 square miles (155 square km) southeast of Aleppo. Other major salt lakes are Jayrūd to the northeast of Damascus and Khātūniyyah to the northeast of Al-Ḥasakah. Lake Muzayrīb, a small body of fresh water, is located......
  • Jaberg, Karl (German linguist)
    ...Romance- and Germanic-speaking countries, were the first to participate in such atlas projects. One of the most significant contributions is the linguistic atlas of Italy and southern Switzerland by Karl Jaberg and Jakob Jud; it appeared from 1928 to 1940. Particularly noteworthy in its attention to precise definitions of meaning, this atlas often used illustrations and described objects and......
  • Jabesh-Gilead (ancient city, Jordan)
    ...and with his men he performed the mourning rites for Saul and Jonathan, memorializing them in a deeply moving elegy. Somewhat later, after David had become king in Hebron, he learned that the men of Jabesh-Gilead, a town across the Jordan that had been fanatically attached to King Saul, had recovered the bodies of Saul and Jonathan to give them honourable burial. David sent the town a message.....
  • Jabhah al-Dimuqrāṭīyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, Al- (Palestinian political organization)
    one of several organizations associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); it engaged in acts of terrorism in the 1970s and ’80s and originally maintained a Marxist-Leninist orientation, believing the peasants and the working classes should be educated in socialism in order to bring about a democratic state of Jews and Arabs free of Zionism...
  • Jabhah al-Shaʿbīyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, al- (Palestinian political organization)
    organization providing an institutional framework for militant organizations associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), notable for its Marxist-Leninist ideology and its hijacking of a number of aircraft between 1968 and 1974....
  • Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, Abū Mūsā (Arabian alchemist)
    alchemist known as the father of Arab chemistry. He systematized a “quantitative” analysis of substances and was the inspiration for Geber, a Latin alchemist who developed an important corpuscular theory of matter....
  • jabiru (Jabiru mycteria)
    (species Jabiru mycteria), a typical stork of the New World, ranging from Mexico to Argentina. The jabiru belongs to the stork family, Ciconiidae (order Ciconiiformes). It is mostly white, with the naked skin of the head and upper neck black and red. The unusually heavy bill is slightly upturned. The jabiru is one of the largest American flying birds, reaching a length of 140 cm (4.5 feet)...
  • jabiru (bird)
    The wood stork of the New World (Mycteria americana), often wrongly called “jabiru,” ranges from the southern United States to Argentina. It is white with black wings and tail and a decurved bill. See also jabiru; marabou; hammerhead; shoebill....
  • Jabiru mycteria (Jabiru mycteria)
    (species Jabiru mycteria), a typical stork of the New World, ranging from Mexico to Argentina. The jabiru belongs to the stork family, Ciconiidae (order Ciconiiformes). It is mostly white, with the naked skin of the head and upper neck black and red. The unusually heavy bill is slightly upturned. The jabiru is one of the largest American flying birds, reaching a length of 140 cm (4.5 feet)...
  • Jablochkov candle
    ...of 2,000 cells to create a 100-millimetre (4-inch) arc between two charcoal sticks. When suitable electric generators became available in the late 1870s, the practical use of arc lamps began. The Yablochkov candle, an arc lamp invented by the Russian engineer Paul Yablochkov, was used for street lighting in Paris and other European cities from 1878....
  • Jablochkov, Paul (Russian engineer and inventor)
    Russian electrical engineer and inventor who developed the Yablochkov candle, the first arc lamp that was put to wide practical use and that greatly accelerated the development of electric lighting....
  • Jablonec nad Nisou (Czech Republic)
    city, northwestern Czech Republic. It lies about 1,600 feet (500 m) above sea level in the upper valley of the Nis (Neisse) River, in the Giant Mountains (Krkonoše). It was populated mainly by Germans between World Wars I and II, when it was known as Gablonz an der Neisse. The cradle of the famed Bohemian glass industry, it makes all types of glass products from high-qual...
  • Jablonski, Daniel Ernst (German theologian)
    Protestant theologian who worked for a unification of Lutherans and Calvinists....
  • Jablonski, Johann Theodor (encyclopaedist)
    ...type. The form appealed to the rapidly growing middle class of the country, who welcomed encyclopaedias designed to provide them with an adequate cultural background for polite society. Johann Theodor Jablonski’s illustrated Allgemeines Lexicon (1721) continued in this same style, and similar works were compiled by the Swiss theologian and philologist Jakob Christoph......
  • Jablonskis, Jonas (Lithuanian linguist)
    ...used primarily in the region bordering East Prussia. The modern standard literary language, written in a 32-letter Latin alphabet, is based on the West High Lithuanian dialect of the scholar Jonas Jablonskis (1861–1930), who is considered to be its father....
  • Jabneh (ancient city, Palestine)
    ancient city of Palestine (now Israel) lying about 15 miles (24 km) south of Tel Aviv–Yafo and 4 miles (6 km) from the Mediterranean Sea. Settled by Philistines, Jabneh came into Jewish hands in the time of Uzziah in the 8th century bc. Judas Maccabeus (d. 161 bc) attacked the harbour of Jabneh in his anger at the inhabitants’ hostility....
  • Jabneh, Synod of (Judaism)
    ...such sacred writings are studied to find the revealed word of God, a settled delimiting of the writings—i.e., a canon—must be selected. In the last decade of the 1st century, the Synod of Jamnia (Jabneh), in Palestine, fixed the canon of the Bible for Judaism, which, following a long period of flux and fluidity and controversy about certain of its books, Christians came to....
  • Jaboatão (Brazil)
    city, eastern Pernambuco estado (state), northeastern Brazil. It is located on the Jaboatão River, 148 feet (45 metres) above sea level and just west of Recife, the capital of the state. The site of two battles in the 17th-century war of the Portuguese against the Dutch, Jaboatão was elevated to city status in 1884. It is an ...
  • jaboticaba (plant)
    any of several trees of the genus Myrciaria, of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), notably M. cauliflora and M. jaboticaba, native to southeastern Brazil. The trees have been introduced to other warm regions, including western and southern North America. The name is also applied to the edible fruit of these trees. The trees do not differ greatly among the species; they are dome-sh...
  • jaboticabeira (plant)
    any of several trees of the genus Myrciaria, of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), notably M. cauliflora and M. jaboticaba, native to southeastern Brazil. The trees have been introduced to other warm regions, including western and southern North America. The name is also applied to the edible fruit of these trees. The trees do not differ greatly among the species; they are dome-sh...
  • Jabotinsky, Vladimir (Zionist leader)
    Zionist leader, journalist, orator, and man of letters who founded the militant Zionist Revisionist movement that played an important role in the establishment of the State of Israel....
  • Jabr, Ṣāliḥ (Iraqi politician)
    ...held under his government’s supervision were no different from previous controlled elections. The parties boycotted the elections. Nūrī al-Saʿīd resigned in March 1947, and Ṣāliḥ Jabr formed a new government....
  • Jabrāʾīl (archangel)
    in Islām, the archangel who acts as intermediary between God and man and as bearer of revelation to the prophets, most notably, to Muḥammad. In biblical literature Gabriel is the counterpart to Jibrīl....
  • Jabtsandamba Khutagt (Mongol religious leader)
    ...a way was found to link church and state. A son of the line of the Tüshētü Khans of Khalkha was conveniently found to be the first “reincarnation” of the line of Jabtsandamba Khutagt (Khutukhtus) of Urga. The significance of this device is underlined by the fact that, as soon as the Manchu controlled Mongolia, they ruled that no man of the lineage of Genghis.....
  • Jabtsandamba Khutukhtus (Mongol religious leader)
    ...a way was found to link church and state. A son of the line of the Tüshētü Khans of Khalkha was conveniently found to be the first “reincarnation” of the line of Jabtsandamba Khutagt (Khutukhtus) of Urga. The significance of this device is underlined by the fact that, as soon as the Manchu controlled Mongolia, they ruled that no man of the lineage of Genghis.....
  • Jaca (Spain)
    city, Huesca provincia (province), in the communidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Aragon, northeastern Spain, on the plateau on the southern bank of the Aragon River, just south of the French border. Of ancient origin, the city was captured by the Ro...
  • jacamar (bird)
    any of 15 species of tropical American birds that constitute the family Galbulidae (order Piciformes). The jacamar has a glittering body, tapered from large head to, in most species, a long, graduated tail; some have square tails. Most are iridescently blue, green, or bronze on back and breast; males are white-throated, females brown-throated. The commonest species is the rufous-tailed jacamar (...
  • jacana (bird family)
    any of several species of water birds belonging to the family Jacanidae of the order Charadriiformes. Jacanas are uniquely equipped with long straight claws for walking on floating vegetation. Like certain plovers, some jacanas have wing spurs....
  • Jacana (bird genus)
    any of several species of water birds belonging to the family Jacanidae of the order Charadriiformes. Jacanas are uniquely equipped with long straight claws for walking on floating vegetation. Like certain plovers, some jacanas have wing spurs.......
  • Jacana spinosa (bird)
    The seven or eight species of the genus Jacana include the American jacana (Jacana spinosa), of the American tropics, variably black or reddish; the African jacana (Actophilornis africanus); the Australian lotus bird (Irediparra gallinacea) of New Guinea and the eastern Australian coast; and the pheasant-tailed jacana......
  • Jacanidae (bird family)
    any of several species of water birds belonging to the family Jacanidae of the order Charadriiformes. Jacanas are uniquely equipped with long straight claws for walking on floating vegetation. Like certain plovers, some jacanas have wing spurs....
  • jacaranda (Machaerium)
    The name jacaranda is also applied to several tree species of the genus Machaerium of the pea family (Fabaceae), from which some of the commercial rosewoods are obtained. Jacaranda cabinet wood is a rosewood from the tree species Dalbergia nigra, also of the pea family....
  • jacaranda (plant)
    ...tree species of the genus Machaerium of the pea family (Fabaceae), from which some of the commercial rosewoods are obtained. Jacaranda cabinet wood is a rosewood from the tree species Dalbergia nigra, also of the pea family....
  • jacaranda (tree genus)
    any plant of the genus Jacaranda (family Bignoniaceae), especially the two ornamental trees J. mimosifolia and J. cuspidifolia. They are widely grown in warm parts of the world and in greenhouses for their showy blue or violet flowers and attractive, oppositely paired, compound leaves. The genus includes about 50 species native to Central and South America and to the West Indi...
  • Jacaranda cuspidifolia (plant)
    any plant of the genus Jacaranda (family Bignoniaceae), especially the two ornamental trees J. mimosifolia and J. cuspidifolia. They are widely grown in warm parts of the world and in greenhouses for their showy blue or violet flowers and attractive, oppositely paired, compound leaves. The genus includes about 50 species native to Central and South America and to the West......
  • Jacaranda mimosifolia (plant)
    any plant of the genus Jacaranda (family Bignoniaceae), especially the two ornamental trees J. mimosifolia and J. cuspidifolia. They are widely grown in warm parts of the world and in greenhouses for their showy blue or violet flowers and attractive, oppositely paired, compound leaves. The genus includes about 50 species native to Central and South America and to the West......
  • Jacaré (river, Brazil)
    ...stretch the river receives its main left-bank tributaries—the Paracatu, Urucuia, Corrente, and Grande rivers—and its main right-bank tributaries—the Verde Grande, Paramirim, and Jacaré....
  • Jacareí (Brazil)
    city, eastern São Paulo estado (state), Brazil. It lies along the Paraíba do Sul River, 45 miles (70 km) northeast of São Paulo. The settlement was granted town status in 1653 and was made the seat of a municipality in 1849. Local agriculture depends upon dairying, but coffee, r...
  • jacareúba (tree)
    The forests of the swamps (igapós), where the ground is inundated or very marshy throughout the year, cover the lowlands. Characteristic trees are, among others, jacareúbas (Calophyllum brasiliense), which is a tall tree with hard reddish brown wood used for heavy construction, araparis (Macrolobium acaciaefolium), abiuranas (Lucuma......
  • Jacarèzinho (Brazil)
    city, south-central São Paulo estado (state), Brazil. It lies at 1,568 feet (478 metres) above sea level along the Paranapanema River, near the border of Paraná state. Once called Jacarezinho, the city was made the seat of a municipality in 1948. Principal crops of the region include sugarcane, soy, wheat, ...
  • Jacatra (Indonesia)
    largest city and capital of Indonesia. Coextensive with the metropolitan district of Jakarta Raya, it lies at the mouth of the Ciliwung (Liwung River) on the northwest coast of Java....
  • J’accuse (letter by Zola)
    ...trial. On January 13, 1898, the novelist Émile Zola wrote an open letter published on the front page of Aurore, Clemenceau’s paper, under the headline “J’Accuse.” By the evening of that day, 200,000 copies had been sold. Zola accused the army of covering up its mistaken conviction of Dreyfus and of acquitting Esterhazy on the orders...
  • Jáchymov (Czech Republic)
    spa town, western Czech Republic. It lies at the foot of Mount Klínovec, the highest summit in the Ore Mountains (Krušné hory), just north of Karlovy Vary and near the border with Germany. A silver-mining centre for the Holy Roman Empire, the town reached its peak in the 16th century, when its mines were owned by the counts of Šlik ...
  • jacinth (gem)
    a red, orange, or yellow variety of the gemstone zircon. ...
  • Jacinthe noire (work by Amrouche)
    Amrouche’s first novel, Jacinthe noire (1947; “Black Hyacinth”), recounts the story of an “uncivilized” young Tunisian girl who is sent to a French pension for studies. Differences in life-style, attitudes, and experiences set her apart, and exile, prejudice, and rupture are themes of the novel, which is one of the earliest ever published in French by a No...
  • Jacinto, António (Angolan poet)
    white Angolan poet, short-story writer, and cabinet minister in his country’s first postwar government....
  • jack (measurement)
    ...servings of whiskey or wine. The term jill appears in the nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill.” Soon after ascending to the throne of England in 1625, King Charles I scaled down the jack or jackpot (sometimes known as a double jigger) in order to collect higher sales taxes. The jill, by definition twice the size of the jack, was automatically reduced also and “came......
  • jack (tool)
    in practical mechanics, portable hand-operated device for raising heavy weights through short distances, exerting great pressures, or holding assembled work firmly in position, as in jacking up a building to prevent settling or keeping it in position while replacing a foundation....
  • jack (piano)
    ...phase of Cristofori’s work, Maffei’s diagram may be in error. In the surviving instruments a pivoted piece of wood is set into the key. The pivoted piece (which in a modern piano would be called a jack and should not be confused with the jack in a harpsichord) lifts an intermediate lever when the key is depressed. The lever, in turn, pushes upward on the hammer shaft near its pivo...
  • jack (harpsichord)
    ...placed beneath the horizontal plane of the strings, which pass over a bridge that is glued to the soundboard and that transmits their vibration to it. The plucking mechanism consists of sets of jacks, thin vertical strips of wood that rest on the far ends of the keys and pass through a lower fixed guide and an upper slide, or movable guide; the slide moves a given set of jacks either......
  • jack (ball)
    outdoor game in which a ball (known as a bowl) is rolled toward a smaller stationary ball, called a jack. The object is to roll one’s bowls so that they come to rest nearer to the jack than those of an opponent; this is sometimes achieved by knocking aside an opponent’s bowl or the jack. A form of bowls was played in ancient Egypt, and by the Middle Ages the game was well known in co...
  • jack (fish)
    any of numerous species of fishes belonging to the family Carangidae (order Perciformes). The name jack is also applied collectively to the family. Representatives can be found in temperate and tropical portions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans and occasionally in fresh or brackish water. Although body size and shape vary greatly among jacks, many of the more than 150 species are charac...
  • Jack (work by Daudet)
    ...in Le Petit Chose and Contes du lundi. As he grew older Daudet became more and more preoccupied with the great conflicts in human relationship, as is evident in his later novels: Jack (1876) presents a woman torn between physical and maternal love; Numa Roumestan (1881), the antagonism between the northern and the southern character in man and woman;......
  • jack (playing card)
    ...dating back to 17th-century England and first mentioned in The Complete Gamester of Charles Cotton in 1674. The face card formerly known as the knave owes its modern name of jack to this game. Originally, all fours was regarded as a lower-class game—it was much played by African Americans on slave plantations—but in the 19th century it broadened its social...
  • Jack Adams Award (sports award)
    ...for the player best combining clean play with a high degree of skill; the Conn Smythe Trophy, for the play-offs’ outstanding performer; the Frank J. Selke Trophy, for the best defensive forward; the Jack Adams Award, for the coach of the year; the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, for the player who best exemplifies sportsmanship, perseverance, and dedication to hockey; and the Lester Patr...
  • Jack and Jill (nursery rhyme)
    The gill was introduced in the 14th century to measure individual servings of whiskey or wine. The term jill appears in the nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill.” Soon after ascending to the throne of England in 1625, King Charles I scaled down the jack or jackpot (sometimes known as a double jigger) in order to collect higher sales taxes. The jill, by definition twice the size of......
  • Jack and the Beanstalk (film by Porter)
    ...Exposition by Night (1901), which used time-lapse photography to produce a circular panorama of the exposition’s electrical illumination, and the 10-scene Jack and the Beanstalk (1902), a narrative that simulates the sequencing of lantern slides to achieve a logical, if elliptical, spatial continuity....
  • Jack, Beau (American boxer)
    American boxer (b. April 1, 1921, Augusta, Ga.—d. Feb. 9, 2000, Miami, Fla.), was twice world lightweight champion (1942, 1943) and was one of the main attractions at Madison Square Garden in New York City during the 1940s. A shoeshine boy in his youth, he got his first taste of boxing by participating in Southern “battle royals”—an outlawed form of boxing in which blac...
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