Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • Ma, Yo-Yo (American cellist)
    French-born American cellist known for his extraordinary technique and rich tone. His frequent collaborations with musicians and artists from other genres and media reinvigorated classical music and expanded its audience....
  • Ma Yüan (Chinese general)
    Chinese general who helped establish the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty (25–220 ce) after the usurpation of power by the minister Wang Mang ended the Xi (Western) Han dynasty (206 bce–25 ce)....
  • Ma Yüan (Chinese painter)
    influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the Ma-Xia school of painting. Ma occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model for later painters. He was a master of “one-corner” painting, i...
  • Ma Yuan (Chinese general)
    Chinese general who helped establish the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty (25–220 ce) after the usurpation of power by the minister Wang Mang ended the Xi (Western) Han dynasty (206 bce–25 ce)....
  • Ma Yuan (Chinese painter)
    influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the Ma-Xia school of painting. Ma occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model for later painters. He was a master of “one-corner” painting, i...
  • Ma-an Mountains (mountains, China)
    ...output. Proven reserves of anthracite and high-grade coking coal have supported the development of heavy industry and thermal generation of electricity. Iron ore is mined from vast deposits in the Ma-an Mountains district of central Shansi. The largest titanium and vanadium (metallic elements used in alloys such as steel) deposits in China are located near Fen-hsi. Other mined minerals include....
  • Ma-an-shan (China)
    city and industrial centre in southeastern Anhui sheng (province). Ma’anshan is situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) some 22 miles (35 km) downstream from Wuhu, near the border of Jiangsu province, opposite Hexian. The city is on the railway between Wuhu and Nan...
  • Ma-ch’üan River (river, China)
    ...flows west to become the Sutlej River in western India; the K’ung-ch’üeh River flows into the Kauriālā to eventually join the Ganges River; and the Ma-ch’üan River (Tibetan Damqog Kanbab: “Out of the Horse’s Mouth”) flows east and, after joining the Lhasa (La-sa) River south of Lhasa, forms the Brahmaputra River....
  • Ma-Enyo (ancient goddess)
    ancient city of Cappadocia, on the upper course of the Seyhan (Sarus) River, in southern Turkey. Often called Chryse to distinguish it from Comana in Pontus, it was the place where the cult of Ma-Enyo, a variant of the great west Asian mother goddess, was celebrated with orgiastic rites. The service was carried on in an opulent temple by thousands of temple servants. The city, a mere appanage......
  • Ma-fa-mu-ts’o (lake, China)
    lake, in the western Tibet Autonomous Region of China, to the south of the Kailas Range. Lying nearly 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) above sea level, it is generally recognized as the highest body of fresh water in the world. The lake is prominent in the mythology of Hinduism, and it has traditionally been one of the most impo...
  • Ma-hsi field (oil field, China)
    ...speeded the development of the iron and steel industry. In the 1960s the emergence of the Hua-pei oil fields made Hopeh a major oil producer, and in 1983 China’s first deep-horizon oil field, the Ma-hsi field, went into operation in the southern section of the Ta-kang oil field on the Po Hai coast, producing significant quantities of oil and natural gas....
  • Ma-hsia school (Chinese school of painting)
    group of Chinese landscape artists that used a style of painting named after Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, two great painters of the Southern Song academy, of which they were members in the last quarter of the 12th century ad and the beginning of the 13th century. The aim of their landscapes was to create a feeling of limitless space, a vast atmospheric v...
  • Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (Sauk and Fox leader)
    leader of a faction of Sauk and Fox Indians. Supported by part of the two tribes, Black Hawk contested the disposition of 50 million acres (20 million hectares) of territory that had supposedly been granted to the United States by tribal spokesmen in 1804. His decision to defy government orders to vacate tribal villages and fertile fields along the Rock River in Illinois resulted in the brief but ...
  • Ma-p’ang Yung-ts’o (lake, China)
    lake, in the western Tibet Autonomous Region of China, to the south of the Kailas Range. Lying nearly 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) above sea level, it is generally recognized as the highest body of fresh water in the world. The lake is prominent in the mythology of Hinduism, and it has traditionally been one of the most impo...
  • Ma-tsu Tao (island, East China Sea)
    small island under the jurisdiction of Taiwan in the East China Sea, lying off the Min River estuary of mainland China and about 130 miles (210 km) northwest of Chi-lung (Keelung), Taiwan. Matsu is the main island of a group of 19, the Matsu Islands, which constitute Lien-kiang (Lienchiang) hsien (county). The island has a hilly terrain of...
  • Ma-ubin (Myanmar)
    town, southern Myanmar (Burma). The town is a river port on the west bank of the main Irrawaddy distributary and is protected by flood-control embankments. It is linked with Yangon (Rangoon), 40 miles (65 km) east, by the Twante Canal and is the site of a diesel electric plant. The surrounding area occupies a largely swampy portion of the Ir...
  • Ma-wang-tui (archaeological site, China)
    archaeological site uncovered in 1963 near Changsha, Hunan province, southeastern China. It is the burial place of a high-ranking official, the marquess of Dai, who lived in the 2nd century bc, and of his immediate family. He was one of many petty nobles who governed small semiautonomous domains under the Han...
  • Ma-wei (China)
    ...the islands off Fukien. There was some revival of the economy in the mid-19th century with the opening of Fu-chou and Amoy as treaty port cities, but the modern shipbuilding industry established at Ma-wei by the Ch’ing was destroyed by a French fleet during the Sino-French War of 1883–85....
  • Ma-Xia school (Chinese school of painting)
    group of Chinese landscape artists that used a style of painting named after Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, two great painters of the Southern Song academy, of which they were members in the last quarter of the 12th century ad and the beginning of the 13th century. The aim of their landscapes was to create a feeling of limitless space, a vast atmospheric v...
  • Maa (people)
    ...and Roglai—speak Austronesian languages, linking them to the Cham, Malay, and Indonesian peoples; others—including the Bru, Pacoh, Katu, Cua, Hre, Rengao, Sedang, Bahnar, Mnong, Mang (Maa), Muong, and Stieng—speak Mon-Khmer languages, connecting them with the Khmer. French missionaries and administrators provided Roman script for some of the Montagnard languages, and......
  • maa-alused (Estonian folk character)
    in Estonian folk religion, mysterious elflike small folk living under the earth. Corresponding to these are the Finnish maahiset and Lude muahiset, which refer both to the spirits and to an illness caused by them....
  • Ma’adi (people)
    group of more than 150,000 people who inhabit both banks of the Nile River in northwestern Uganda and in The Sudan. They speak a Central Sudanic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family and are closely related to the Lugbara, their neighbours to the west....
  • Maʿādī, Al- (ancient site, Egypt)
    predynastic Egyptian site located just south of present-day Cairo in Lower Egypt. The settlement at Al-Maʿādī was approximately contemporary with the Amratian and Gerzean cultures of Upper Egypt. Al-Maʿādī was apparently a village with a separa...
  • Ma’afu (Tongan chief)
    ...of Bau, a tiny island off the east coast of Viti Levu, ruled first by Naulivou and then by his nephew Cakobau. By the 1850s Bau dominated western Fiji. Cakobau’s main rival was the Tongan chief Maʿafu, who led an army of Christian Tongans and their allies from eastern Fiji. After a short-lived alliance with Maʿafu, Cakobau became a Christian in 1854, thus bringing most Fiji...
  • maahiset (Estonian folk character)
    in Estonian folk religion, mysterious elflike small folk living under the earth. Corresponding to these are the Finnish maahiset and Lude muahiset, which refer both to the spirits and to an illness caused by them....
  • Maal, Baaba (Senegalese musician)
    One of the leading names in popular music in his native Senegal, singer and instrumentalist Baaba Maal raised his profile with a critically acclaimed North American tour in 2004. The 34-date tour featured acoustic arrangements of his extensive catalog and took his unique blend of traditional African rhythms and modern Western influences to venues not traditionally associated with the world music s...
  • Maalula (Syria)
    village in southern Syria about 30 mi (50 km) north of Damascus. The houses are built on the slopes of a huge cirque of rocks that encloses the village; the houses are constructed of stones with flat beam roofs. Most of the houses have blue plaster on the outside, a Christian custom. Most of the inhabitants are Greek-Catholic and have preserved in their spoken language a dialect of Syriac. The Cat...
  • maʿamadot (Judaism)
    (Hebrew: “stands,” or “posts”), 24 groups of Jewish laymen that witnessed, by turns of one week each, the daily sacrifice in the Second Temple of Jerusalem as representatives of the common people. Gradually maʿamadot were organized in areas outside Jerusalem, so that the people could hold special services in their villages while their r...
  • Maʿān (Jordan)
    town, southern Jordan. It is a regional trade centre for the sparsely settled southern part of the country, which is inhabited mainly by the Ḥuwayṭat and other Bedouin tribes. Once a centre of Minaean power in northwestern Arabia, Maʿān was later controlled in turn by the Sabaeans, the Lihyanites, and the ...
  • Maanen, Adrian van (astronomer)
    ...the Andromeda Nebula most certainly was only a few hundred light-years away. The second came about because of a very curious error made by one of Shapley’s colleagues at Mount Wilson Observatory, Adrian van Maanen....
  • Ma’anshan (China)
    city and industrial centre in southeastern Anhui sheng (province). Ma’anshan is situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) some 22 miles (35 km) downstream from Wuhu, near the border of Jiangsu province, opposite Hexian. The city is on the railway between Wuhu and Nan...
  • maar (crater)
    ...of the roofs of underground magma (molten silica) chambers and those caused by explosion of new volcanic sources and that are built of nonvolcanic material are other examples. The latter are termed maars, following the local name for such forms in Germany. They are found, however, in several locations, including Iceland, Italy, and New Zealand. The maars of the volcanic district of Eifel, West....
  • Maar, Dora (French photographer and painter)
    French photographer and painter who was one of Pablo Picasso’s mistresses for eight years in the 1930s and ’40s and was the subject of many of his portraits (b. Nov. 22, 1907--d. July 16, 1997)....
  • Maarianhamina (Finland)
    ...north and rich agricultural soil to the southeast. Eckerö and Lemland are the next largest islands. Åland is home to about 90 percent of the archipelago’s population and is the site of Mariehamn, the administrative capital, chief seaport, and only town. Also located on Åland is Orrdals Hill, the highest point of the archipelago, rising to a height of 423 feet (129 me...
  • maarib (Jewish prayers)
    (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord...
  • maaribim (Jewish prayers)
    (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord...
  • maʿariv (Jewish prayers)
    (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord...
  • maariv (Jewish prayers)
    (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord...
  • maarivim (Jewish prayers)
    (“who brings on twilight”), Jewish evening prayers recited after sunset; the name derives from one of the opening words of the first prayer. Maarib consists essentially of the Shema, with its accompanying benedictions, and the amidah. The Shema expresses the central theme of Jewish worship: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord...
  • Maʿarrī, al- (Arab poet)
    great Arab poet, known for his virtuosity and for the originality and pessimism of his vision....
  • Maas, Nicolas (Dutch painter)
    Dutch Baroque painter of genre and portraits who was a follower of Rembrandt....
  • Maas, Peter (American writer)
    American writer (b. June 27, 1929, New York, N.Y.—d. Aug. 23, 2001, New York), had a half-century-long career during which he published over a dozen books as well as numerous magazine articles. He counted among his works such fact-based investigative best-sellers as The Valachi Papers (1969) and Underboss (1997), both of which detailed Mafia life and secrets, and Serpico...
  • Maas River (river, Europe)
    river, rising at Pouilly on the Langres Plateau in France and flowing generally northward for 590 miles (950 km) through Belgium and The Netherlands to the North Sea. In the French part, the river has cut a steep-sided, sometimes deep valley between Saint-Mihiel and Verdun, and beyond Charleville-Mézières it meanders through the Ardennes region in a narrow valley. Entering Belgium at...
  • Maasai (people)
    nomadic pastoralists of East Africa. Maasai is essentially a linguistic term, referring to speakers of this Eastern Sudanic language (usually called Maa) of the Nilo-Saharan language family. These include the pastoral Maasai who range along the Great Rift Valley of Kenya and Tanzania, the Samburu of Kenya, and the semipastoral Arusha and Baraguyu (or Kwafi) of Tanzania....
  • maʿase bereshit (Jewish literature)
    The literature of the tanna period dealing with mysticism mentions Ishmael, and a number of mystical works are attributed to him, including several of the type known as maʿase bereshit (“work of creation”) and several in the genre of maʿase Merkava (“work of the chariot,” a reference to the divine chariot seen by the prophet in Ezekiel I).......
  • maʿase Merkava (Jewish literature)
    ...Ishmael, and a number of mystical works are attributed to him, including several of the type known as maʿase bereshit (“work of creation”) and several in the genre of maʿase Merkava (“work of the chariot,” a reference to the divine chariot seen by the prophet in Ezekiel I). Maʿase bereshit dealt with mystical cosmology and co...
  • Maʿaseh Buch (work by Jacob ben Abraham)
    ...of moral and ethical tales. The main examples of these are the Brantspiegel (1572; “Brant Mirro”), attributed to Moses Henoch, and the Maʿaseh Buch (1672; “Story Book”), a compendium of 254 tales compiled by Jacob ben Abraham of Meseritz and first published at Basel. The latter, drawn mainly from the Talmud,......
  • Maasina Rule (nationalist movement, Solomon Islands)
    Another result of the war was to stimulate political consciousness among the islanders and so inspire a nationalist movement known as Maasina Rule, which lasted from 1944 to 1952. Subsequently, in response to the worldwide movement for decolonization, the Solomons set out on the path of constitutional development. The country was formally renamed Solomon Islands in 1975, and independence was......
  • Maass, Clara (American nurse)
    American nurse, the only woman and the only American to die during the yellow fever experiments of 1900–01....
  • Maastricht (The Netherlands)
    gemeente (municipality), southeastern Netherlands. It lies along the Maas (Meuse) River at the junction of the Juliana, Liège-Maastricht, and Zuid-Willems canals. Maastricht is the principal city in the southeastern appendix of The Netherlands and is only 2 miles (3 km) from the Belgian border....
  • Maastricht Treaty (Europe [1991])
    international agreement approved by the heads of government of the states of the European Community (EC) in Maastricht, Netherlands, in December 1991. Ratified by all EC member states (voters in Denmark rejected the original treaty but later approved a slightly modified version), the treaty was signed on February 7, 1992, and entered into force on November 1, 1993. The treaty es...
  • Maastricht, Treaty of (Europe [1713])
    Spain’s defeat in war cost it many of its possessions outside Iberia. The treaties of Maastricht and Utrecht (1713) stripped it of its European possessions (Belgium, Luxembourg, Milan, Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples) and gave Britain Gibraltar and Minorca and the right to send one ship a year to trade with Spanish America....
  • Maastricht-Liège Canal (canal, Belgium)
    ...the Gent Ship Canal, cut through to Terneuzen, was opened in 1827, giving a shorter route to the sea. The Dutch extended their canals to serve the continental European industrial north. The Maastricht-Liège Canal was opened in 1850, enabling raw materials and steel to be transported from the Meuse and Sambre industrial areas by waterway throughout The Netherlands. In 1824 a long......
  • Maastrichtian Stage (geology)
    uppermost of the six main divisions in the Upper Cretaceous Series, representing rocks deposited worldwide during the Maastrichtian Age, which occurred 70.6 to 65.5 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Rocks of the Maastrichtian Stage overlie those of the Campanian Stage and underlie rocks of the Danian Stage of the Paleogene Syst...
  • Maat (Egyptian goddess)
    in ancient Egyptian religion, the personification of truth, justice, and the cosmic order. The daughter of the sun god Re, she was associated with Thoth, god of wisdom....
  • maat (Egyptian religious concept)
    The concept of maat (“order”) was fundamental in Egyptian thought. The king’s role was to set maat in place of isfet (“disorder”). Maat was crucial in human life and embraced notions of reciprocity, justice, truth...
  • Maathai, Wangari (Kenyan educator and government official)
    Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize....
  • Maathai, Wangari Muta (Kenyan educator and government official)
    Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize....
  • Maazel, Lorin (American conductor)
    conductor and violinist who, as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1972 to 1982, was only the second American to have served as principal conductor of a major American orchestra....
  • Maazel, Lorin Varencove (American conductor)
    conductor and violinist who, as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1972 to 1982, was only the second American to have served as principal conductor of a major American orchestra....
  • Mab (English folklore)
    in English folklore, the queen of the fairies. Mab is a mischievous but basically benevolent figure. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, she is referred to as the fairies’ midwife, who delivers sleeping men of their innermost wishes in the form of dreams. In Michael Drayton’s mock-epic fairy poem Nymphidia (1627), she is the wife of the ...
  • Maba (Islamic leader)
    ...opposition at home and in the Gambia foiled these plans. Complicating matters was the series of religious conflicts, called the Soninke-Marabout Wars, lasting a half century. Only one Muslim leader, Maba, emerged who could have unified the various kingdoms, but he was killed in 1864. By 1880 the religious aspect had all but disappeared, and the conflicts were carried on by war chiefs such as......
  • Maba (people)
    ...caravans linking the Sahara with equatorial Africa and by Muslim pilgrim routes from West Africa toward Mecca, Ouaddaï is an amalgam of cultural and ethnic influences. The dominant people, the Maba, a Sudanic people, are Muslims. Their main economic activity is raising cattle. Other inhabitants include Arabs and Fulani....
  • Maba cranium (hominin fossil)
    fossil fragments of an ancient human skull found in 1958 near the village of Maba (Ma-pa), Guangdong (Kwangtung) province, southern China. Intermediate in form between Homo erectus and H. sapiens, the remains are referred by many authorities to archaic H. sapiens or to an Asian extension of ...
  • Maba language (African language)
    group of related languages spoken in the border area of Chad, The Sudan, and the Central African Republic. The Maban languages form a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Maba (also called Bura Mabang) is the largest Maban language in terms of number of speakers (more than 250,000). Other members of the group include Karanga, Kibet, Massalat, Masalit (Massalit), Marfa, and Runga. Maban......
  • Maʿbad (Muslim musician)
    ...of Persian ancestry; Ibn Surayj, son of a Persian slave and noted for his elegies and improvisations (murtajal); his pupil al-Gharīḍ, born of a Berber family; and the Negro Maʿbad. Like Ibn Surayj, Maʿbad cultivated a special personal style adopted by following generations of singers....
  • Maban languages
    group of related languages spoken in the border area of Chad, The Sudan, and the Central African Republic. The Maban languages form a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Maba (also called Bura Mabang) is the largest Maban language in terms of number of speakers (more than 250,000). Other members of the group includ...
  • Maʿbar (historical state, India)
    Maʿbar, the first among the rebel states to emerge in south India, was founded at Madurai by the erstwhile Tughluq general Jalāl al-Dīn Aḥsan Shah in 1335. Lasting only 43 years, with seven rulers in quick succession, Maʿbar covered the mainly Tamil region between Nellore and Quilon and contributed to the commercial importance of south India by encouraging Muslim...
  • Mabbog (ancient city, Syria)
    ancient Syrian city, now partly occupied by Manbij (Membij), about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Aleppo. The place first appears in Greek as Bambyce, but its Syrian name was probably Mabbog. The Seleucids made it the chief station on their main road between Antioch and Seleucia-on-Tigris. As a centre of the worship of the Syrian nature goddess Atargatis, it became known to the Greeks as the Holy ...
  • Mabillon, Jean (French scholar)
    French monastic scholar, antiquarian, and historian who pioneered the study of ancient handwriting (paleography)....
  • Mabini, Apolinario (Filipino political leader)
    Filipino theoretician and spokesman of the Philippine Revolution, who wrote the constitution for the short-lived republic of 1898–99....
  • “Mabinogi” (Welsh literature)
    collection of 11 medieval Welsh tales based on mythology, folklore, and heroic legends. The tales provide interesting examples of the transmission of Celtic, Norman, and French traditions in early romance. The name Mabinogion derives from a scribal error and is an unjustified but convenient term for these anonymous tales....
  • Mabinogion (Welsh literature)
    collection of 11 medieval Welsh tales based on mythology, folklore, and heroic legends. The tales provide interesting examples of the transmission of Celtic, Norman, and French traditions in early romance. The name Mabinogion derives from a scribal error and is an unjustified but convenient term for these anonymous tales....
  • Mabley, Jackie (American comedian)
    American comedian who was one of the most successful black vaudeville performers. She modeled her stage persona largely on her grandmother, who had been a slave. Wise, clever, and often ribald, Mabley dressed in frumpy clothes and used her deep voice and elastic face (and, in later years, her toothlessness) to great effect....
  • Mabley, Moms (American comedian)
    American comedian who was one of the most successful black vaudeville performers. She modeled her stage persona largely on her grandmother, who had been a slave. Wise, clever, and often ribald, Mabley dressed in frumpy clothes and used her deep voice and elastic face (and, in later years, her toothlessness) to great effect....
  • Mably, Gabriel de (French philosopher)
    ...(1755), attacked property as the parent of crime and proposed that every man should contribute according to ability and receive according to need. Two decades later, another radical abbé, Gabriel de Mably, started with equality as the law of nature and argued that the introduction of property had destroyed the golden age of man. In England, William Godwin, following Holbach in......
  • Mabon (Celtic deity)
    ...the therapeutic powers of thermal and other springs, an area of religious belief that retained much of its ancient vigour in Celtic lands throughout the Middle Ages and even to the present time. Maponos (“Divine Son” or “Divine Youth”) is attested in Gaul but occurs mainly in northern Britain. He appears in medieval Welsh literature as Mabon, son of Modron (that is,....
  • Mabovitch, Goldie (prime minister of Israel)
    a founder and fourth prime minister (1969–74) of the State of Israel....
  • Mabuchi Tōichi (Japanese anthropologist)
    ...Japanese anthropology and anthropology in the United States and Europe. Two Japanese anthropologists were particularly significant in laying the groundwork for promoting these linkages. One was Mabuchi Tōichi, who started making researches among Taiwanese aboriginals, peoples of the Ryukyu Islands, and peoples of insular Southeast Asia accessible to Western scholars through English......
  • Mabuse, Jan (Flemish painter)
    Flemish painter who was one of the first artists to introduce the style of the Italian Renaissance into the Low Countries....
  • mabuya (lizard)
    Some of the more common genera are described below. Keeled skinks (Tropidophorus), which are semiaquatic, are found from Southeast Asia to northern Australia. Mabuyas (Mabuya), with about 105 species, are ground dwellers and are distributed worldwide in the tropics. Sand skinks (Scincus), also called......
  • Mac (computer line)
    ...of icons, or pictures, to replace the awkward protocols required by all other computers. Apple immediately incorporated these ideas into two new computers: Lisa, released in 1983, and the lower-cost Macintosh, released in 1984. Jobs himself took over the latter project, insisting that the computer should be not merely great but “insanely great.” The result was a......
  • Mac a’Ghobhainn, Iain (Scottish writer)
    Scottish poet, novelist, and playwright who was one of Scotland’s most important writers and lyric poets; writing prolifically in both English and Gaelic, he produced a dozen novels, 11 volumes of short stories, and 17 books of poetry, in addition to stage and radio plays and literary criticism (b. Jan. 1, 1928, Glasgow, Scot.--d. Oct. 15, 1998, Taynuilt, Argyll, Scot.)....
  • Mac an t-Saoir, Donnchadh Bàn (Scottish writer)
    Duncan Ban Macintyre (Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir), who was influenced by Macdonald, had his poems published in 1768. He fought on the Hanoverian side at the Battle of Falkirk and later praised George III in Oran do’n Rìgh (“Song to the King”), but he had been a forester on the Perthshire–Argyllshire borders in early manhood, and this is the settin...
  • Mac, Bernie (American comedian and actor)
    American comedian and actor who earned two Emmy nominations (2002 and 2003) for his portrayal of a high-strung comedian looking after his drug-addicted sister’s three children on the television series The Bernie Mac Show (2001–06); he also achieved box-office success with roles in such films as Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and its two sequels and Charlie’s Ang...
  • Mac Dang Dung (emperor of Vietnam)
    The first and shorter division of the country occurred soon after the elimination of Champa. The Mac family, led by Mac Dang Dung, the governor of Thang Long (Hanoi), made themselves masters of Dai Viet in 1527. The deposed Le rulers and the generals loyal to them regained control of the lands south of the Red River delta in 1545, but only after nearly 50 years of civil war were they able to......
  • Mac family (Vietnamese clan)
    Vietnamese clan that established a dynasty ruling the Tonkin area of northern Vietnam from 1527 to 1592....
  • Mac Flecknoe (poem by Dryden)
    ...and plainspoken prose “Epistle to the Whigs.” In the same year, anonymously and apparently without Dryden’s authority, there also appeared in print his famous extended lampoon, Mac Flecknoe, written about four years earlier. What triggered this devastating attack on the Whig playwright Thomas Shadwell has never been satisfactorily explained; all that can be said is t...
  • Mac Iain ’Ic Ailein, Iain Dubh (Scottish poet [flourished 18th century])
    ...(Lachlann Mac Thearlaich Oig); John Mackay (Am Pìobaire Dall), whose Coire an Easa (“The Waterfall Corrie”) was significant in the development of Gaelic nature poetry; John Macdonald (Iain Dubh Mac Iain ’Ic Ailein), who wrote popular jingles; and John Maclean (Iain Mac Ailein), who showed an interest in early Gaelic legend. Finally, bardic poetry continued to ...
  • Mac ind Óg (Celtic deity)
    ...the therapeutic powers of thermal and other springs, an area of religious belief that retained much of its ancient vigour in Celtic lands throughout the Middle Ages and even to the present time. Maponos (“Divine Son” or “Divine Youth”) is attested in Gaul but occurs mainly in northern Britain. He appears in medieval Welsh literature as Mabon, son of Modron (that is,....
  • Mac Lane, Saunders (American mathematician)
    American mathematician who was a cocreator of category theory, an architect of homological algebra, and an advocate of categorical foundations for mathematics....
  • Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, Alasdair (Scottish writer)
    ...poetry in Gaelic was printed before 1751, and most earlier verse was recovered from oral tradition after that date. Much of the inspiration of Gaelic printing in the 18th century can be traced to Alexander Macdonald (Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair), who published a Gaelic vocabulary in 1741 and the first Scottish Gaelic book of secular poetry, Ais-eiridh na Sean Chánain......
  • Mac, Project (computer science)
    ...the Soviet Union in 1957. ARPA researched interesting technological areas, and under Licklider’s leadership it focused on time-sharing and interactive computing. With ARPA support, CTSS evolved into Project MAC, which went online in 1963....
  • MAC ship
    ...on hulls originally designed for merchant service. The Royal Navy also added flight decks to some tankers and grain carriers, without eliminating their cargo role. These were called MAC ships, or merchant aircraft carriers....
  • Mac-Mahon, Marie-Edme-Patrice-Maurice, comte de, duc de Magenta (president of France)
    marshal of France and second president of the Third French Republic. During his presidency the Third Republic took shape, the new constitutional laws of 1875 were adopted, and important precedents were established affecting the relationship between executive and legislative powers....
  • Macaca (primate)
    any of about 20 species of gregarious Old World monkeys, all of which are Asian except for the Barbary macaque of North Africa. Macaques are robust primates whose arms and legs are of about the same length. Their fur is generally a shade of brown or black, and their muzzles, like those of baboons, are doglike but rounded i...
  • Macaca arctoides (primate)
    Stump-tailed macaques (M. arctoides) are strong, shaggy-haired forest dwellers with pink or red faces and very short tails. Another short-tailed species is the Père David’s macaque (M. thibetana), which lives in mountain forests of southern China; it is sometimes called the Tibetan macaque but is not in fact found there. Often...
  • Macaca cyclopis (primate)
    ...are the monkeys most widely used in biomedical research. Rhesus monkeys are native to northern India, Myanmar (Burma), Southeast Asia, and eastern China, formerly as far north as Beijing. The Formosan, or rock macaque (M. cyclopis), is closely related to the rhesus monkey and lives only in Taiwan. Japanese macaques (M. fuscata) are......
  • Macaca fascicularis (primate)
    ...nigra) at the northern end of the island to the less-specialized Moor macaque (M. maura) in the south. Most of the Sulawesi species are in danger of extinction. Crab-eating, or long-tailed, macaques (M. fascicularis) of Southeast Asia have whiskered brown faces; they live in forests along rivers, where they eat fruit and fish for crabs ...
  • Macaca fuscata (primate)
    ...the Tibetan macaque (M. thibetana) is found from the warm coastal ranges of Fujian (Fukien) province to the cold mountains of Sichuan (Szechwan). One of the most remarkable, however, is the Japanese macaque (M. fuscata), which in the north of Honshu lives in mountains that are snow-covered for eight months of the year; some populations have learned to make life more tolerable for....
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview