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  • Paco (Mexican television personality)
    popular Mexican television personality who was the host of variety shows for two of Mexico’s largest networks, Televisa and TV Azteca, in a career spanning more than 25 years; his murder in a daylight attack on a busy Mexico City beltway rekindled fury at the rising incidence of violent crime in the country’s capital (b. 1942, Mexico City, Mex.—d. June 7, 1999, Mexico City)....
  • Paço, Terreiro do (square, Lisbon, Portugal)
    ...Tagus as Lisbon’s lover. The river is indeed an ever-present part of the city’s decor, and the official entrance to Lisbon is a broad marble staircase mounting from the water to the vast, arcaded Commerce Square (Praça do Comércio). The three landward sides of the square are surrounded by uniform buildings dating from the 18th century. This formal, Baroque-inspired l...
  • Pacoh (people)
    ...peoples—such as the Rade (Rhade), Jarai, Chru, 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......
  • Pacorus (Parthian prince)
    Parthian prince, son of King Orodes II (reigned c. 55/54–37/36 bc); he apparently never ascended the throne....
  • Pacorus I (Parthian prince)
    Parthian prince, son of King Orodes II (reigned c. 55/54–37/36 bc); he apparently never ascended the throne....
  • Pacorus II (king of Parthia)
    king of Parthia (reigned ad 78–c. 115/116). Little is known of his reign, which seems to have been filled with rebellions and the rule of counterkings (Artabanus IV, Osroes, and Vologases II)....
  • Pact government (South African history)
    ...for Afrikaans- and English-speaking whites. The June 1924 election propelled Hertzog to the position of prime minister through a coalition between the National and Labour parties known as the Pact government....
  • Pact, The (Irish history)
    ...new president of the Dáil, desired an immediate general election to obtain a verdict on the treaty; in the deteriorating conditions Collins and de Valera eventually made an agreement known as the Pact (May 20, 1922), in which it was settled that government (pro-treaty) and republican candidates would not oppose each other and that de Valera would work within the electoral arrangement. Bu...
  • pacta sunt servanda (law principle)
    ...Shelf cases (1969). A treaty is based on the consent of the parties to it, is binding, and must be executed in good faith. The concept known by the Latin formula pacta sunt servanda (“agreements must be kept”) is arguably the oldest principle of international law. Without such a rule, no international agreement would be binding or......
  • Pactum Hludowicianum (decree by Louis I)
    The historic Pactum Hludowicianum, also issued in 817, replaced the ill-defined "friendship alliance" between the Carolingians and the popes with a carefully arranged imperial-papal relationship that the emperor dominated. Louis later described the pope as his helper (adiutor) in caring for God’s people. He was no less dynamic in the political realm. When Louis’s nephew...
  • pactus (law history)
    ...laws normally required approval by the popular assemblies. Because of this collaboration between king and people, a compilation was sometimes referred to as an “agreement,” or pactus. The Visigothic laws were an exception; they always appear to have been formulated by the king and chief landowners without popular participation. Gradually, first the Lombard and then the......
  • pacu (fish)
    ...diverse community is found in the Amazonian and Guianan forests, where the abundance of water and trees makes life easy. Rivers are the realm of large numbers of invertebrates and fishes, such as pacu (Metynnis), a big brownish flat fish, the meat of which is highly valued; coumarou (Curimato), which is a toothless vegetarian fish resembling the marine mullet;......
  • Pacuvius, Marcus (Roman dramatist)
    the greatest Roman tragic dramatist before Accius....
  • Paczynski, Bohdan (American astrophysicist)
    Polish-born American astrophysicist who pioneered a novel method for carrying out astronomical observations of distant objects that produce little or no light of their own. The technique makes use of a phenomenon called gravitational microlensing—the focusing of light from a distant object as the light passes through the gravitational field of a nearer object lying directly along the same ...
  • pada (Indian music)
    ...the classical South Indian dance. The varṇam, a completely composed piece, serves mainly as a warming up and is performed at the beginning of a concert. Pada and jāvali are two kinds of love songs using the poetic imagery characteristic of the romantic-devotional movement mentioned earlier. Tillānā has a text......
  • Padamo River (river, South America)
    ...meander through the level plains of the Llanos. The volume of the river increases as it receives numerous mountain tributaries, including the Mavaca River on the left bank and the Manaviche, Ocamo, Padamo, and Cunucunuma rivers on the right....
  • padān (Zoroastrianism and Parsiism)
    ...be cotton, hemp, or wool. In addition, the Zoroastrians and Parsis wear a sacred shirt (sudra) made of two pieces of white cambric stitched together. For ordination, a shawl, a cotton veil (padān) to cover the nose and mouth, and a mace are added; the Brahmanic (Vedic) initiate also receives a tall staff and a black antelope skin. In Sikhism (an Indian religion combining......
  • Padang (Indonesia)
    kotamadya (municipality) and capital of West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) propinsi (province), Indonesia. Padang is the chief port on Sumatra’s western coast and is now the main city of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra. It was the site of Dutch settlements early in the 17th century, and warehouses and a small fort were erected in 1667. The town was held by...
  • Padang Highlands (region, Indonesia)
    region near the western coast of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is part of the Barisan Mountains of Sumatera Barat provinsi (“province”). The highest among several volcanoes in the highlands is Mount Merapi (9,485 feet [2,891 m]). A favourite resort area because of its climate, the region has superb scenery and is the source of four major rivers (the Rokan, Kampar, Inde...
  • Padang, Urang (people)
    largest ethnic group on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, whose traditional homeland is the west central highlands. Their language, closely resembling Malay, belongs to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family. In the late 20th century their numbers were estimated at approximately 6,000,000. Although Muslim, the Minangkabau are matrilineal, tracing...
  • Padarthatattvanirupana (work by Siromani)
    Among the Navya-Nyāya philosophers, Raghunātha Śiromaṇi in Padārthatattvanirūpaṇa undertook a bold revision of the traditional categorial scheme by (1) identifying “time,” “space,” and “ether” with God; (2) eliminating the category of mind by reducing it to matter; (3) denying atoms......
  • padauk (plant)
    any of several species of tropical trees of the genus Pterocarpus in the family Fabaceae. Padauks of the Indo-Malaysia region have a tendency to be larger than related species elsewhere. They are highly prized as shade trees and for their red or reddish brown wood. The blood-red sap is used commercially; a red dyewood, “Red Saunders,” which is obtained from the padauk, was for...
  • Padaung (people)
    Modification of the torso focuses on the neck, trunk, and breasts. The Padaung women of Myanmar were famous for stretching their necks—by means of coiled brass neck rings—to a length of about 15 inches (38 cm), pushing down the collarbone, compressing the rib cage, and pulling up about four thoracic vertebrae into the neck....
  • padāvalī (Indian literature)
    The third genre, padāvalī (“string of verse”) songs, is also found elsewhere; inspired by the religious bhakti movement, the songs resemble the devotional poetry of the Nāyaṉārs and Āḻvārs in Tamil. It was such poetry that established Bengali as a significant literary language. The earliest work in what may be......
  • Padda oryzivora (bird)
    (species Padda oryzivora), bird of the mannikin group in the family Estrildidae (order Passeriformes), one of the best-known cage birds. It is an attractive pet that chirps and trills. Native to Java and Bali, it has become established in the wild elsewhere in Asia. Also called paddy bird, it may form large flocks that damage grain. It is 14 cm (5.5 inches) long and mostly gray, with pinki...
  • Paddington (area, London, United Kingdom)
    area in the borough of Westminster, London. Formerly (until 1965) a metropolitan borough, it is located west of St. Marylebone and north of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Its southern section includes the neighbourhood of Bayswater, and in its northern portion is Maida Vale....
  • paddle
    lightweight boat pointed at both ends and propelled by one or more paddles (not oars). Paddlers face the bow....
  • paddle shot (cricket)
    ...of overs (usually 50 per side) leads to a faster paced though much-altered game. In one-day cricket there are some restrictions on placement of fielders. This led to new batting styles, such as the paddle shot (wherein the ball is hit while behind the wicket because there are usually no fielders there) and the lofted shot (where the batsman tries to hit the ball past the fielders and over their...
  • paddle tennis (sport)
    small-scale form of tennis similar to a British shipboard game of the 1890s. Frank P. Beal, a New York City official, introduced paddle tennis on New York playgrounds in the early 1920s. He had invented it as a child in Albion, Mich. It became popular, and national championship tournaments are still held in the United States. Platform tennis, a later development, is sometimes c...
  • paddle tennis (sport)
    sport that is a combination of tennis and squash, devised in 1928 by American sports enthusiasts Fessenden Blanchard and James Cogswell at Scarsdale, N.Y. It is played on specially constructed platforms, 60 by 30 feet (18 by 9 m), surrounded by back and side walls of tightly strung wire netting 12 feet (3.7 m) high. The actual court measures 44 by 20 feet (13.4 by 6 m), and the net is 2 feet 10 i...
  • paddle wheel (ship part)
    method of ship propulsion that was once widely employed but is now almost entirely superseded by the screw propeller. Early experiments with steam-driven paddles acting as oars led several inventors, including Robert Fulton, to mount the paddles in a wheel form, either at the stern or at the sides of the vessel....
  • paddlefish (fish)
    either of two species of archaic freshwater fish with a paddle-like snout, wide mouth, smooth skin, and cartilaginous skeleton. A relative of the sturgeon, the paddlefish is of the family Polyodontidae and the order Acipenseriformes. It feeds with mouth gaping open, gill rakers straining plankton from the water....
  • Paddock, Charles William (American athlete)
    American sprinter, world-record holder for the 100-metre dash (1921–30) and the 200-metre dash (1921–26). He also held the world record for the 100-yard dash (1921, 1924–26) and the 220-yard dash (1921–26). In addition, he was a member of a world-record-holding 4 × 100-metre team (1920–24)....
  • Paddock, Charlie (American athlete)
    American sprinter, world-record holder for the 100-metre dash (1921–30) and the 200-metre dash (1921–26). He also held the world record for the 100-yard dash (1921, 1924–26) and the 220-yard dash (1921–26). In addition, he was a member of a world-record-holding 4 × 100-metre team (1920–24)....
  • paddock dredging (mining)
    ...particular, bucket-ladder dredging, which is characterized by a continuous chain of buckets that rotate around a rigid adjustable frame called the ladder, is used worldwide. A later method known as paddock dredging allows placer deposits to be mined even when they are not adjacent to a river. In this method the dredge floats in its own pond, which is continuously extended by digging at one end....
  • paddy (agriculture)
    small, level, flooded field used to cultivate rice in southern and eastern Asia. Wet-rice cultivation is the most prevalent method of farming in the Far East, where it utilizes a small fraction of the total land yet feeds the majority of the rural population. Rice was domesticated as early as 3500 bc, and by about 2,000 years ago it was grown in almost all of the present-day cultivat...
  • Paddy’s Milestone (island, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    granite islet, South Ayrshire council area, Scotland, at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde and 10 miles (16 km) off the coast of South Ayrshire, to which it belongs. It is nicknamed “Paddy’s Milestone” for its location halfway between Glasgow and Belfast (Northern Ireland). The name Ailsa Craig is thought to derive from Gaelic words meaning ...
  • pademelon (marsupial)
    The two species of hare wallabies (Lagorchestes) are small animals that have the movements and some of the habits of hares. Often called pademelons, the three species of scrub wallabies (Thylogale) of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Tasmania are small and stocky, with short hind limbs and pointy noses. They are hunted for meat and fur. A similar species is the......
  • Paderborn (Germany)
    city, North Rhine–Westphalia Land (state), central Germany. It lies on the Pader River, a small affluent of the Lippe formed from rain seepage on the slope of the Egge Mountains (Eggegebirge) and emerging from below the cathedral in about 200 springs, about 60 miles (100 km) east-northeast of ...
  • Paderewski, Ignacy Jan (composer and prime minister of Poland)
    Polish pianist, composer, and statesman, who was prime minister of Poland in 1919....
  • Padilla, Heberto (Cuban poet)
    controversial poet who came to international attention for a political scandal in revolutionary Cuba that is known as the “Padilla affair.”...
  • Padilla, José (New Granada general)
    ...and castas to positions of prominence. Service in the wars was particularly useful in this regard. Men such as the mulattoes Manuel Piar in Venezuela and José Padilla in New Granada rose to the rank of general and admiral, respectively, in Bolívar’s forces. In practice, however, the old hierarchies did not fall so easily and continued...
  • Padilla, Juan (Spanish missionary)
    first Christian missionary martyred within the territory of the present United States....
  • Padilla, Juan de (Spanish military leader)
    aristocratic Spanish military leader of the Castilian Comunidades (Comuneros) in their unsuccessful revolt (1520–21) against the government of the Habsburg emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain)....
  • Padjelanta National Park (park, Sweden)
    park in Norrbotten län (county), northwestern Sweden, adjoining Norway (west) and Sarek National Park (east). It is the largest of the Swedish national parks and one of the largest parks in Europe, with an area of 776 square miles (2,010 square km). It was established in 1962. Padjelanta National Park contains several lakes, the largest of which are Virihaure, Vast...
  • padlock (lock)
    ...the rings are turned so that a particular word or number is formed, the spindle can be drawn out because slots inside the rings all fall in line. Originally, these letter locks were used only for padlocks and trick boxes. In the last half of the 19th century, as developed for safes and strong-room doors, they proved to be the most secure form of closure. The number of possible combinations of.....
  • Padlock Law (Spanish history)
    Spanish statesman and prime minister whose anticlerical “Padlock Law” forbade the establishment of new religious orders and introduced obligatory military service....
  • Padmā (Hindu mythology)
    ...The wife of Vishnu, she is said to have taken different forms in order to be with him in each of his incarnations. Thus when he was the dwarf Vāmana, she appeared from a lotus and was known as Padmā, or Kamalā; when he was the ax-wielding Paraśurāma, the destroyer of the warrior caste, she was his wife Dharaṇī; when he was King Rāma, she w...
  • Padma ’Byung-Gnas (Buddhist mystic)
    legendary Indian Buddhist mystic who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet and who is credited with establishing the first Buddhist monastery there....
  • Padma River (river, Asia)
    main channel of the greater Ganges (Ganga) River in Bangladesh. For some 90 miles (145 km) the Ganges River forms the western boundary between India and Bangladesh before it enters Bangladesh at the northern edge of the Kushtia district as the upper segment of the Padma River. The upper Padma flows southeastward to receive the mighty Jamuna ...
  • Padmanabhapuram Palace (palace, India)
    ...repairing, and the manufacture of rubber goods. The city has several colleges affiliated with Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli. About 9 miles (14 km) west is the tourist centre of Padmanābhapuram Palace, which was formerly the residence of the Travancore raja. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 189,482....
  • Padmapāda (Indian philosopher)
    ...the author of Vārttika (“Gloss”) on his bhāṣya and of Naiṣkarmya-siddhi (“Establishment of the State of Non-Action”), and Padmapāda, author of Pañcapādika, a commentary on the first five pādas, or sections, of the bhāṣya. These early pupils raised and settl...
  • Padmasambhava (Buddhist mystic)
    legendary Indian Buddhist mystic who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet and who is credited with establishing the first Buddhist monastery there....
  • padmasana (yoga practice)
    ...his body (the antithesis of its normal dispersed state, that of infinite mobility). As many as 32 or more different asanas have been enumerated, of which perhaps the most common is the padmāsana (“lotus posture”)....
  • Padmāvatī (work by Jāyasī)
    ...wrote her famous lyrics both in Hindi and Gujarati; the quality of her poetry, still very popular, is not as high, however, as that of Sūrdās. Significant also is the religious epic Padmāvatī by Jāyasī, a Muslim from former Oudh state. Written in Awadhi (c. 1540), the epic is composed according to the conventions of Sanskrit poetics....
  • Padmini (Indian actress)
    Indian film actress (b. June 12, 1932, Poojappura, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state, British India—d. Sept. 24, 2006, Chennai [Madras], India), entranced audiences with her beauty and graceful dance moves in more than 250 films. The multilingual Padmini spoke her own dialogue in Hindi-language Bollywood films, as well as southern India cinema in the Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu lan...
  • Padova (Italy)
    city, Veneto region, northern Italy, on the River Bacchiglione, west of Venice. The Roman Patavium, founded, according to legend, by the Trojan hero Antenor, it was first mentioned in 302 bc, according to the Roman historian Livy, who was born there (59 bc). The town prospered greatly and, in the 11th–13th century, was a leading Italian commune...
  • Padova, Università Degli Studi di (university, Padua, Italy)
    autonomous coeducational state institution of higher learning in Padua, Italy. The university was founded in 1222 by a secession of about a thousand students from the University of Bologna, reinforced by additional migrations from Bologna in 1306 and 1322. Like Bologna, it was a student-controlled university, with students electing the professors and fixing their salaries. In 1228 a number of stud...
  • Pádraic Henry Pearse (Irish poet and statesman)
    leader of Irish nationalism and Irish poet and educator. He was the first president of the provisional government of the Irish Republic proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, and was commander in chief of the Irish forces in the anti-British uprising that began on the same day....
  • padrao (Portuguese stone pillar)
    ...named the “Berrio”; and a 200-ton storeship. With da Gama’s fleet went three interpreters—two Arabic speakers and one who spoke several Bantu dialects. The fleet also carried padrões (stone pillars) to set up as marks of discovery....
  • Padre Isla, El (Spanish author)
    Spanish satirist and preacher noted for his novel known as Fray Gerundio....
  • Padre Island (island, Texas, United States)
    barrier island, 113 miles (182 km) long and up to 3 miles (5 km) wide, lying in the Gulf of Mexico along the southeastern coast of Texas, U.S. It extends south from Corpus Christi to Port Isabel, just north of the Mexican border, and is separated from the mainland by Laguna Madre (part of the Intracoastal Waterway...
  • Padre Martini (Italian composer)
    Italian composer, music theorist, and music historian who was internationally renowned as a teacher....
  • Padre Padrone (film by Taviani brothers)
    ...sovversivi (1967; The Subversives) mixes documentary footage with a fictional story about the death of a leader and the end of an era for the Italian Left. Their first major success, Padre Padrone (1977; “Father Master”), is based on the life of an Italian linguist who in his youth was an illiterate shepherd. In the later La notte di San Lorenzo (1982;....
  • Padres (American baseball team)
    In 1969 new franchises were awarded to Montreal (the Expos, the first major league franchise outside the United States) and San Diego, California (the Padres), bringing the National League to 12 teams. In the American League in 1969, new franchises in Kansas City, Missouri (the Royals), and Seattle, Washington (the Pilots), brought that league to 12 teams, and both leagues were divided into......
  • Padri (Islamic sect)
    (1821–37), armed conflict in Minangkabau (Sumatra) between reformist Muslims, known as Padris, and local chieftains assisted by the Dutch. In the early 19th century the puritan Wahhābīyah sect of Islām spread to Sumatra, brought by pilgrims who entered the island through Pedir, a northern port. The Padris, as these Sumatran converts to Wahhābīyah came to ...
  • Padri War (Southeast Asian history)
    (1821–37), armed conflict in Minangkabau (Sumatra) between reformist Muslims, known as Padris, and local chieftains assisted by the Dutch. In the early 19th century the puritan Wahhābīyah sect of Islām spread to Sumatra, brought by pilgrims who entered the island through Pedir, a northern port. The Padris, as these Sumatran converts to Wahhābīyah came to ...
  • padrona, La (work by Betti)
    His first play, La padrona (first performed 1927; “The Landlady”), drew mixed reactions, but later successful plays include Frana allo scalo Nord (first performed 1933; Eng. trans., Landslide, 1964), the story of a natural disaster and collective guilt; Delitto all’Isola delle Capre (first performed 1950; Eng. trans., Crime on......
  • Padua (Italy)
    city, Veneto region, northern Italy, on the River Bacchiglione, west of Venice. The Roman Patavium, founded, according to legend, by the Trojan hero Antenor, it was first mentioned in 302 bc, according to the Roman historian Livy, who was born there (59 bc). The town prospered greatly and, in the 11th–13th century, was a leading Italian commune...
  • Padua, University of (university, Padua, Italy)
    autonomous coeducational state institution of higher learning in Padua, Italy. The university was founded in 1222 by a secession of about a thousand students from the University of Bologna, reinforced by additional migrations from Bologna in 1306 and 1322. Like Bologna, it was a student-controlled university, with students electing the professors and fixing their salaries. In 1228 a number of stud...
  • Paduan school (painting)
    early Renaissance painter who founded the Paduan school....
  • Paducah (Kentucky, United States)
    city, seat of McCracken county, southwestern Kentucky, U.S., at the confluence of the Ohio (there bridged to Brookport, Illinois) and Tennessee rivers. The site, known as Pekin, was part of a grant to soldier and frontiersman George Rogers Clark. At his death his brother William, who was coleader of the ...
  • Padus (river, Italy)
    longest river in Italy, rising in the Monte Viso group of the Cottian Alps on Italy’s western frontier and emptying into the Adriatic Sea in the east after a course of 405 miles (652 km). Its drainage basin covers 27,062 square miles (70,091 square km), forming Italy’s widest and most fertile plain....
  • Padzi (people)
    ...Solor, Adonara, Lomblen, and eastern Flores. The Solorese speak three Malayo-Polynesian dialects in the Ambon-Timor language group. They are divided into two opposing groups, the Demon and the Padzi, who have different political and religious beliefs....
  • paean (lyric)
    solemn choral lyric of invocation, joy, or triumph, originating in ancient Greece, where it was addressed to Apollo in his guise as Paean, physician to the gods. In the Mycenaean Linear B tablets from the late 2nd millennium bc, the word pa-ja-wo-ne is used as a name for a healer god. This god’s name...
  • paecottah (irrigation device)
    hand-operated device for lifting water, invented in ancient times and still used in India, Egypt, and some other countries to irrigate land. Typically it consists of a long, tapering, nearly horizontal pole mounted like a seesaw. A skin or bucket is hung on a rope from the long end, and a counterweight is hung on the short end. The operator pulls down on a rope attached to the long end to fill the...
  • paedodontics (dentistry)
    dental specialty that deals with the care of children’s teeth. The pedodontist is extensively concerned with prevention, which includes instruction in proper diet, use of fluoride, and practice of oral hygiene. The pedodontist’s routine practice deals basically with caries (tooth decay) but includes influencing tooth alignment. Lengthy treatment may be required to correct incipient a...
  • paedogenesis (zoology)
    reproduction by sexually mature larvae, usually without fertilization. The young may be eggs, such as are produced by Miastor, a genus of gall midge flies, or other larval forms, as in the case of some flukes. This form of reproduction is distinct from neotenic reproduction in its parthenogenetic nature (i.e., no fertilization occurs) and the eventual maturation or metamorphosis of t...
  • paedomorphosis (biology)
    retention by an organism of juvenile or even larval traits into later life. There are two aspects of paedomorphosis: acceleration of sexual maturation relative to the rest of development (progenesis) and retardation of bodily development with respect to the onset of reproductive activity (neoteny)....
  • paedophilia (sexual behaviour)
    psychosexual disorder in which an adult’s arousal and sexual gratification occur primarily through sexual contact with prepubescent children. The typical pedophile is unable to find satisfaction in an adult sexual relationship and may have low self-esteem, seeing sexual activity with a child as less threatening than that with an adult. Most pedophiles are men; the conditi...
  • Paekche (ancient kingdom, Korea)
    one of three kingdoms into which ancient Korea was divided before 660. Occupying the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula, Paekche is traditionally said to have been founded in 18 bc in the Kwangju area by a legendary leader named Onjo. By the 3rd century ad, during the reign of King Koi (234–286), Paekche emerged as a fully developed kingdom. By the reign o...
  • Paektu, Mount (mountain, North Korea)
    ...most of the country. The Kaema Highlands in the northeast have an average elevation of 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) above sea level and form the topographic roof of the entire Korean peninsula. Mount Paektu (9,022 feet [2,750 metres]; see photograph), the highest mountain in North Korea and on the peninsula, rises at the northern edge of this plateau; it is an extinct volcano topped by a......
  • Paeligni (people)
    ancient people of central Italy, whose territory lay inland on the eastward slopes of the Apennines. Though akin to the Samnites, they formed a separate league with their neighbours the Marsi, Marrucini, and Vestini. This league appears to have broken up after the Second Samnite War (304 bc), when each tribe came into an alliance with the Romans that lasted until the Social ...
  • paella (food)
    in Spanish cuisine, a dish of saffron-flavoured rice cooked with meats, seafood, and vegetables. Originating in the rice-growing areas on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, the dish is especially associated with the region of Valencia. Paella takes its name from the paellera, the utensil in which it is cooked, a flat round pan with two handles; paella is traditionally eaten from the pan....
  • paellera (utensil)
    ...meats, seafood, and vegetables. Originating in the rice-growing areas on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, the dish is especially associated with the region of Valencia. Paella takes its name from the paellera, the utensil in which it is cooked, a flat round pan with two handles; paella is traditionally eaten from the pan....
  • Paengnoktam (work by Chŏng Chiyong)
    The first truly successful poet of modern Korea was Chŏng Chiyong, who was influenced by William Blake and Walt Whitman. Paengnoktam (1941; “White Deer Lake”), his second book of poetry, symbolically represents the progress of the spirit to lucidity and the fusion of man and nature. A poetry of resistance, voicing sorrow for the ruined nation with defiance but without.....
  • paenula (liturgical vestment)
    The distinctive garb of the liturgical celebrant is the chasuble, a vestment that goes back to the Roman paenula. The paenula also was the Orthodox equivalent of the chasuble, the phelonion, and perhaps also the cope (a long mantle-like vestment). In its primitive form the paenula was a cone-shaped dress with an opening at the apex to admit the head. Because ancient......
  • Paeonia (plant)
    any of the flowering plants in the genus Paeonia (family Paeoniaceae) known for their large, showy blossoms. All but two species are native to Europe and Asia; P. browni and P. californica are found along the Pacific coastal mountains of North America....
  • Paeonia (historical region)
    the land of the Paeonians, originally including the whole Axius (Vardar) River valley and the surrounding areas, in what is now northern Greece, Macedonia, and western Bulgaria. The Paeonians, who were probably of mixed Thraco-Illyrian origin, were weakened by the Persian invasion (490 bc), and those tribes living along the Strymon River (in western Bulgaria) fell under Thracian con...
  • Paeonia lactiflora (plant)
    ...leaves borne on annual stems produced by fleshy rootstocks. In late spring and early summer they produce large single and double flowers of white, pink, rose, and deep-crimson colour. The fragrant Chinese P. lactiflora and the European common peony (P. officinalis) have given rise to most of the familiar garden peonies. P. lactiflora has provided hundreds of cultivated......
  • Paeonia officinalis (plant)
    ...by fleshy rootstocks. In late spring and early summer they produce large single and double flowers of white, pink, rose, and deep-crimson colour. The fragrant Chinese P. lactiflora and the European common peony (P. officinalis) have given rise to most of the familiar garden peonies. P. lactiflora has provided hundreds of cultivated varieties, including the Japanese types,.....
  • Paeonia suffruticosa (plant)
    ...by fleshy rootstocks. In late spring and early summer they produce large single and double flowers of white, pink, rose, and deep-crimson colour. The fragrant Chinese P. lactiflora and the European common peony (P. officinalis) have given rise to most of the familiar garden peonies. P. lactiflora has provided hundreds of cultivated varieties, including the Japanese types,.....
  • Paeoniaceae (plant family)
    the peony family of the order Dilleniales, consisting of the genus Paeonia with about 33 species distributed in Europe, Asia, and western North America. They are perennial herbs or sometimes shrubby plants up to about 2 m (6 feet) tall that grow from stout rootstocks. The leaves are alternately produced along the stems and are divided into three lobes, each lobe being further divided into ...
  • Paeonian (ancient people)
    the land of the Paeonians, originally including the whole Axius (Vardar) River valley and the surrounding areas, in what is now northern Greece, Macedonia, and western Bulgaria. The Paeonians, who were probably of mixed Thraco-Illyrian origin, were weakened by the Persian invasion (490 bc), and those tribes living along the Strymon River (in western Bulgaria) fell under Thracian con...
  • Paeonius (Greek sculptor)
    Greek sculptor, native of Mende in Thrace, a contemporary of the sculptors Phidias and Polyclitus....
  • Paer, Ferdinando (Italian composer)
    Italian composer who, with Domenico Cimarosa and Nicola Antonio Zingarelli, was one of the principal composers of opera buffa of his period....
  • Paeroa (New Zealand)
    borough, northern North Island, New Zealand, situated along the Ohinemuri River near its junction with the Waihou. Paeroa (from a Maori word meaning “long ridge”) was founded in the early 1880s as a port for the Ohinemuri goldfield, 5 mi (8 km) southeast. Mining was shifted to the underground Komata Reefs (6 mi northeast) from 1891 to the 1930s. Gazetted a borough ...
  • “Paesi tuoi” (work by Pavese)
    ...The Comrade, 1959). His first volume of lyric poetry, Lavorare stanca (1936; Hard Labor, 1976), followed his release from prison. An initial novella, Paesi tuoi (1941; The Harvesters, 1961), recalled, as many of his works do, the sacred places of childhood. Between 1943 and 1945 he lived with partisans of the anti-Fascist Resistance in the hills of Piedmont....
  • Paesiello, Giovanni (Italian composer)
    Neapolitan composer of operas admired for their robust realism and dramatic power....
  • Paestum (ancient city, Italy)
    ancient city in southern Italy near the west coast, 22 miles (35 km) southeast of modern Salerno and 5 miles (8 km) south of the Sele (ancient Silarus) River. Paestum is noted for its splendidly preserved Greek temples....
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