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  • Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads’ Town, The (work by Tutuola)
    Nigerian author of richly inventive fantasies. He is best known for the novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads’ Town (1952), which was the first Nigerian book to achieve international fame....
  • Palma (Spain)
    city, capital of the Balearic Islands provincia (province) and comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), Spain, in the western Mediterranean Sea. The city lies on the southwestern coast of the island of Majorca in the centre of 10-mile- (16-km-) wide Palm...
  • palma (Mesoamerican art)
    ...have been found throughout Central America from central Mexico to El Salvador, their centre seems to have been in the coastal Veracruz area. One of the objects, the palma, or palmate stone (shaped like a hand with extended fingers), was first thought to have had some religious significance. Experts now consider the palma a......
  • Palma Airport (airport, Majorca, Spain)
    ...just this type of passenger. Scheduled and charter passengers, meanwhile, tend to have very different needs in the terminal, especially at check-in and in the provision of ground transportation. Palma Airport, on the Spanish island of Majorca, has a landside that is designed to accommodate large numbers of charter tourists arriving and departing the airport by bus....
  • Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
    city, capital of the Balearic Islands provincia (province) and comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), Spain, in the western Mediterranean Sea. The city lies on the southwestern coast of the island of Majorca in the centre of 10-mile- (16-km-) wide Palm...
  • Palma Il Vecchio (Italian painter [1480?–1528])
    Venetian painter of the High Renaissance, noted for the craftsmanship of his religious and mythological works. He may have studied under Giovanni Bellini, the originator of the Venetian High Renaissance style....
  • Palma, Jacopo (Italian painter [1480?–1528])
    Venetian painter of the High Renaissance, noted for the craftsmanship of his religious and mythological works. He may have studied under Giovanni Bellini, the originator of the Venetian High Renaissance style....
  • Palma, José (Filipino writer)
    ...beginning with Noli me tangere (“Touch Me Not”). Other prominent writers, all essayists, were Mariano Ponce and Rafael Palma. There were poets also—for example, José Palma, whose poem Filipinas was later adopted as the national anthem. After the United States had taken over the Philippines, Spanish was gradually replaced by......
  • Palma, Ralph De (American athlete and manufacturer)
    American automobile-racing driver, one of the most popular and successful competitors in the early days of the sport....
  • Palma, Ricardo (Peruvian writer)
    Peruvian writer best known for his collected legends of colonial Peru, one of the most popular collections in Spanish American literature....
  • Palma Soriano (Cuba)
    city, eastern Cuba. Lying on the Cauto River, on the northern slopes of the Sierra Maestra, Palma Soriano is a commercial and manufacturing centre for the agricultural and pastoral hinterland, which yields sugarcane, cacao, coffee, corn (maize), fruits, and cattle. Coffee, soft drinks, and furniture are the main industrial products. Manganese is found in the vicinity. Palma Sori...
  • Palma, Tomás Estrada (president of Cuba)
    first president of Cuba, whose administration was noted for its sound fiscal policies and progress in education....
  • Palmach (Zionist military organization)
    Allon was one of the first commanders of the Palmach, an elite branch of the Haganah, a Zionist military organization representing the majority of the Jews in Palestine after World War I. He was involved in smuggling European Jews into Palestine in defiance of restrictions placed on immigration by Great Britain, the region’s mandatory power during the period between the world wars. During W...
  • Palmae (tree)
    any member of the Arecaceae, or Palmae, the single family of monocotyledonous flowering plants of the order Arecales....
  • palmar and plantar keratosis (skin disease)
    1. Palmar and plantar keratosis is a congenital, often hereditary, thickening of the horny layer of the skin of the palms and soles, sometimes with painful lesions resulting from the formation of fissures....
  • Palmares (historical republic, Brazil)
    autonomous republic within Alagoas state in northeastern Brazil during the period 1630–94; it was formed by the coalescence of as many as 10 separate communities (called quilombos, or mocambos) of fugitive black slaves that had sprung up in the locality from 1605. The state owed its prosperity to abundant irrigated agricultural lands and to the abduction of slaves from Portug...
  • Palmaria (algae genus)
    ...absent; coralline red algae contribute to coral reefs and coral sands; predominantly marine; approximately 4,100 described species; Bangia, Palmaria, Polysiphonia, Porphyra, and Rhodymenia. ......
  • Palmaria palmata (biology)
    (Rhodymenia palmata), red seaweed found along both coasts of the North Atlantic. When fresh, it has the texture of thin rubber; both the amount of branching and size (ranging from 12 to about 40 cm [5 to 16 inches]) vary. Growing on rocks, mollusks, or larger seaweeds, dulse attaches by means of disks or rhizoids. Dulse, fresh or dried, is eaten with fish and butter, boiled with milk and r...
  • Palmas (Brazil)
    city, capital of Tocantins estado (state), north-central Brazil. It lies at the centre of the state, east of the Tocantins River. When Tocantins state was created in 1989, its provisional capital was Miracema do Tocantins, which lies north of Palmas on the Tocantins River. Palmas was later declared the official capital, and major development projects were immediately init...
  • palmately compound leaf (plant anatomy)
    ...leaves lack a petiole and so are attached directly to the stem (sessile), and others lack stipules (exstipulate). In compound leaves (Figure 2), a blade has two or more subunits called leaflets: in palmately compound leaves, the leaflets radiate from a single point at the distal end of the petiole; in pinnately compound leaves, a row of leaflets forms on either side of an extension of the......
  • Palmatolepis (conodont)
    ...different species of cones, bars, and blade types. The greatest abundance and diversity of conodont shape was in the Devonian Period, wherein more than 50 species and subspecies of the conodont Palmatolepis are known to have existed. Other platform types were also common. After this time they began to decline in variety and abundance. By Permian time the conodont animals had almost died....
  • Palmatolepis triangularis (conodont)
    ...during the Upper Kellwasser Event. The boundary point between the underlying Frasnian Stage and the Famennian also corresponds to the first appearance of the conodont Palmatolepis triangularis. Three-quarters of all known upper Frasnian trilobite genera are represented at the GSSP, many of which subsequently became extinct....
  • Palmdale (California, United States)
    city, Los Angeles county, southwestern California, U.S. North of the city of Los Angeles, Palmdale lies at the southern end of Antelope Valley. The area was first settled in the 1880s, when the towns of Harold and Palmenthal were formed, the former by railroad workers and the latter by settlers of Swiss and German descent from Nebraska and Illinois. The two to...
  • Palme, Olof (prime minister of Sweden)
    prime minister of Sweden (1969–76, 1982–86), prominent leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetar Partiet), Sweden’s oldest continuing party. He became Sweden’s best-known international politician....
  • Palme, Sven Olof Joachim (prime minister of Sweden)
    prime minister of Sweden (1969–76, 1982–86), prominent leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetar Partiet), Sweden’s oldest continuing party. He became Sweden’s best-known international politician....
  • Palmeiro, Rafael (American baseball player)
    ...March 2005 the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform conducted hearings on steroid use in baseball. Among the players to testify were McGwire, Sosa, Frank Thomas, and Rafael Palmeiro (who testified, “I have never used steroids. Period”—though he later received a 10-day suspension for steroid use under the major leagues’ new zero-tolera...
  • Palmela, conde de (Portuguese statesman)
    Portuguese liberal statesman and supporter of Queen Maria II....
  • Palmela, Pedro de Sousa Holstein, duque de (Portuguese statesman)
    Portuguese liberal statesman and supporter of Queen Maria II....
  • palmella stage (zoology)
    ...chromatophores with yellow to yellow-green pigments. Food reserves are stored as leucosin (a carbohydrate) and lipids. Some genera may be amoeboid during part of the life cycle; others may include a palmella stage, a condition in which the cells occur in a mucilaginous mass but continue to metabolize. Siliceous cyst walls are formed within the cytoplasm. Representative genera include......
  • Palmer (Alaska, United States)
    city, southern Alaska, U.S. Located near the mouth of the Matanuska River, it lies 42 miles (68 km) northeast of Anchorage. The area was long inhabited by Athabascan Indians. George Palmer established a trading post along the river about 1890, and in 1916 the town was established as a station on the Matanuska branch of the Alaska Railroad. In 1935, during the ...
  • Palmer, A. Mitchell (American politician)
    American lawyer, legislator, and U.S. attorney general (1919–21) whose highly publicized campaigns against suspected radicals touched off the so-called Red Scare of 1919–20....
  • Palmer, Ada (American opera singer)
    American-born opera singer whose native country failed to yield her the considerable appreciation she found in continental Europe....
  • Palmer, Alexander Mitchell (American politician)
    American lawyer, legislator, and U.S. attorney general (1919–21) whose highly publicized campaigns against suspected radicals touched off the so-called Red Scare of 1919–20....
  • Palmer, Alice Elvira Freeman (American educator)
    American educator who exerted a strong and lasting influence on the academic and administrative character of Wellesley (Massachusetts) College during her brief tenure as its president....
  • Palmer Archipelago (island group, Antarctica)
    island group off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, from which it is separated by Gerlache and Bismarck straits. The archipelago, which includes the islands of Anvers (46 miles [74 km] long by 35 miles [56 km] wide), Liège, Brabant, and Wiencke, was discovered in 1898 by the Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache. Argentina and the United Kingdom have operate...
  • Palmer, Arnold (American golfer)
    professional American golfer, the first to win the Masters Tournament (Augusta, Ga.) four times and the first to earn $1 million in tournament prize money. During his professional career (1954–75) he won 92 tournaments, 60 of which were on the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) tour. As the leading figure in world golf from the late 1950s through th...
  • Palmer, Barbara (English noble)
    a favourite mistress of the English king Charles II; she bore several of his illegitimate children. According to the diarist Samuel Pepys, she was a woman of exceptional beauty, but others commented on her crude mannerisms....
  • Palmer, Bertha Honoré (American philanthropist)
    American socialite remembered especially for her active contributions to women’s, artistic, and Chicago civic affairs....
  • Palmer, Bruce (American general)
    American four-star general and U.S. Army vice chief of staff (b. April 13, 1913, Austin, Texas—d. Oct. 10, 2000, Alexandria, Va.), was the author of The 25-Year War: America’s Military Role in Vietnam (1984), which went against conventional wisdom regarding the strategy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to win the Vietnam War. In his book, Palmer claimed that the Joint Chiefs were ...
  • Palmer, Bruce (Canadian musician)
    Canadian bass guitarist (b. Sept. 9, 1946, Liverpool, N.S.—d. Oct. 1, 2004, Belleville, Ont.), was a founding member of the influential folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield. The group, which also included Palmer’s good friend Neil Young, lasted for only two years (1966–68) but produced three acclaimed albums and one hit, “For What It’s Worth” (1967). Palmer...
  • Palmer, Carl (British musician)
    ...Greg Lake (b. Nov. 10, 1948Bournemouth, Dorset), and Carl Palmer (b. March 20, 1951Birmingham)....
  • Palmer, Charles, Lord Limerick (English noble)
    the natural son of Charles II by Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine. When his mother became Duchess of Cleveland and Countess of Southampton in 1670, he was allowed to assume the name of Fitzroy and the courtesy title of Earl of Southampton. In 1675 he was created Duke of Southampton and Earl of Chichester in his own right and became Duke of Cleveland on his mother’s death in 1709, s...
  • Palmer, D. D. (American merchant)
    ...the musculoskeletal structures and functions of the body and the nervous system in the restoration and maintenance of health. The chiropractic method was founded in 1895 by an Iowa merchant, D.D. Palmer, who reportedly cured deafness in one individual by realigning a misaligned vertebrae. Doctors of chiropractic are trained in and through accredited chiropractic colleges. Procedures include......
  • Palmer, E. H. (British linguist)
    English Orientalist, distinguished as a linguist and as a traveler, among whose many translations is a version of the Qurʾān—the sacred scripture of Islām—that, despite some inaccuracies, captures the spirit and poetry of the original....
  • Palmer, Earl (American drummer)
    American drummer who provided the “solid stickwork and feverish backbeat” that laid the foundations for rock and roll drumming; his distinctive style was notable on such recordings as Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” Fats Domino’s “The Fat Man,...
  • Palmer, Edward Henry (British linguist)
    English Orientalist, distinguished as a linguist and as a traveler, among whose many translations is a version of the Qurʾān—the sacred scripture of Islām—that, despite some inaccuracies, captures the spirit and poetry of the original....
  • Palmer, Edward Vance (Australian author)
    Australian author of novels, short stories, and plays whose work is noted for disciplined diction and frequent understatement. He is considered one of the founders of Australian drama....
  • Palmer, Ernest (American cinematographer)
    ...JordanOriginal Screenplay: Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles for Citizen KaneCinematography, Black-and-White: Arthur Miller for How Green Was My ValleyCinematography, Color: Ernest Palmer and Ray Rennahan for Blood and SandArt Direction, Black-and-White: Richard Day and Nathan Juran for How Green Was My ValleyArt Direction, Color:......
  • Palmer, John (British architect)
    ...built by John Wood the Elder between 1728 and 1735; the Circus, begun by Wood in 1754 and completed by his son; the Royal Crescent, 1767–75; the Guildhall, 1775; Lansdown Crescent, built by John Palmer, 1796–97; and the 1795 pavilion in Sydney Gardens, Bathwick, which now houses the Holburne of Menstrie Museum of Arts collection. In 1942 the Assembly Rooms of 1771 were destroyed.....
  • Palmer, John (English criminal)
    English robber who became celebrated in legend and fiction....
  • Palmer Land (Antarctica)
    broad southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula, about 400 miles (640 km) east of Peter I Island (in the Bellingshausen Sea), claimed by Britain as part of the British Antarctic Territory. It is named after its discoverer, Nathaniel Palmer, captain of a U.S. sealing vessel, who led an expedition to Antarctica in 1820. Palmer Land is mountainous, attaining elev...
  • Palmer, Nathaniel (American explorer)
    American sea captain and explorer after whom Palmer Land, a stretch of western Antarctic coast and islands, is named....
  • Palmer, Nathaniel Brown (American explorer)
    American sea captain and explorer after whom Palmer Land, a stretch of western Antarctic coast and islands, is named....
  • Palmer, Patrick (American astronomer)
    A second experiment, called Ozma II, was conducted at the same observatory by Benjamin Zuckerman and Patrick Palmer, who intermittently monitored more than 650 nearby stars for about four years (1973–76)....
  • Palmer Peninsula (peninsula, Antarctica)
    peninsula claimed by Britain, Chile, and Argentina. It forms an 800-mile (1,300-kilometre) northward extension of Antarctica toward the southern tip of South America. The peninsula is ice-covered and mountainous, the highest point being Mount Jackson at 13,750 feet (4,190 metres). Marguerite Bay indents the west coast, and Bransfield Strait separates the peninsula from the South Shetland Islands t...
  • Palmer, Phoebe Worrall (American evangelist and writer)
    American evangelist and religious writer, an influential and active figure in the 19th-century Holiness movement in Christian fundamentalism....
  • Palmer, Potter (American businessman)
    American merchant and real-estate promoter who was responsible for the development of much of the downtown district and the Lake Shore Drive area of Chicago after the city’s great fire of 1871....
  • Palmer raids (United States history)
    ...On Jan. 2, 1920, government agents in 33 cities rounded up thousands of persons, many of whom were detained without charge for long periods. The disregard of basic civil liberties during the “Palmer raids,” as they came to be known, drew widespread protest and ultimately discredited Palmer, who nevertheless justified his program as the only practical means of combating what he......
  • Palmer, Robert Alan (British singer)
    British singer (b. Jan. 19, 1949, Batley, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. Sept. 26, 2003, Paris, France), was a respected practitioner of “blue-eyed soul,” best known for his iconic 1985 song and music video “Addicted to Love.” Palmer, who was known for his impeccable taste in both music and clothes, released his first solo album, Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley,...
  • Palmer, Roundell, 1st Earl of Selborne (British jurist)
    British lord high chancellor (1872–74, 1880–85) who almost singlehandedly drafted a comprehensive judicial-reform measure, the Supreme Court of Judicature Act of 1873. Under this statute, the complex duality of English court systems—common law and chancery (equity)—was largely abolished in favour of a single hierarchy of courts. All divisions of the n...
  • Palmer, Samuel (British painter)
    English painter and etcher of visionary landscapes who was a disciple of William Blake....
  • Palmer, Sir Geoffrey (prime minister of New Zealand)
    New Zealand Labour Party leader and prime minister of New Zealand for a year in 1989–90....
  • Palmer, Timothy (American architect)
    U.S. pioneer builder of covered timber truss bridges....
  • Palmer, Vance (Australian author)
    Australian author of novels, short stories, and plays whose work is noted for disciplined diction and frequent understatement. He is considered one of the founders of Australian drama....
  • Palmer, William Henry (American magician)
    British-born magician who popularized conjuring in the United States. Trained as a musician, Heller turned to magic after he saw a performance by the French magician Robert-Houdin in 1848....
  • Palmer, William Waldegrave, 2nd Earl of Selborne (British statesman)
    first lord of the Admiralty (1900–05) in Great Britain and high commissioner for South Africa (1905–10), who helped initiate the rebuilding of the fleet into a force strong enough to oppose a greatly expanded German navy in World War I and who successfully proposed the formation of the Union of South Africa....
  • Palmerston (Northern Territory, Australia)
    capital and chief port of Northern Territory, Australia. It is situated on a low peninsula northeast of the entrance to its harbour, Port Darwin, a deep inlet of Beagle Gulf of the Timor Sea. The harbour was found in 1839 by John Stokes, surveyor aboard the ship HMS Beagle, and it was named after the British naturalist Charles Darwin. The site was not settled until 1869 a...
  • Palmerston Atoll (atoll, Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean)
    atoll of the northern Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. A coral formation, it has a lagoon that lacks clear passage to the open sea. Covered with coconut and pandanus groves, it exports copra. Although there is evidence of a previous occupation by Polynesians, the island was uninhabited when visited by Capt. Jam...
  • Palmerston North (New Zealand)
    city, southern North Island, New Zealand, overlooking the Manawatu River. The settlement, named after Lord Palmerston, prime minister of England, was founded in 1866 and declared successively a town (1868), a borough (1877), and a city (1930). It lies at the junction of road and rail lines to Wellington (87 miles [140 km] southwest) and Auckland (339 miles [546 km] northwest) an...
  • Palmerston of Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount, Baron Temple of Mount Temple (prime minister of United Kingdom)
    English Whig-Liberal statesman whose long career, including many years as British foreign secretary (1830–34, 1835–41, 1846–51) and prime minister (1855–58, 1859–65), made him a symbol of British nationalism....
  • Palmesel (religious art)
    ...of “nuns’ work,” including small devotional objects, many in collage, as well as vestments and church textiles. A particular German sculptural type is the Palmesel, a half-size figure of Christ on the donkey, which is drawn through the streets on its wheeled base on Palm Sunday....
  • palmetto (palm tree)
    ...Syrphus flies apparently pollinate Asterogyne martiana in Costa Rica, and drosophila flies are thought to pollinate the nipa palm in New Guinea. Bees pollinate several species (Sabal palmetto and Iriartea deltoidea). Studies of pollination are difficult because of the large number of insects that are associated in some way with most palms. Few modern studies have......
  • Palmgren, Selim (Finnish composer)
    Finnish pianist and composer who helped establish the nationalist movement in Finnish music....
  • Palmieri, Eddie (American musician)
    ...and through huge contributions by a number of musicians of Puerto Rican heritage, most notably bandleaders Tito Rodríguez, Tito Puente (a virtuoso timbale player and vibraphonist), and Eddie Palmieri (a pianist who brought progressive jazz influences into the mix). Frequently but not always up-tempo, or “hot,” salsa grew to incorporate increasingly diverse influences......
  • Palmieri, Luigi (Italian scientist)
    A device involving water spillage was developed in 17th-century Italy. Later a water-filled bowl and still later a cup filled with mercury were used for detecting earthquakes and tremors. In 1855 Luigi Palmieri of Italy designed a seismometer, an instrument that senses the amount of ground motion. Palmieri’s seismometer consisted of several U-shaped tubes filled with mercury and oriented to...
  • Palmieri, Matteo (Italian educator)
    Matteo Palmieri wrote thatthe true merit of virtue lies in effective action, and effective action is impossible without the faculties that are necessary for it. He who has nothing to give cannot be generous. And he who loves solitude can be neither just, nor strong, nor experienced in those things that are of importance in government and in the affairs of the......
  • Palmira (Colombia)
    city, Valle del Cauca departamento (department), southwestern Colombia. It lies in the rich Cauca River valley. Founded in 1688, the city has long been an important agricultural and livestock-raising centre. Now the second largest city in its department, Palmira is referred to as the “agricultural capital of Colombia”; tobacco, coffee, sug...
  • palmistry (occultism)
    reading of character and divination of the future by interpretation of lines and undulations on the palm of the hand. The origins of palmistry are uncertain. It may have begun in ancient India and spread from there. It was probably from their original Indian home that the traditional fortune-telling of the Roma (Gypsies) was derived. The chiromantic art has been known in China, ...
  • palmitic acid (chemical compound)
    ...meaning “goat.” Some hard cheeses (e.g., Swiss cheese) contain natural propanoic acid. The higher even-numbered saturated acids, from C12 to C18 (lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic), are present in the fats and oils of many animals and plants, with palmitic and stearic acids being the most prevalent. Lauric acid (C12) is the main acid in cocon...
  • palmityl-S-ACP (chemical compound)
    Ultimately, a molecule with 16 carbon atoms, palmityl-S-ACP, is formed. In most organisms a deacylase catalyzes the release of free palmitic acid; in a few, synthesis continues, and an acid with 18 carbon atoms is formed. The fatty acids can then react with coenzyme A (compare reaction [21]) to form fatty acyl coenzyme A, which can condense with the glycerol 1-phosphate formed in step [61]; the......
  • Palmolive-Peet Company (American company)
    In 1928 Colgate & Company was bought by Palmolive-Peet Company. Palmolive-Peet’s founder, B.J. Johnson, had developed the formula for Palmolive soap in 1898. At the turn of the century Palmolive, which contained both palm and olive oils, was the world’s best-selling soap. The current corporate name was adopted in 1953....
  • Palmoxylon cliffwoodensis (plant species)
    The earliest fossils of palms are leaves of Sabal magothiensis and stems of Palmoxylon cliffwoodensis from the Late Cretaceous, about 80 million years ago. By the middle of the Maastrichtian, some 69 million years ago, pollen supposedly representative of Nypa fruticans and Acrocomia is present. These records place palms among the earliest recognizable modern families......
  • Palmquist, Gustaf (Swedish teacher and minister)
    conservative Baptist denomination that was organized in 1879 as the Swedish Baptist General Conference of America; the present name was adopted in 1945. It developed from the work of Gustaf Palmquist, a Swedish immigrant schoolteacher and lay preacher who became a Baptist in 1852. He established the first Swedish Baptist Church in Rock Island, Ill., that same year. Palmquist and other Swedish......
  • Palmstrom (work by Morgenstern)
    ...them into strange contexts, and dislocated sentence structure, but always with a rational, satiric point. Volumes of nonsense verse include Galgenlieder (1905; “Gallows Songs”); Palmström (1910), named for an absurd character; and three volumes published posthumously: Palma Kunkel (1916), Der Gingganz (1919), and Die Schallmühle (19...
  • palmtop (handheld computer)
    ...more and more powerful, researchers and entrepreneurs explored new possibilities in mobile computing. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, several companies came out with handheld computers, called personal digital assistants. PDAs typically replaced the cathode-ray tube screen with a more compact liquid crystal display, and they either had a miniature keyboard or replaced the keyboard with...
  • palmus (ancient Roman unit of measurement)
    ...inch); the inch (uncia or pollicus), or 112 foot, was 24.67 mm (0.97 inch); and the palm (palmus), or 14 foot, was 74 mm (2.91 inches)....
  • Palmyra (Syria)
    ancient city in south-central Syria, 130 miles (210 km) northeast of Damascus. The name Palmyra, meaning “city of palm trees,” was conferred upon the city by its Roman rulers in the 1st century ad; Tadmur, Tadmor, or Tudmur, the pre-Semitic name of the site, is also still in use. The city is mentioned in tablets d...
  • Palmyra (New York, United States)
    town (township), Wayne county, western New York, U.S., on the New York State Canal System, 20 miles (32 km) east-southeast of Rochester. Founded in 1789 as a frontier town and named for the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, the locale is associated with Joseph Smith, whose claims of visi...
  • Palmyra Atoll (atoll, Pacific Ocean)
    coral atoll, unincorporated territory of the United States, in the Northern Line Islands in the west-central Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southwest of Honolulu. It comprises some 50 islets with a combined area of 4 square miles (10 square km) and an average elevation of only 6 feet (2 metres) above sea level. The atoll was sighted in 1798 by an American ship under...
  • palmyra bassine (fibre)
    ...squirrels, and badgers is used in certain kinds of household and toilet brushes, as are various types of plant fibres, the most important of which are piassava obtained from a Brazilian palm and palmyra bassine derived from the palmyra palm of Africa and Sri Lanka. Such plant fibres are converted into brush material by soaking, beating, and drying. Cotton fibres also can be used for brush......
  • palmyra palm (plant)
    Other palms are used extensively in both the Old and New worlds. Sugar and alcohol are obtained by tapping inflorescences of the sugar palm (Arenga pinnata), the palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer), the wild date (Phoenix sylvestris), the toddy palm (Caryota urens), the nipa palm, and the gebang and talipot palms (Corypha elata and C. umbraculifera).......
  • Palmyrene (language)
    In the early centuries ad, Aramaic divided into East and West varieties. West Aramaic dialects include Nabataean (formerly spoken in parts of Arabia), Palmyrene (spoken in Palmyra, which was northeast of Damascus), Palestinian-Christian, and Judeo-Aramaic. West Aramaic is still spoken in a small number of villages in Lebanon....
  • Palmyrenean (language)
    In the early centuries ad, Aramaic divided into East and West varieties. West Aramaic dialects include Nabataean (formerly spoken in parts of Arabia), Palmyrene (spoken in Palmyra, which was northeast of Damascus), Palestinian-Christian, and Judeo-Aramaic. West Aramaic is still spoken in a small number of villages in Lebanon....
  • Palmyrenian alphabet
    Semitic script used in Palmyra, a city on the trade routes between Syria and Mesopotamia, from the 3rd to the 2nd century bc until shortly after the conquest of the city by the Romans in ad 272. Developed from the Aramaic alphabet, Palmyric had 22 letters and was written from right to left. It occurred in two forms: a rounded, cursive form derived fr...
  • Palmyric alphabet
    Semitic script used in Palmyra, a city on the trade routes between Syria and Mesopotamia, from the 3rd to the 2nd century bc until shortly after the conquest of the city by the Romans in ad 272. Developed from the Aramaic alphabet, Palmyric had 22 letters and was written from right to left. It occurred in two forms: a rounded, cursive form derived fr...
  • Palni Hills
    range of hills, an eastward extension of the Western Ghāts, southwestern Tamil Nādu state, southern India. A continuation of the Anaimalai Hills in Kerala state, the Palnis are about 45 miles (70 km) wide and 15 miles (23 km) long. In the south the hills terminate abruptly in steep slopes....
  • Palo Alto (California, United States)
    city, Santa Clara county, northern California, U.S. Located 35 miles (55 km) south of San Francisco and 14 miles (23 km) north of San Jose, it lies on the western shore of San Francisco Bay. Gaspar de Portolá’s 1769 expedition is said to have camped near El Palo Alto (referring to “t...
  • Palo Alto, Battle of (United States history)
    (May 8, 1846), first clash in the Mexican War, fought at a small site in southeastern Texas about 9 miles (14.5 km) northeast of Matamoros, Mex. Mexican troops had crossed the Rio Grande to besiege Fort Brown and to threaten General Zachary Taylor’s supply centre. General Taylor and his army met the invaders at Palo Alto with superior artillery. Despite the greater number...
  • Palo Alto Research Center (research centre, Palo Alto, California, United States)
    The next wave of GUI innovation occurred at the Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto (California) Research Center (PARC), to which several of Engelbart’s team moved in the 1970s. The new interface ideas found their way to a computer workstation called the Xerox Star, which was introduced in 1981. Though the process was expensive, the Star (and its prototype predecessor, the Alto) used a tec...
  • palo verde (plant)
    (Spanish: “green wood”), any member of the genera Cercidium and Parkinsonia, of the pea family (Fabaceae), comprising a small group of trees and shrubs scattered through the arid regions of the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and Venezuela. Three species of palo verde are native to the United States; two of them become treelike. Blue palo verde (...
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