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  • Quinn, Geoffrey Anthony (British entertainment mogul)
    British entertainment mogul who opened (1958) the U.K.’s first private striptease club, the Raymond Revuebar, in London’s Soho district, making it and himself mainstays of the swinging London scene of the 1960s. He expanded his empire to other strip clubs and shows and soft-core pornography magazines, including Men Only, Club International, and Mayfair. In 1968 h...
  • quinnat (fish)
    (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) prized North Pacific food and sport fish of the family Salmonidae. It weighs up to 60 kg (130 pounds) and is silvery with round black spots. Spawning runs occur in spring, adults swimming as far as 3,200 km (2,000 miles) up the Yukon. Young chinook salmon do not enter the sea until they are one to three years old. The chinook salmon was introduced into Lake Michig...
  • Quinney, Richard (American philosopher and criminologist)
    American philosopher and criminologist known for his critical philosophical approach to criminal justice research. Quinney followed a Marxist approach in citing social inequities as the root of crime. Criminal behaviour, he asserted, is a natural occurrence in a society that favours the wealthy over the poor and the powerful over the weak....
  • quinoa (plant)
    ...Wild camelids were hunted as early as 10,000 bp; by 7500–6000 bp  llama and alpaca remains are so common in archaeological sites that they had probably been domesticated as well. Quinoa was harvested by 7500 bp and cotton by 6000 bp in northern Peru....
  • quinoline (chemical compound)
    any of a class of organic compounds of the aromatic heterocyclic series characterized by a double-ring structure composed of a benzene and a pyridine ring fused at two adjacent carbon atoms. The benzene ring contains six carbon atoms, while the pyridine ring contains five carbon atoms and a nitrogen atom. The simplest member of the quinoline family is quinoline itself, a compound with molecular s...
  • quinolone (drug)
    ...drugs are the cephalosporins. Related to penicillins, they are produced by the mold Cephalosporium acremonium. A class of antibodies first developed in the 1960s, called quinolones, interrupt the replication of DNA (a crucial step in bacterial reproduction) and have proved useful in treating urinary-tract infections, infectious diarrhea, and various other infections...
  • quinone (chemical compound)
    any member of a class of cyclic organic compounds containing two carbonyl groups, > C = O, either adjacent or separated by a vinylene group, −CH = CH−, in a six-membered unsaturated ring. In a few quinones, the carbonyl groups are located in different rings. The term quinone also denotes the specific compound para- (p-)benzoquinone (C6H...
  • Quinque compilationes antiquae (canon law)
    ...of papal decisions mounted. New papal laws and decisions, called decretals, first added to Gratian’s Decretum, were soon gathered into separate collections, of which the best known are the Quinque compilationes antiquae (“Five Ancient Compilations”). The first, the Breviarium extravagantium (“Compendium of Decretals Circulating Outside”; i...
  • Quinque Ecclesiae (Hungary)
    (“Five Churches”), city of county status and seat of Baranya megye (county), southwestern Hungary. It lies at the southern foot of the wooded Mecsek Mountains, 135 mi (220 km) south-southwest of Budapest. The site was occupied by the Roman town of Sopianae, the capital of the province of Southern Pannonia, which succeed...
  • Quinsai (China)
    city and capital of Zhejiang sheng (province), China. The city is located in the northern part of the province on the north bank of the Qiantang River estuary at the head of Hangzhou Bay. It has water communications with the interior of Zhejiang to the south, is the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, and is linked to ...
  • Quinsay (China)
    city and capital of Zhejiang sheng (province), China. The city is located in the northern part of the province on the north bank of the Qiantang River estuary at the head of Hangzhou Bay. It has water communications with the interior of Zhejiang to the south, is the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, and is linked to ...
  • quinsy (medicine)
    ...sinuses, and ears or downward into the larynx, trachea, and bronchi. Locally, virulent bacteria may spread from the infected tonsil to the adjoining tissues, resulting in a peritonsillar abscess. More serious are two distant complications—acute nephritis (kidney inflammation) and acute rheumatic fever, with or without heart involvement. Repeated acute infections may cause chronic......
  • Quintana, Manuel (president of Argentina)
    ...National Autonomist Party suffered because of the split. In 1904 Roca was barely able to avoid being succeeded in office by Pellegrini; moreover, the candidate Roca finally put into the presidency, Manuel Quintana, was not one of Roca’s staunchest supporters. Quintana was forced to quell a radical revolution in 1905, and he died the following year. His death opened the way to the preside...
  • Quintana, Manuel José (Spanish poet)
    Spanish patriot and Neoclassical poet, esteemed by his countrymen for poems, pamphlets, and proclamations written during the War of Independence from Napoleon. Although he was once regarded as a great poet, Quintana’s reputation has since steadily declined....
  • Quintana Roo (state, Mexico)
    estado (state), southeastern Mexico, on the eastern side of the Yucatán Peninsula. Its northern shore is on the Yucatán Channel, a passage between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea; it is also bounded by the Caribbean to the east, by B...
  • Quintanilla Perez, Selena (American singer)
    (SELENA QUINTANILLA PEREZ), U.S.-born Hispanic singer (b. April 16, 1971, Lake Jackson, Texas--d. March 31, 1995, Corpus Christi, Texas), was dubbed the Latin Madonna and was poised to achieve crossover success with the release of her first English-language album before being murdered, apparently by the founder of her fan club, who was suspected of embezzlement. Selena, who had performed from the ...
  • Quinte, Bay of (bay, Ontario, Canada)
    arm of Lake Ontario, southeastern Ontario, Canada, extending for 75 miles (121 km) from its entrance near Amherst Island to Murray Canal at the western end. It is a narrow bay, ranging from one to six miles in width. The bay is scenic, having many small inlets; and it receives several rivers from the north, including the Trent, Moira, Salmon, and Napanee. The head of the bay con...
  • Quintero, Joaquín Álvarez (Spanish writer)
    Spanish brothers who collaborated in almost 200 dramas depicting the life, manners, and speech of Andalusia. Serafín Álvarez Quintero (b. March 26, 1871Utrera, Sevilla, Spain—d. April 12, 1938Madrid) and......
  • Quintero, José (American theatrical director)
    theatrical director and cofounder of Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the theatre whose productions sparked the growth of off Broadway into a nationally important theatre movement. Quintero’s stagings of the plays of Eugene O’Neill brought about a worldwide rebirth of interest in O’Neill’s wo...
  • Quintero, José Benjamin (American theatrical director)
    theatrical director and cofounder of Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the theatre whose productions sparked the growth of off Broadway into a nationally important theatre movement. Quintero’s stagings of the plays of Eugene O’Neill brought about a worldwide rebirth of interest in O’Neill’s wo...
  • Quintero, Serafín Álvarez (Spanish writer)
    Spanish brothers who collaborated in almost 200 dramas depicting the life, manners, and speech of Andalusia. Serafín Álvarez Quintero (b. March 26, 1871Utrera, Sevilla, Spain—d. April 12, 1938Madrid) and......
  • quintet (music)
    a musical composition for five instruments or voices; also, a group of five musicians performing such a composition....
  • Quintet for Piano and Strings (work by Bloch)
    ...liturgy. Many of Bloch’s works show a strong neoclassical trend, combining musical forms of the past with 20th-century techniques. Examples include his Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1925) and his Quintet for piano and strings (1923), which utilizes quarter tones to colour and heighten the emotional intensity of the music. His other notable works include an “epic rhapsody...
  • quintic equation (mathematics)
    ...in their own right and studying permutations (a change in an ordered arrangement) of them. In 1799 the Italian mathematician Paolo Ruffini attempted to prove the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation by radicals. Ruffini’s effort was not wholly successful, but in 1824 the Norwegian mathematician Niels Abel gave a correct proof....
  • Quintilian (Roman rhetorician)
    Latin teacher and writer whose work on rhetoric, Institutio oratoria, is a major contribution to educational theory and literary criticism....
  • Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius (Roman rhetorician)
    Latin teacher and writer whose work on rhetoric, Institutio oratoria, is a major contribution to educational theory and literary criticism....
  • Quintilis (month)
    seventh month of the Gregorian calendar. It was named after Julius Caesar in 44 bce. Its original name was Quintilis, Latin for the “fifth month,” indicating its position in the early Roman calendar....
  • Quintillus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor in ad 270, who died or was killed a few weeks after being proclaimed emperor....
  • quinto real (Spanish tax)
    (Spanish: “royal fifth”), in colonial Spanish America, a tax levied by the crown on mineral products; it was the principal source of profit derived by Spain from its colonies. The percentage was fixed at one-fifth in 1504, to be paid for 10 years, but the rate remained at generally that level until the 18th century. In 1723 the quinto was almost uniformly reduced to the di...
  • Quintodecimans (Christian history)
    ...later exacerbated by another difficulty caused by the Jewish reckoning of a day from sunset to sunset. The question arose of how the evening of the 14th day should be calculated, and some—the Quintodecimans—claimed that it meant one particular evening, but others—the Quartodecimans—claimed that it meant the evening before, since sunset heralded a new day. Both sides ...
  • Quinton, Amelia Stone (American social reformer)
    organizer of American Indian reform in the United States....
  • Quintuple Alliance (European history)
    ...of their armies of occupation by November 30. This offer was accepted. On October 9 a treaty was signed settling the claims against France as a result of the wars. France was admitted to the new Quintuple Alliance as an equal. Although the old Quadruple Alliance of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia was secretly renewed in a protocol signed on November 15, this renewal was largely a......
  • quintuplet (biology)
    ...developed as a singleton (the three constituting DZ triplets); or from three separate zygotes (trizygotic, or TZ, triplets). Similarly, quadruplets may originate from one up to four zygotes, and quintuplets may derive from one to five zygotes. After being carefully studied, the Canadian Dionne quintuplets (born in 1934) were shown to be a one-zygote set....
  • Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus (Roman author)
    wealthy but nonpolitical Roman, famous for his correspondence with the important Roman statesman and writer Cicero....
  • Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (Christian theologian)
    important early Christian theologian, polemicist, and moralist who, as the initiator of ecclesiastical Latin, was instrumental in shaping the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity....
  • Quintus Servinton (novel by Savery)
    ...in early Australia. Artists were active; drama and music developed in all towns. At the same time, a distinctive Australian literature began to develop. The first Australian novel, Quintus Servinton (1830–31), was written by a convict, Henry Savery; Henry Kingsley’s Geoffrey Hamlyn (1859) is often judged the first major Australian ...
  • Quintus Smyrnaeus (Greek poet)
    Greek epic poet, the author of a hexameter poem in 14 books, narrating events at Troy from the funeral of Hector to the departure of the Achaeans after sacking the city (and hence called Ta met’ Homeron or Posthomerica)....
  • “Quinze ans de ma vie” (work by Fuller)
    In 1908 Fuller published a memoir, Quinze ans de ma vie, to which writer and critic Anatole France contributed an introduction; it was published in English translation as Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life in 1913. After World War I she danced infrequently, but from her school in Paris she sent out touring dance companies to all parts of Europe. In 1926 she last visited the Unit...
  • Quionga (Mozambique)
    village, Cabo (Cape) Delgado province, extreme northeastern Mozambique, East Africa, just south of the Rio Rovuma. In 1886 Germany and Portugal had agreed on the Rovuma as the boundary between then German East Africa (now Tanzania) and Portuguese Mozambique, but the Germans later claimed (1892) that Portugal had no rights north of Cabo Delgado, approximately 2...
  • quipo (Incan counting tool)
    an Incan accounting apparatus consisting of a long rope from which hung 48 secondary cords and various tertiary cords attached to the secondary ones. Knots were made in the cords to represent units, tens, and hundreds; and, in imperial accounting, the cords were differently coloured to designate the different concerns of government—such as tribute, lands, economic productivity, ceremonies, ...
  • quipu (Incan counting tool)
    an Incan accounting apparatus consisting of a long rope from which hung 48 secondary cords and various tertiary cords attached to the secondary ones. Knots were made in the cords to represent units, tens, and hundreds; and, in imperial accounting, the cords were differently coloured to designate the different concerns of government—such as tribute, lands, economic productivity, ceremonies, ...
  • Quirauk Mountain (mountain, Maryland, United States)
    northernmost section of the Blue Ridge in the Appalachian Mountains, extending southwestward for 65 miles (105 km) from southern Pennsylvania to northern Virginia, U.S. Quirauk Mountain (2,145 feet [654 m]) in Maryland is the highest point. It is crossed by the Appalachian Trail (for hikers). The American Civil War Battle of South Mountain took place near Burkittsville, Md., on Sept. 14,......
  • Quiriguá (archaeological site, Guatemala)
    ...baroque figures of gods, and its stelae and other monuments are carved with an extraordinary virtuosity. Copán also has one of the most perfectly preserved ball courts in Meso-America. Quiriguá is a much smaller site 30 miles north of Copán. While its architectural remains are on a minor scale, it is noted for its gigantic stelae and altars carved from sandstone....
  • Quirinal (hill, Rome, Italy)
    Like much of the Esquiline, the Viminal and Quirinal lie in the heart of modern Rome. Heavily built upon and sclerotic with traffic, the former seems almost flattened under the Ministry of the Interior, the weighty department that directs the state’s police forces. The Quirinal, pierced by a modern traffic tunnel, has been a distinguished address since Pomponius Atticus, recipient of Cicero...
  • Quirinal Palace (palace, Rome, Italy)
    Gregory’s building program, including the Quirinal Palace in Rome, along with his political ventures, together exhausted the papal treasury, causing serious repercussions in the Papal States....
  • Quirinale, Piazza (square, Rome, Italy)
    ...Roman families built their homes in this location. The Palazzo Colonna, at the foot of the hill near the Corso, is an art gallery open to the public; and its gardens, climbing the slope to the Piazza Quirinale, contain remnants of Caracalla’s Temple of Sarapis. The piazza has been graced since antiquity with two large statues of men with rearing horses, “The Horsetamers” or...
  • Quirino, Elpidio (president of Philippines)
    political leader and second president of the independent Republic of the Philippines....
  • Quirinus (Roman god)
    major Roman deity ranking close to Jupiter and Mars; the flamines (see flamen) of these gods constituted the three major priests at Rome. Quirinus’ name is in adjectival form and would seem to mean “he of the quirium,” a word generally taken to signify the very ancient Sabine settlement that united ...
  • Quiris (Roman law)
    a Roman citizen. In ancient Roman law it was the name by which a Roman called himself in a civil capacity, in contrast to the name Romanus, used in reference to his political and military capacity. The jus Quiritium in Roman law denoted the full body of rights for Roman citizenship....
  • Quiroga, Elena (Spanish author)
    ...books and received the prestigious Cervantes Prize in 1993. El hereje (1998; The Heretic), perhaps his masterpiece, depicts the abuse of power by the Spanish Inquisition. Elena Quiroga, a conscientious stylist, experimented with varying forms and themes, employing a dead protagonist in Algo pasa en la calle (1954; “Something’s Happening in th...
  • Quiroga, Horacio (Uruguayan writer)
    Uruguayan-born short-story writer whose imaginative portrayal of the struggle of man and animal to survive in the tropical jungle earned him recognition as a master of the short story. He also excelled in depicting mental illness and hallucinatory states, in stories that anticipate those of later 20-century masters such as the American writer William Faulkner....
  • Quiroga, Juan Facundo (Argentine politician)
    ...the porteño (native of Buenos Aires) Bernardino Rivadavia as its first occupant. Civil war flared up in the interior provinces, soon dominated by Juan Facundo Quiroga—a caudillo from La Rioja who opposed centralization. When the assembly finally drafted a national constitution, the major portion of the country rejected it....
  • Quiroga, Vasco de (Mexican religious educator)
    Spanish bishop, social reformer, and humanist educator who founded the Colegio de San Nicolás Obisbo in colonial Mexico....
  • Quirós, Pedro Fernández de (Portuguese explorer)
    ...group in northern Vanuatu, southwestern Pacific Ocean. The group includes the islands of Vanua Lava, Santa Maria (Gaua), Mota, and Mota Lava, as well as numerous islets. The Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós was the first European visitor, in 1606; the islands were mapped in 1793 by Capt. William Bligh of the British navy and were named by him for his patron, the......
  • Quiscalus quiscula (bird)
    The common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) of North America is about 30 cm (12 inches) long. In the great-tailed and boat-tailed grackles (Cassidix mexicanus and C. major), the male has a long, deeply keeled tail: his total length may be 43 cm. These species are found in arid lands of the southwestern United States to Peru and in salt......
  • Quisenberry, Daniel Raymond (American baseball player)
    American baseball player who was known for his wit in addition to his submarine-style pitches as a star reliever for the Kansas City Royals; during his 12-year American League career, most of it with the Royals, he had 244 saves, was a five-time AL saves leader, and helped the Royals win two AL pennants and a World Series title (b. Feb. 7, 1953, Santa Monica, Calif.--d. Sept. 30, 1998, Leawood, Ka...
  • Quisling, Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonsson (Norwegian politician)
    Norwegian army officer whose collaboration with the Germans in their occupation of Norway during World War II established his name as a synonym for “traitor.”...
  • Quisqualis (plant genus)
    ...bear opposite, simple, and entire leaves, but there is considerable variation in leaf arrangement between families and within species or even individuals. For example, within a single genus, Quisqualis (family Combretaceae), alternate leaves are borne on the stem, and opposite leaves are borne on the flowering shoots. In Eucalyptus, young branches have opposite leaves, whereas......
  • Quisqueya (island, West Indies)
    second largest island of the West Indies, lying within the Greater Antilles. It is divided politically into the Republic of Haiti (west) and the Dominican Republic (east). The island’s area is 29,418 square miles (76,192 square km); its greatest length is nearly 400 miles (650 km), and its width is 150 miles (241 km). Christopher Columbus...
  • Quisquis (Inca general)
    Atahuallpa’s armies, led by the able generals Quisquis (Kizkiz) and Challcuchima (Challku-chima), marched south and won a series of decisive victories at Cajamarca, Bombon, and Ayacucho. As they moved southward, Huascar formed another army to defend Cuzco from the invaders. His forces were defeated, and he was captured a few miles from Cuzco in April 1532. The generals killed his entire fam...
  • Quit India movement (Indian history)
    ...merely to convey the British offer, not to modify it or negotiate a new formula. He flew home empty-handed in less than a month, and soon afterward Gandhi planned his last satyagraha campaign, the Quit India movement. Declaring that the British presence in India was a provocation to the Japanese, Gandhi called upon the British to “quit India” and to leave Indians to deal with the....
  • Quitapesares (Spanish author)
    Spanish poet, playwright, and novelist who ranks high among the followers of Lope de Vega and displays a gift for creating character. His fantastic satirical novel, El diablo cojuelo (1641; “The Crippled Devil”), became well-known from its adaptation by the French dramatist Alain Lesage as Le Diable boiteux (1707; The Devil upon Two Sticks)....
  • quite (bullfighting)
    ...forceful charges of the horse, the matador assigned to this bull will rush into the ring, attracting the bull’s attention away from the picadors with cape passes called quites (from the Spanish verb “to take away”). Each of the three matadors then capes the bull, competing against one another in a series of passes performed as gracefu...
  • Quito (Ecuador)
    city and capital of Ecuador. It is situated on the lower slopes of the volcano Pichincha, which last erupted in 1666, in a narrow Andean valley at an elevation of 9,350 feet (2,850 metres), just south of the Equator. The oldest of all South American capitals, Quito is notable for its well-preserved old town, which was designated a UNESCO ...
  • quiver (archery)
    ...energy required to draw back an arrow to the fullest—varies from 14 to 23 kg (30 to 50 pounds) for men and from 9 to 18 kg (20 to 40 pounds) for women. The archer usually carries arrows in a quiver, a container hung over the shoulder or slung from the belt. A glove or finger protector shields the fingers used to draw the bowstring back, and a bracer is fitted to the inside forearm of the...
  • Quiz Show (film by Redford)
    ...Lions for Lambs (2007) garnered lukewarm reviews, but Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It (1992), and Quiz Show (1994) are regarded as minor masterpieces. Quiz Show, nominated for best picture, earned Redford a nomination for best director. His directing style is......
  • quiz show (broadcasting)
    broadcast show designed to test the memory, knowledge, agility, or luck of persons selected from studio or broadcast audience or to contrive a competition among these people for merchandise or cash awards. The quiz show first gained popularity on U.S. radio in the 1930s as an audience-participation program. One of its first successes featured a formidable Doctor I.Q. who hurled ...
  • Qujialing culture (anthropology)
    In the middle and lower Yangtze River valley during the 4th and 3rd millennia, the Daxi and Qujialing cultures shared a significant number of traits, including rice production, ring-footed vessels, goblets with sharply angled profiles, ceramic whorls, and black pottery with designs painted in red after firing. Characteristic Qujialing ceramic objects not generally found in Daxi sites include......
  • Qujiang (China)
    city, northern Guangdong sheng (province), southern China. It lies along the Bei River at the point where it is formed by the junction of the Wu River, flowing southeast from the borders of Hunan, and the Zhen River, flowing southwest from the borders of Jiangxi province. Shaoguan th...
  • Qulī Quṭb Shāh (Indian ruler)
    (1518–1687), Muslim rulers of the kingdom of Golconda in the southeastern Deccan of India, one of the five successor states of the Bahmanī kingdom. The founder was Qulī Quṭb Shāh, a Turkish governor of the Bahmanī eastern region, which largely coincided with the preceding Hindu state of Warangal. Quṭb Shāh declared his independence in 1518.....
  • Qulmuhammed-oghli, Abdulhekim (Soviet writer)
    ...Quli (Magtim Guli), it underwent a burst of growth when the literary publications of the new republic began to appear in the late 1920s and ’30s. Outstanding graduates of Bukharan seminaries such as Abdulhekim Qulmuhammed-oghli (d. c. 1937) brought about a renewal of intellectual and cultural life in Soviet Turkmenistan. Qulmuhammed-oghli served in the anti-Soviet Basmachi resista...
  • Qultashan-i dīvān (work by Jamalzadah)
    ...Geneva. Most of Jamalzadah’s writing was done during and after World War II. His satiric novel Dār al-majānīn (1942; “The Madhouse”) was followed by the novel Qultashan-i dīvān (1946; “The Custodian of the Divan”), a scathing attack on contemporary Iranian values and culture. Other important works include R...
  • Qulyndy Zhazyghy (lowland, Asia)
    lowland constituting the extreme southern extension of the West Siberian Plain. Most of the steppe lies in Russia, but its western part extends into Kazakhstan. Roughly triangular in shape, with its point to the south, it covers an area of approximately 39,000 square miles (100,000 square km). With a poor drainage pattern because of low relative relief and meagre rainfall, the steppe has numerous ...
  • Qum (Iran)
    city, north-central Iran. The town lies on both banks of the Rūd-e Qom and beside a salt desert, the Dasht-e Kavīr, 92 miles (147 km) south of Tehrān....
  • qūmā (Arabic poetry form)
    ...qarīḍ and rajaz, were added several that utilized the colloquial form of the Arabic language (the qūmā, for example, and the kān wa kān). But the two additional forms that have occasioned the most interest among sch...
  • Qumrān (region, Middle East)
    region on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, notable since 1947 as the site of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered. Excavations (since 1949) at a site called Khirbet Qumrān (Arabic: “Qumrān Ruins”), less than a mile from the sea and north of the waterway Wadi Qumrān, have revealed the ruins of buil...
  • Qumran community (Jewish sect)
    ...were first discovered. Excavations (since 1949) at a site called Khirbet Qumrān (Arabic: “Qumrān Ruins”), less than a mile from the sea and north of the waterway Wadi Qumrān, have revealed the ruins of buildings, believed by some scholars to have been occupied by a community of Essenes, who have been posited as the owners of the Scrolls....
  • Qumrān literature
    ancient, mostly Hebrew, manuscripts (of leather, papyrus, and copper) first found in 1947 on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is among the more important finds in the history of modern archaeology. Study of the scrolls has enabled scholars to push back the date of a stabilized Hebrew Bible to no later than ad 70, to help rec...
  • Qunanbaev, Abay (Kazakh writer)
    ...forms to their literature. Poetry remained the primary genre until prose stories, short novels, and drama were introduced in the early 20th century, before the end of the tsarist era in 1917. Abay Ibrahim Kūnanbay-ulï (Kunanbayev) in the late 19th century laid the basis with his verse for the development of the modern Kazakh literary language and its poetry. (Aqmet)......
  • Qunayṭirah, Al- (Syria)
    abandoned town in the UN-monitored demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel. It was an important regional hub and administrative centre in southwestern Syria until 1967, when it was occupied by Israeli military forces. When the Israelis withdrew in 1974, they systematically stripped and destroyed the town. The Syrians decided not to resettle it, preferring to let its ruined state serve as a rem...
  • Qungrat dynasty (Uzbek khanate)
    ...In the 1700s the basins of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya passed under the control of three Uzbek khanates claiming legitimacy in their descent from Genghis Khan. These were, from west to east, the Qungrāts based on Khiva in Khwārezm (1717–1920), the Mangits in Bukhara (1753–1920), and the Mings in Kokand (Qǔqon; c. 1710–1876), in the upper valley o...
  • Quo Tai-chi (Chinese diplomat)
    Chinese official and diplomat who played a major role in determining his country’s foreign policy during the 1930s and ’40s....
  • Quo Vadis? (film)
    ...than 70 films in Rome, London, and Hollywood during a career of nearly 60 years. He was honoured with his first Academy Award nomination for his role as the Roman emperor Nero in Quo Vadis? (1951) and was twice the recipient of best supporting actor Oscars—for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964). Other memorable.....
  • Quo Vadis? (film by Guazzoni)
    ...Bernhardt and was imported by Zukor (who founded the independent Famous Players production company with its profits). In 1912 Enrico Guazzoni’s nine-reel Italian superspectacle Quo Vadis? (“Whither Are You Going?”) was road-shown in legitimate theatres across the country at a top admission price of one dollar, and the feature craze was on....
  • Quo Vadis? (novel by Sienkiewicz)
    Sienkiewicz’s other novels include the widely translated Quo vadis? (1896; Eng. trans. Quo vadis; filmed 1909, 1913, 1951, 2001), a historical novel set in Rome under Nero, which established Sienkiewicz’s international reputation. Although Sienkiewicz’s major novels have been criticized for their theatricality and lack of historical accuracy, they dis...
  • Quo Warranto, statute of (England [1290])
    ...set up under the Statute of Gloucester of 1278 the magnates were asked by what warrant they claimed rights of jurisdiction and other franchises. This created much argument, which was resolved in the Statute of Quo Warranto of 1290. By the Statute of Mortmain of 1279 it was provided that no more land was to be given to the church without royal license. The Statute of Quia Emptores of 1290 had th...
  • quoc ngu (Vietnamese writing system)
    ...set up under the Statute of Gloucester of 1278 the magnates were asked by what warrant they claimed rights of jurisdiction and other franchises. This created much argument, which was resolved in the Statute of Quo Warranto of 1290. By the Statute of Mortmain of 1279 it was provided that no more land was to be given to the church without royal license. The Statute of Quia Emptores of 1290 had th...
  • Quoc-ngu (Vietnamese writing system)
    writing system used for the Vietnamese language. Quoc-ngu was devised in the mid 17th century by Portuguese missionaries who modified the Roman alphabet with accents and signs to suit the particular consonants, vowels, and tones of Vietnamese. It was further modified by a French missionary, Alexandre de Rhodes. At first used only in Vietnamese Christian commun...
  • Quod Nihil Scitur (work by Sanches)
    ...new concern with Skepticism was given a general philosophical formulation by Michel de Montaigne and his cousin Francisco Sanches. Montaigne in Apology for Raimond Sebond and Sanches in Quod nihil scitur, both written in 1576, explored the human epistemological situation and showed that man’s knowledge claims in all areas were extremely dubious. Montaigne recommended living...
  • Quoddy Head State Park (park, Lubec, Maine, United States)
    ...incorporated in 1811. It was named for Lübeck, Germany. Lubec has developed as a commercial centre for a resort and fishing area; sardines and locally farmed salmon are processed there. The Quoddy Head State Park (the easternmost point in the continental United States) has a lighthouse originally built in 1808 (rebuilt 1858). A bridge connects Lubec with Roosevelt Campobello......
  • quodlibet (music)
    musical composition in which several well-known melodies are combined, either simultaneously or, less frequently, sequentially, for humorous effect. Quodlibet can also refer to an amalgamation of different song texts in a vocal composition. While simultaneous combinations of two or more melodies go back to the 13th century (motets using, for example, a chant melody and a secular tune)...
  • quoin (architecture)
    in Western architecture, both the external angle or corner of a building and, more often, one of the stones used to form that angle. These cornerstones are both decorative and structural, since they usually differ in jointing, colour, texture, or size from the masonry of the adjoining walls....
  • Quoirez, Françoise (French author)
    French novelist and dramatist who wrote her first and best-known novel, the international best-seller Bonjour Tristesse (1954), when she was 19 years old....
  • quoits (game)
    game in which players toss rings at a stake, called the hob. A ring that encircles the hob scores two points for the thrower; a ring closer to the hob than an opponent’s scores one. The rings are usually made of iron and weigh about three pounds, but rope or rubber rings are also used. It has been said that the game was played in Roman-occupied Britain (1st–5th century), or it may h...
  • quokka (marsupial)
    marsupial mammal, a species of wallaby....
  • quoll (marsupial)
    any of the catlike Australian marsupials that make up the genus Dasyurus in the family Dasyuridae. All native cats are predators that hunt chiefly at night. Because they sometimes raid poultry yards, native cats have been persecuted and in some regions are extinct. Also contributing to their disappearance have been the destruction of their habitats and the introduction of such placental ma...
  • Quonset Point (Rhode Island, United States)
    ...1686–89 it was called Rochester. In 1722–23 it was divided into North Kingstown and South Kingstown. North Kingstown includes the villages of Allenton, Davisville, Hamilton, Lafayette, Quonset Point, Saunderstown, Slocum, and Wickford (the administrative centre)....
  • Quorra (river, Africa)
    principal river of West Africa. With a length of 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometres), it is the third longest river in Africa, after the Nile and the Congo. The Niger is believed to have been named by the Greeks. Along its course it is known by several names. These include the Joliba (a Malinke word meaning “great river”) in its upper course; the Mayo Balleo and the Isa...
  • quorum sensing (biology)
    ...the individual state or the planktonic state. Bacteria that have aggregated into biofilms can communicate information about population size and metabolic state. This type of communication is called quorum sensing and operates by the production of small molecules called autoinducers or pheromones. The concentration of quorum-sensing molecules—most commonly peptides or acylated homoserine....
  • quota (economics)
    in international trade, government-imposed limit on the quantity, or in exceptional cases the value, of the goods or services that may be exported or imported over a specified period of time. Quotas are more effective in restricting trade than tariffs, particularly if domestic demand for a commodity is not sensitive to increases in price. Because the effects of quotas cannot be...
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