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  • Macaca irus (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 mulatta (primate)
    sand-coloured primate native to forests but also found coexisting with humans in northern India, Nepal, eastern and southern China, and northern Southeast Asia. The rhesus monkey is the best-known species of macaque and measures about 47–64 cm (19–25 inches) long, excluding the furry 20–30-cm tail. Females average about 8.5 kg (19 pounds) ...
  • Macaca nemestrina (primate)
    ...M. silenus), are black with gray ruffs and tufted tails; an endangered species, they are found only in a small area of southern India. Closely related to liontails are the pigtail macaques (M. nemestrina), which carry their short tails curved over their backs. Inhabiting rainforests of Southeast Asia, they are sometimes trained to pick ripe......
  • Macaca nigra (mammal)
    a mainly arboreal Indonesian monkey named for the narrow crest of hair that runs along the top of the head from behind the overhanging brow. The Celebes crested macaque is found only in the Minahasa region on the island of Sulawesi (Celebes) and on nearby Bacan Island, where it was probably introduced by...
  • Macaca nigrescens (mammal)
    ...arboreal, this monkey feeds on fruit in its tropical forest habitat. Troops are large, usually numbering 20 or more, and each troop includes several adult males. A closely related species, the Gorontalo macaque (M. nigrescens), lives just southwest of Minahasa, and at least five other species of macaques live in other parts of Sulawesi. Although sometimes......
  • Macaca pagensis (primate)
    ...nemestrina), which carry their short tails curved over their backs. Inhabiting rainforests of Southeast Asia, they are sometimes trained to pick ripe coconuts. Another close relative is the bokkoi (M. pagensis), found only on the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia....
  • Macaca radiata (primate)
    macaque of southern India named for the thatch of long hair forming a cap, or “bonnet,” on the head. The bonnet monkey is grayish brown with a hairless pink face. It is about 35–60 cm (14–24 inches) long, excluding its long tail. Average adult females weigh about 4 kg (9 pounds), adult males 6.7 kg. This agile monkey sometimes raids gardens or stores ...
  • Macaca silenus (primate)
    Liontail macaques, or wanderoos (M. silenus), are black with gray ruffs and tufted tails; an endangered species, they are found only in a small area of southern India. Closely related to liontails are the pigtail macaques (M. nemestrina), which carry their short tails curved over their backs. Inhabiting rainforests of Southeast Asia,......
  • Macaca sylvanus (primate)
    tailless ground-dwelling monkey that lives in groups in the upland forests of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Gibraltar. The Barbary macaque is about 60 cm (24 inches) long and has light yellowish brown fur and a bald pale pink face. Adult males weigh about 16 kg (35 pounds), adult females 11 kg. The species was introduced into Gibraltar, probably by the Romans...
  • Macaca thibetana (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...
  • macaco (primate)
    tailless ground-dwelling monkey that lives in groups in the upland forests of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Gibraltar. The Barbary macaque is about 60 cm (24 inches) long and has light yellowish brown fur and a bald pale pink face. Adult males weigh about 16 kg (35 pounds), adult females 11 kg. The species was introduced into Gibraltar, probably by the Romans...
  • macadam (road construction)
    form of pavement invented by John McAdam of Scotland in the 18th century. McAdam’s road cross section was composed of a compacted subgrade of crushed granite or greenstone designed to support the load, covered by a surface of light stone to absorb wear and tear and shed water to the drainage ditches. In modern macadam construction crushed stone or gravel is placed on the...
  • Macadam, John Loudon (Scottish engineer)
    form of pavement invented by John McAdam of Scotland in the 18th century. McAdam’s road cross section was composed of a compacted subgrade of crushed granite or greenstone designed to support the load, covered by a surface of light stone to absorb wear and tear and shed water to the drainage ditches. In modern macadam construction crushed stone or gravel is placed on the...
  • macadamia (plant)
    (Macadamia), any of about 10 species of ornamental evergreen tree belonging to the family Proteaceae, producing an edible, richly flavoured dessert nut....
  • Macadamia integrifolia (plant)
    Macadamias originated in the coastal rain forests and scrubs of what is now Queensland in northeastern Australia. The macadamias grown commercially in Hawaii and Australia are principally of two species, the smooth-shelled Macadamia integrifolia and the rough-shelled M. tetraphylla; the two tend to hybridize beyond distinction, and trees grown as M. ternifolia are......
  • Macadamia tetraphylla (plant)
    ...in northeastern Australia. The macadamias grown commercially in Hawaii and Australia are principally of two species, the smooth-shelled Macadamia integrifolia and the rough-shelled M. tetraphylla; the two tend to hybridize beyond distinction, and trees grown as M. ternifolia are usually one of these two species. Because of the successes of the Hawaiian nut......
  • Macaire (French poem)
    title often assigned to a French medieval epic poem, or chanson de geste, after one of its chief characters. Blanchefleur, wife of the aged and infirm emperor Charlemagne, having repulsed the advances of Macaire, is accused of infidelity and sentenced to perpetual exile. Ultimately her innocence is proved, she pardons her husband, and is reunited with him....
  • MacAlpin, Kenneth (king of Scots and Picts)
    first king of the united Scots of Dalriada and the Picts and so of Scotland north of a line between the Forth and Clyde rivers....
  • Macanaz, Melchor de (Spanish administrator)
    ...of centralizing reform were French civil servants Jean-Jacques Amelot, Louis XIV’s ambassador, and Jean-Henri-Louis Orry, a financial expert, and a handful of Spanish lawyer-administrators such as Melchor de Macanaz. They were supported by the queen, María Luisa of Savoy, and her friend the 60-year-old Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des Ursins....
  • Macao (Portugal)
    ...of centralizing reform were French civil servants Jean-Jacques Amelot, Louis XIV’s ambassador, and Jean-Henri-Louis Orry, a financial expert, and a handful of Spanish lawyer-administrators such as Melchor de Macanaz. They were supported by the queen, María Luisa of Savoy, and her friend the 60-year-old Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des Ursins.......
  • Macao (administrative region, China)
    special administrative region (Pinyin tebie xingzhengqu; Wade-Giles t’e-pieh hsing-cheng-ch’ü) of China, on the country’s southern coast. Macau is located on the western side of the Pearl River (Chu Chiang) estuary (at the head of which is the port of C...
  • Macapá (Brazil)
    city, capital of Amapá estado (state), northern Brazil, on the northern channel (Canal do Norte) of the Amazon Delta, situated on a small plateau of firm ground 50 feet (15 metres) above sea level, just on the Equator. It was given city status in 1856. Macapá, a duty free zone, is the commercial, manufacturing, and transpo...
  • Macapagal, Diosdado (president of Philippines)
    reformist president of the Philippines from 1961 to 1965....
  • macapat (song)
    ...of central and eastern Java, for instance, use pantun structure to recount religious or local historical tales to the accompaniment of a drum. In central Java macapat, a metric and melodic form, is used to present tales from ancient Hindu-Javanese literature as well as stories, images, and ideas from local sources; the songs may be performed......
  • macaque (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...
  • MacArdle’s disease (pathology)
    rare hereditary deficiency of the enzyme glycogen phosphorylase in muscle cells. In the absence of this enzyme, muscles cannot break down animal starch (glycogen) to meet the energy requirements of exercise. Muscle activity is thus solely dependent on the availability of glucose (blood sugar) and other nutrients in the circulating blood. Victims of McArdle’s disease are chronically weak bec...
  • Macarena Mountains, La (mountains, Colombia)
    ...and buttes with rapids in the streams. This slightly higher ground forms the watershed between the Amazon and Orinoco systems. Some 60 miles (100 km) south of Villavicencio the elongated, forested La Macarena Mountains rise 8,000 feet (2,500 metres) from the surrounding lowlands, an isolated tropical ecosystem....
  • Macaria (work published by Hartlib)
    Among the more than 30 tracts and treatises published by Hartlib, Macaria (1641) is notable for its outline of a utopia based on the philosophy of Francis Bacon and Comenius. His plan for English education was set forth in Considerations Tending to the Happy Accomplishment of England’s Reformation in Church and State (1647), in which he proposed a labour exchange and an......
  • Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice (work by Wilson)
    During the Civil War, Evans was a fervent supporter of the Confederate cause, whose rightness was a moral principle to her, and she devoted much time and energy to nursing and relief work. Her Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice (1864), published in Richmond, Virginia, was an effective morale builder in the South, and even a Northern edition, reprinted from a contraband copy, sold well. One......
  • Macarian literature (religious writings)
    The Macarian literature appealed to certain Lutheran devotional writers, such as Johann Arndt in the 16th century and Arnold Gottfried in the early 18th century. John Wesley, the 18th-century founder of the Methodist Church, published an English version of 22 of the Spiritual Homilies, which influenced his hymn writing....
  • Macarius (Russian Orthodox metropolitan)
    Russian metropolitan (archbishop) of Moscow and head of the Russian Church during the period of consolidation of the Muscovite Empire....
  • Macarius Magnes (Eastern Orthodox bishop)
    Eastern Orthodox bishop and polemicist, author of an apology for the Christian faith, a document of signal value for its verbatim preservation of early philosophical attacks on Christian revelation....
  • Macarius the Egyptian (Egyptian monk)
    monk and ascetic who, as one of the Desert Fathers, advanced the ideal of monasticism in Egypt and influenced its development throughout Christendom. A written tradition of mystical theology under his name is considered a classic of its kind....
  • Macarius the Great (Egyptian monk)
    monk and ascetic who, as one of the Desert Fathers, advanced the ideal of monasticism in Egypt and influenced its development throughout Christendom. A written tradition of mystical theology under his name is considered a classic of its kind....
  • macaroni (pasta)
    small tubular form of pasta....
  • macaroni (prehistoric art)
    in art, Late Paleolithic finger tracings in clay. It is one of the oldest and simplest known forms of art. Innumerable examples appear on the walls and ceilings of limestone caves in France and Spain (see Franco-Cantabrian art), the oldest dating back about 30,000 years. Examples of the form range from simple scratchings and jumbled, apparently aimless lines to deliberate...
  • macaroni wheat (cereal)
    (species Triticum durum), hard wheat producing a glutenous flour. The purified middlings of durum wheat are known as semolina, used for pasta products....
  • macaronic (poetic form)
    originally, comic Latin verse form characterized by the introduction of vernacular words with appropriate but absurd Latin endings: later variants apply the same technique to modern languages. The form was first written by Tisi degli Odassi in the late 15th century and popularized by Teofilo Folengo, a dissolute Benedictine monk who applied Latin rules of form and syntax to an ...
  • macaronic poetry
    ...during the century. Fidenziana poetry derives its name from a work by Camillo Scroffa, a poet who wrote Petrarchan parodies in a combination of Latin words and Italian form and syntax. Macaronic poetry, on the other hand, which refers to the Rabelaisian preoccupation of the characters with eating, especially macaroni, is a term given to verse consisting of Italian words used......
  • macaroon (cookie)
    cookie or small cake made of sugar, egg white, and almonds, ground or in paste form, or coconut. The origin of the macaroon is uncertain. The name is applied generally to many cookies having the chewy, somewhat airy consistency of the true macaroon....
  • MacArthur, Charles (American playwright)
    American journalist, dramatist, and screenwriter, a colourful personality who is remembered for his comedies written with Ben Hecht....
  • MacArthur, Douglas (United States general)
    U.S. general who commanded the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II, administered postwar Japan during the Allied occupation that followed, and led United Nations forces during the first nine months of the Korean War....
  • MacArthur, Ellen (British yachtswoman)
    On Feb. 7, 2005, English yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur became a new legend in British maritime history when she crossed the finish line off Ushant, France, to complete the fastest solo nonstop voyage around the world on her first attempt. The diminutive 1.6-m (5-ft 3-in) MacArthur had sailed from Falmouth, Cornwall, in her 23-m (75-ft) carbon-fibre trimaran B & Q on Nov. 28, 2004, for ...
  • MacArthur, Ellen Patricia (British yachtswoman)
    On Feb. 7, 2005, English yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur became a new legend in British maritime history when she crossed the finish line off Ushant, France, to complete the fastest solo nonstop voyage around the world on her first attempt. The diminutive 1.6-m (5-ft 3-in) MacArthur had sailed from Falmouth, Cornwall, in her 23-m (75-ft) carbon-fibre trimaran B & Q on Nov. 28, 2004, for ...
  • MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (award)
    On Feb. 7, 2005, English yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur became a new legend in British maritime history when she crossed the finish line off Ushant, France, to complete the fastest solo nonstop voyage around the world on her first attempt. The diminutive 1.6-m (5-ft 3-in) MacArthur had sailed from Falmouth, Cornwall, in her 23-m (75-ft) carbon-fibre trimaran B & Q on Nov. 28, 2004, for ...
  • Macarthur, John (Australian agriculturalist)
    (christened Sept. 3, 1767, Stoke Damerel, Devonshire, Eng.—d. April 11, 1834, Camden, New South Wales), agriculturist and promoter who helped found the Australian wool industry, which became the world’s largest....
  • MacArthur-Forrest process (metallurgy)
    method of extracting silver and gold from their ores by dissolving them in a dilute solution of sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide. The process was invented in 1887 by the Scottish chemists John S. MacArthur, Robert W. Forrest, and William Forrest. The method includes three steps: contacting the finely ground ore with the cyanide solution, separating the soli...
  • Macartney, George Macartney, Earl, Viscount Macartney of Dervock, baron of Lissanoure, Baron Macartney of Parkhurst and of Auchinleck, Lord Macartney (British emissary)
    first British emissary to Beijing....
  • Macas (Ecuador)
    town, southeastern Ecuador. It lies on the Upano River along the eastern slopes of the Andes, at an elevation of 3,445 feet (1,050 m). Founded by the Spanish captain José Villanueva Maldonado in the mid-16th century as the city of Sevilla del Oro (“Golden Seville”), it was a large settlement for several decades and prospered by the exploitation of nearby all...
  • Macassan (people)
    ...(Malayo-Polynesian) ancestry; they have their own language and are primarily agriculturists. Most of them are Christians, although they still retain many traditional practices. The Buginese and Makassarese are Muslims who live in southern Celebes and are extremely industrious, especially in the manufacture of plaited goods and in weaving, gold and silver work, and shipbuilding. The......
  • Macassar (Indonesia)
    kotamadya (municipality) and capital of South Sulawesi propinsi (province), Indonesia. It lies on the western side of the most southerly peninsula of Celebes....
  • Macassar ebony tree (plant)
    The best Indian and Ceylon ebony is produced by Diospyros ebenum, which grows in abundance throughout the flat country west of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. The tree is distinguished by the width of its trunk and its jet-black, charred-looking bark, beneath which the wood is pure white until the heart is reached. The heartwood excels in fineness and in the intensity of its dark colour.......
  • Macassar Strait (strait, Indonesia)
    narrow passage of the west-central Pacific Ocean, Indonesia. Extending 500 miles (800 km) northeast–southwest from the Celebes Sea to the Java Sea, the strait passes between Borneo on the west and Celebes on the east and is 80 to 230 miles (130 to 370 km) wide. It is a deep wate...
  • Macau (Macau, China)
    ...the mainland sheng (province) of Kwangtung and includes the islands of Taipa and Coloane. Extending up a hillside and overlooking La-Pa Island is the city of Macau, which occupies almost the entire peninsula. The name is derived from the Chinese A-ma-gao, or “Bay of A-ma,” for A-ma, the patron goddess of sailors....
  • Macau (administrative region, China)
    special administrative region (Pinyin tebie xingzhengqu; Wade-Giles t’e-pieh hsing-cheng-ch’ü) of China, on the country’s southern coast. Macau is located on the western side of the Pearl River (Chu Chiang) estuary (at the head of which is the port of C...
  • Macaulay, Catharine (British historian)
    British historian and radical political writer....
  • Macaulay, Dame Emilie Rose (British author)
    author of novels and travel books characterized by intelligence, wit, and lively scholarship....
  • Macaulay, Dame Rose (British author)
    author of novels and travel books characterized by intelligence, wit, and lively scholarship....
  • Macaulay, Hannah (British editor)
    ...mother, a Quaker, was the daughter of a Bristol bookseller. Thomas was the eldest of their nine children and devoted to his family, his deepest affection being reserved for two of his sisters, Hannah and Margaret. At age eight he wrote a compendium of universal history and also “The Battle of Cheviot,” a romantic narrative poem in the style of Sir Walter Scott. After attending......
  • Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron (English politician and author)
    English Whig politician, essayist, poet, and historian best known for his History of England, 5 vol. (1849–61); this work, which covers the period 1688–1702, secured his place as one of the founders of what has been called the Whig interpretation of history. He was raised to the peerage in 1857. Macaulay’s biograph...
  • Macaulay, Zachary (governor of Sierra Leone)
    Macaulay was born in the house of an uncle in Leicestershire. His father, Zachary Macaulay, the son of a Presbyterian minister from the Hebrides, had been governor of Sierra Leone; an ardent philanthropist and an ally of William Wilberforce, who fought for the abolition of slavery, he was a man of severe evangelical piety. Macaulay’s mother, a Quaker, was the daughter of a Bristol bookselle...
  • Macauley (island, New Zealand)
    Curtis and Macauley were discovered (1788) by the crew of the British ship “Lady Penrhyn.” The others were found (1793) by the French navigator Joseph d’Entrecasteaux, who named the entire group after one of his ships. The first Europeans who settled there (1837) sold garden crops to passing whalers, but they were forced to leave by a volcanic eruption in 1872; the islands wer...
  • macaw (bird)
    common name of about 18 species of large colourful parrots native to tropical America. These brightly coloured, long-tailed birds are some of the most spectacular parrots in the world. The sexes look alike, which is uncommon among vividly coloured birds. The cobalt-blue hyacinthine macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay is the largest ...
  • Macaya Peak (mountain, Haiti)
    ...Mount Selle, the highest point in the country. The range’s western extension on the southern peninsula is called the Massif de la Hotte (Massif du Sud), which rises to 7,700 feet (2,345 metres) at Macaya Peak. The Cayes Plain lies on the coast to the southeast of the peak....
  • Macayo (Brazil)
    capital, Alagoas estado (state), northeastern Brazil. It is situated below low bluffs on a level strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Norte (or Mundaú) Lagoon, a shallow body of water extending inward for several miles. Formerly called Macayo, the city dates from 1815, when a small settlement there was made a villa. In 1...
  • Macbeth (opera by Verdi)
    Only with Macbeth (1847), however, was Verdi inspired to fashion an opera that is as gripping as it is original and, in many ways, independent of tradition. Just as the biblical theme had contributed to the grandeur of Nabucco, so the tragic theme of Shakespeare’s drama called forth the best in him. Verdi knew the value of this work and......
  • Macbeth (fictional character)
    a general in King Duncan’s army who is spurred on by the prophecy of the Weird Sisters and personal ambition to change the course of Scotland’s succession in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. At the outset of the play, Macbeth is a brave, trusted, and respected soldier. He is undone by his inability to hold his own moral grou...
  • Macbeth (king of Scots)
    king of Scots from 1040, the legend of whose life was the basis of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. He was probably a grandson of King Kenneth II (reigned 971–995), and he married Gruoch, a descendant of King Kenneth III (reigned 997–1005). About 1031 Macbeth succeeded his father, Findlaech (Sinel in Shakespeare), as mormaer, or chief, in the ...
  • Macbeth (work by Shakespeare)
    tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written sometime in 1606–07 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from a playbook or a transcript of one. Some portions of the original text are corrupted or missing from the published edition. The play is the shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, without diversions or subplots. It chronicles ...
  • MacBeth, George Mann (British writer)
    British poet and novelist whose verse ranged from moving personal elegies, highly contrived poetic jokes, and loosely structured dream fantasies to macabre satires....
  • Macbeth, Lady (fictional character)
    wife of Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. A strong, rational, and calculating woman, Lady Macbeth is determined to see her husband put aside his “milk of human kindness” to fulfill their ambitions to rule....
  • MacBride, John (Irish patriot)
    In 1899 Yeats asked Maud Gonne to marry him, but she declined. Four years later she married Major John MacBride, an Irish soldier who shared her feeling for Ireland and her hatred of English oppression: he was one of the rebels later executed by the British government for their part in the Easter Rising of 1916. Meanwhile, Yeats devoted himself to literature and drama, believing that poems and......
  • MacBride, Maud (Irish patriot)
    Irish patriot, actress, and feminist, one of the founders of Sinn Féin (“We Ourselves”), and an early member of the theatre movement started by her longtime suitor, W.B. Yeats....
  • MacBride, Seán (Irish statesman)
    Irish statesman who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1974 for his efforts on behalf of human rights....
  • Maccabaeus, Jonathan (Jewish general)
    Jewish general, a son of the priest Mattathias, who took over the leadership of the Maccabean revolt after the death of his elder brother Judas. A brilliant diplomat, if not quite so good a soldier as his elder brother, Jonathan refused all compromise with the superior Seleucid forces, taking advantage of their internal troubles to free Judaea again from external rule. In 143/142, however, he was ...
  • Maccabees (priestly Jewish family)
    priestly family of Jews who organized a successful rebellion against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV and reconsecrated the defiled Temple of Jerusalem....
  • Maccabees, Feast of the (Judaism)
    Jewish festival that begins on Kislev 25 (in December, according to the Gregorian calendar) and is celebrated for eight days. Hanukkah reaffirms the ideals of Judaism and commemorates in particular the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the lighting of candles on each day of the festival. Although not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, Hanukkah...
  • Maccabees, The Books of the (biblical literature)
    four books, none of which is in the Hebrew Bible but all of which appear in some manuscripts of the Septuagint. The first two books only are part of canonical scripture in the Septuagint and the Vulgate (hence are canonical to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) and are included in the Protestant Apocrypha....
  • Maccabeus, Eleazar (Jewish soldier)
    ...(I Maccabees 5:63). The Syrians, in the war against him, fastened wooden towers on elephants’ backs, and each beast then charged into battle with a thousand armoured warriors surrounding it. Eleazar, Judas’ second-youngest brother, lost his life in 163 bce when he stabbed an elephant from underneath. In dying, the beast fell on top of him and crushed him....
  • Maccabeus, Jonathan (Jewish general)
    Jewish general, a son of the priest Mattathias, who took over the leadership of the Maccabean revolt after the death of his elder brother Judas. A brilliant diplomat, if not quite so good a soldier as his elder brother, Jonathan refused all compromise with the superior Seleucid forces, taking advantage of their internal troubles to free Judaea again from external rule. In 143/142, however, he was ...
  • Maccabeus, Judas (Jewish leader)
    Jewish guerrilla leader who defended his country from invasion by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, preventing the imposition of Hellenism upon Judaea, and preserving the Jewish religion....
  • Maccabeus, Simon (Jewish leader)
    ...Alexander Balas, in order to outplay the legitimate king, Demetrius, granted Jonathan the office of high priest and gave him the Seleucid rank of a courtier, thereby legitimizing his position. When Simon succeeded Jonathan, he acquired the status of a recognized secular ruler; the year he assumed rule was regarded as the first of a new era, and official documents were dated in his name and by.....
  • Maccabiah Games (sport)
    international games held in Palestine (later Israel) from 1932, sponsored by the World Maccabi Union, an international Jewish sports organization founded in 1921. Events held are such Olympic events as athletics (track and field), swimming, water polo, fencing, boxing, wrestling, football (soccer), basketball, tennis, table tennis, and volleyball and such non-Olympic events as karate....
  • MacCaig, Norman (British poet)
    one of the most important Scottish poets of the 20th century....
  • MacCaig, Norman Alexander (British poet)
    one of the most important Scottish poets of the 20th century....
  • MacCarthy Island (island, The Gambia)
    island, in the Gambia River, 176 miles (283 km) upstream from Banjul, central Gambia. It was ceded in 1823 to Captain Alexander Grant of the African Corps, who was acting for the British crown. Designated as a site for freed slaves, the island was renamed for Sir Charles MacCarthy, British colonial governor (1814–24). In the 1830s peanut (groundnut) cultivation was introduced by the Wesleya...
  • MacCarthy, Joseph Raymond (United States senator)
    U.S. senator who dominated the early 1950s by his sensational but unproved charges of Communist subversion in high government circles. In a rare move, he was officially censured for unbecoming conduct by his Senate colleagues (Dec. 2, 1954), thus ending the era of McCarthyism....
  • MacCarthy, Sir Desmond (English journalist)
    English journalist who, as a weekly columnist for the New Statesman known as the “Affable Hawk,” gained a reputation for erudition, sensitive judgment, and literary excellence....
  • MacCarthy, Sir Desmond Charles Otto (English journalist)
    English journalist who, as a weekly columnist for the New Statesman known as the “Affable Hawk,” gained a reputation for erudition, sensitive judgment, and literary excellence....
  • “maccheronee, Le” (poem by Folengo)
    Though he wrote much poetry in various forms, Folengo’s masterpiece is Baldus, a poem in macaronic hexameters, published under the pseudonym Merlin Cocai. Four versions of Baldus are known, published in 1517, 1521, 1539–40, and 1552 (modern edition, Le maccheronee, 1927–28). Written with a rich vein of satire, humour, and fantasy, Folengo’s poem nar...
  • macchia (vegetation)
    a scrubland vegetation of the Mediterranean region, composed primarily of leathery, broad-leaved evergreen shrubs or small trees. Garigue, or garrigue, a poorer version of this vegetation, is found in areas with a thin, rocky soil. Maquis occurs primarily on the lower slopes of mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Many of the shrubs are aromatic, such as mints, laurels, and myrtles. Olives, ...
  • Macchiaioli (Italian art group)
    group of 19th-century Florentine and Neopolitan painters who reacted against the rule-bound Italian academies of art and looked to nature for instruction. The Macchiaioli felt that patches (Italian: macchia) of colour were the most significant aspect of painting. They believed that the effect of a painting on the spectator should derive from the painted surf...
  • macchie (vegetation)
    a scrubland vegetation of the Mediterranean region, composed primarily of leathery, broad-leaved evergreen shrubs or small trees. Garigue, or garrigue, a poorer version of this vegetation, is found in areas with a thin, rocky soil. Maquis occurs primarily on the lower slopes of mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Many of the shrubs are aromatic, such as mints, laurels, and myrtles. Olives, ...
  • “macchina mondiale, La” (work by Volponi)
    ...t zero]). Paolo Volponi’s province is the human consequences of Italy’s rapid postwar industrialization (Memoriale [1962], La macchina mondiale [1965; The Worldwide Machine], and Corporale [1974]). Leonardo Sciascia’s sphere is his native Sicily, whose present and past he displays with concerned and scholarly ...
  • Macchu Picchu (ancient city, Peru)
    site of ancient Inca ruins located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Cuzco, Peru, in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba of the Andes Mountains. It is perched above the Urubamba River valley in a narrow saddle between two sharp peaks—Machu Picchu (“Old Peak”) and Huayna...
  • Maccido, Muhammadu (sultan of Sokoto, Nigeria)
    19th sultan of Sokoto (b. April 20, 1926, Sokoto, Nigeria—d. Oct. 29, 2006, near Abuja, Nigeria), as head of the Sokoto caliphate, was regarded as the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s about 70 million Muslims. Maccido was known as a peacemaker and played a crucial role in quelling interfaith conflicts in northern Nigeria. Before becoming sultan, he held various local and state governmen...
  • Maccilius Eparchius Avitus, Flavius (Roman emperor)
    Western Roman emperor (455–456)....
  • Macclesfield (district, England, United Kingdom)
    town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Cheshire, England. The borough includes a narrow strip of the Pennines in the east that is part of the Peak District National Park. The principal town, Macclesfield, is the centre of the silk industry. The manufacture of silk-covered buttons began in the 16th century, and silk throwing was introduced in 1756, when the first silk......
  • Macclesfield (England, United Kingdom)
    town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Cheshire, England. The borough includes a narrow strip of the Pennines in the east that is part of the Peak District National Park. The principal town, Macclesfield, is the centre of the silk industry. The manufacture of silk-covered buttons began in the 16th century, and silk throwing was intr...
  • MacColl, Ewan (British musician and author)
    British singer, songwriter, and playwright....
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