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  • Dansk language
    the official language of Denmark, spoken there by more than five million people. It is also spoken in a few communities south of the German border; it is taught in the schools of the Faroe Islands, of Iceland, and of Greenland. Danish belongs to the East Scandinavian branch of North Germanic languages. It began to separate from the other Scandinavian languages, to which it is closely related, abou...
  • dansk students eventyr, En (work by Møller)
    Møller first read his most famous work, En dansk students eventyr (“The Adventures of a Danish Student”), to the students’ union at Copenhagen in 1824. Originally planned as a historical novel in the manner of Sir Walter Scott, it describes, in its final (though fragmentary) form, student life as experienced by its author. “Blade af dødens......
  • danson-johi (Japanese society)
    ...as absolute obedience was demanded from members of the family toward the house head (kachō). Among the family members, the status of women was especially low, and the idea of danson-johi (“respect for the male, contempt for the female”) was prevalent....
  • Danšovský, Václav (Czech poet)
    poet who had a considerable influence on the development of 20th-century Czech poetry....
  • dánta grádha (Gaelic literary genre)
    ...a tax collector. The courtly love themes, introduced into Irish literature by the Norman invaders, were used with native bardic wit and felicitous style to produce the enchanting poems called dánta grádha. A different departure from praise poetry was the crosánacht, in which verse was frequently interspersed with humorous or satirical prose passages....
  • Dante (Italian poet)
    Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy)....
  • Dante and Virgil in Hell (work by Delacroix)
    Delacroix’s debut at the Paris Salon of 1822, in which he exhibited his first masterpiece, Dante and Virgil in Hell, is one of the landmarks in the development of French 19th-century Romantic painting. Dante and Virgil in Hell was inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, but its tragic feeling and the po...
  • Dante chair
    chair supported by two crossed and curved supports either at the sides or at the back and front. Because of its basic simplicity, it is one of the oldest forms of chair or stool, with examples reaching back to the 2nd millennium bc. The seat, which was originally made of leather or fabric, could be stretched across the upper terminals of the X-shape or inserted at a lower level, just...
  • Dante, Piazza (marketplace, Naples, Italy)
    Debouching into the Neoclassical hemicycle of Piazza Dante, Via Toledo resumes its route under other names, skirting the western flank of the National Archaeological Museum in its ascent toward Capodimonte....
  • Danter, John (English printer)
    ...in the dedication is thought by some to be the person who procured him his copy. The first Shakespeare play to be published (Titus Andronicus, 1594) was printed by a notorious pirate, John Danter, who also brought out, anonymously, a defective Romeo and Juliet (1597), largely from shorthand notes made during performance. Eighteen of the plays appeared in “good”......
  • “Dante’s Convivio” (poem by Dante)
    ...to it as one string to another. This theory, expounded in treatises on music by St. Augustine and Boethius, is consciously invoked by Dante in his Convivio (c. 1304–07; The Banquet). In this piece, generally considered one of the first sustained works of literary criticism in the modern manner, the poet analyzes the four levels of meaning contained in his own......
  • Dante’s View (mountain, United States)
    ...extends 110 miles (180 km) from Grapevine Peak (8,705 feet [2,653 m]), south-southeastward to the Amargosa River. It is composed of three distinct mountain groups: the Grapevine, Funeral, and Black. Dante’s View, in the Black Mountains, rises to 5,475 feet (1,669 m) and provides a clear view of Death Valley and the Panamint Range, which lies beyond it....
  • Danthonia (plant genus)
    any of the perennial plants of two genera of grasses, Arrhenatherum and Danthonia (family Poaceae). Approximately six species of tall grasses, native to temperate Europe and Asia, constitute the genus Arrhenatherum. Tall oat grass (A. elatius), which has been introduced into various countries as a pasture grass, grows wild in many areas and is......
  • Danthonia spicata (plant)
    ...are native to temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere. They are important forage grasses in Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Australian species are commonly called wallaby grasses. Poverty oat grass (D. spicata) is a grayish green, mat-forming species and grows on dry, poor soil in many parts of North America....
  • Danti, Vincenzo (Italian sculptor)
    Whether in Rome or Florence, Michelangelo had a strong influence on sculptors of the 16th century. Vincenzo Danti followed closely in Michelangelo’s footsteps. His bronze “Julius III” of 1553–56 in Perugia is derived from Michelangelo’s lost bronze statue of Julius II for Bologna. Many of his figures in marble are only free variations on themes by Michelangelo. I...
  • Danticat, Edwidge (Haitian-American author)
    Haitian American author whose works focus on the lives of women and their relationships. She also addressed issues of power, injustice, and poverty....
  • Dantidurga (Rāṣṭrakūṭa leader)
    ...regions often erupted. The next 100 years of Calukya power witnessed the continuation of this conflict, weakening both contenders. Ultimately, in the mid-8th century, a feudatory of the Calukyas, Dantidurga of the Rashtrakuta dynasty, rose to importance and established himself in place of the declining Calukya dynasty. The Eastern Calukyas, who had managed to avoid involvement in the......
  • Dantin, Louis (French-Canadian poet)
    French Canadian poet and critic who is regarded as the first major literary critic of Quebec....
  • Dantiscus, Johannes (Polish author and bishop)
    Polish poet and diplomat who was among the first representatives in Poland of Renaissance humanism. Dantiscus wrote, in Latin, incidental verse, love poetry, and panegyrics (formal speeches of praise)....
  • Danto, Arthur (American critic)
    ...of perspectives. This became especially apparent in the 1980s and ’90s, when a variety of critical approaches emerged. A new philosophical criticism emerged in the person of American critic Arthur Danto, who came out with the idea that “the objects [of art] approach zero as their theory approaches infinity”—that is, “art really is over, having become transmute...
  • Danton, Georges (French revolutionary leader)
    French Revolutionary leader and orator, often credited as the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic (September 21, 1792). He later became the first president of the Committee of Public Safety, but his increasing moderation and eventual opposition to the Reign of Terror led to his own death at the guillo...
  • Danton, Georges-Jacques (French revolutionary leader)
    French Revolutionary leader and orator, often credited as the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic (September 21, 1792). He later became the first president of the Committee of Public Safety, but his increasing moderation and eventual opposition to the Reign of Terror led to his own death at the guillo...
  • D’Antoni, Philip (American producer and director)
    Other Nominees...
  • Danton’s Death (play by Büchner)
    ...Sturm und Drang movement. In content and form they were far ahead of their time. Their short, abrupt scenes combined extreme naturalism with visionary power. His first play, Dantons Tod (1835; Danton’s Death), a drama of the French Revolution, is suffused with deep pessimism. Its protagonist, the revolutionary Danton, is shown as a man......
  • Danton’s Death (opera by Einem)
    Einem’s first stage work, the ballet Prinzessin Turandot (1944), established his musical credentials. In 1945 he moved to Salzburg, Austria. His first opera, Dantons Tod (Danton’s Death), with a text by Blacher based on Georg Büchner’s play, was produced in 1947 at the Salzburg Festival. The opera Der Prozess (The Trial), a work inspir...
  • “Dantons Tod” (play by Büchner)
    ...Sturm und Drang movement. In content and form they were far ahead of their time. Their short, abrupt scenes combined extreme naturalism with visionary power. His first play, Dantons Tod (1835; Danton’s Death), a drama of the French Revolution, is suffused with deep pessimism. Its protagonist, the revolutionary Danton, is shown as a man......
  • “Dantons Tod” (opera by Einem)
    Einem’s first stage work, the ballet Prinzessin Turandot (1944), established his musical credentials. In 1945 he moved to Salzburg, Austria. His first opera, Dantons Tod (Danton’s Death), with a text by Blacher based on Georg Büchner’s play, was produced in 1947 at the Salzburg Festival. The opera Der Prozess (The Trial), a work inspir...
  • Dantu (China)
    city and port, southern Jiangsu sheng (province), China, situated on the southern bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). It was capital of the province in 1928–49. Pop. (2002 est.) 536,137; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 854,000....
  • Dantyszek, Jan (Polish author and bishop)
    Polish poet and diplomat who was among the first representatives in Poland of Renaissance humanism. Dantiscus wrote, in Latin, incidental verse, love poetry, and panegyrics (formal speeches of praise)....
  • Dantzig, George (American mathematician)
    American mathematician (b. Nov. 8, 1914, Portland, Ore.—d. May 13, 2005, Stanford, Calif.), devised the simplex algorithm, a method for solving problems that involve numerous conditions and variables, and in the process founded the field of linear programming. Dantzig earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Maryland (1936) and a master’s de...
  • Danu (Celtic goddess)
    in Celtic religion, the earth-mother goddess or female principle, who was honoured under various names from eastern Europe to Ireland. The mythology that surrounded her was contradictory and confused; mother goddesses of earlier peoples were ultimately identified with her, as were many goddesses of the Celts themselves. Possibly a goddess of fertility, of wisdom, and of wind, she was believed to h...
  • Danube Bend (area, Hungary)
    The most-visited tourist area of the county is the Danube Bend, which stretches from Esztergom to Szentendre. Szentendre still reflects the influence of its Dalmatian Serb founders in its Mediterranean-style cityscape, Baroque buildings, and numerous museums—including the Hungarian Open Air Museum (an ethnographical village that re-creates aspects of historic Hungarian folklife); the......
  • Danube delta (region, Moldova-Romania)
    On the northern edge of the Dobruja region, adjoining the Moldavian Plateau, the great swampy triangle of the Danube delta is a unique physiographic region covering some 2,000 square miles (5,180 square km), of which the majority is in Romania. The delta occupies the site of an ancient bay, which in prehistoric times became wholly or partially isolated from the sea by the Letea sandbanks. The......
  • Danube Gorge (region, Austria)
    There were prehistoric settlements in the Danube Gorge (Wachau), in the southeast, and in the Vienna Basin. Later, the area was part of the Roman province of Noricum and of Charlemagne’s empire. The region was granted to the Bavarian Babenberg margraves in 976; the name Ostarichi (Eastern Region) dates from that period. A permanent administrative division between Upper and Lower Austria was...
  • Danube Hills (plateau, Germany)
    ...and gneiss hills, is divided into two sections by a sharp quartz ridge known as the Pfahl. The ridge runs roughly along the Regen valley and ranges from 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 m) in height. The Vorderer Forest, or Danube Hills, a rolling plateau situated to the southwest between the Danube and the Pfahl, seldom rises more than 3,300 feet (1,000 m) above sea level. Meadow, isolated......
  • Danube River (river, Europe)
    river of Europe, the second longest river after the Volga. It rises in the Black Forest mountains of western Germany and flows for some 1,770 miles (2,850 km) to its mouth on the Black Sea. Along its course, it passes through nine countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia...
  • Danube school (painting)
    a tradition of landscape painting that developed in the region of the Danube River valley in the early years of the 16th century....
  • Danube Water Meadows Nature Reserve (reserve, Ukraine)
    ...Reserve shelters many species of waterfowl and is the only Ukrainian breeding ground of the Mediterranean gull (Larus melanocephalus). Also located on the Black Sea, the Danube Water Meadows Reserve protects the Danube River’s tidewater biota. Other reserves in Ukraine preserve segments of the forest-steppe woodland, the marshes and forests of the Polissya, a...
  • Danube-Black Sea Canal (canal, Europe)
    ...the construction of a series of canals, and river traffic has increased considerably. The most important canals—all elements in a continentwide scheme of connecting waterways—include the Danube–Black Sea Canal, which runs from Cernovadă, Romania, to the Black Sea and provides a more direct and easily navigable link, and the Main–Danube Canal, completed in 1992...
  • Danubian Convention (convention, [1948])
    ...World War II, free international navigation along the course of the river was interrupted by the hostilities, and a consensus concerning the resumption of navigation was not reached until the Danubian Convention of 1948. The new convention provided for the Danubian countries alone to participate in a reconstituted Danube Commission; of these countries, only West Germany did not join the......
  • Danubian culture (prehistory)
    Neolithic culture that expanded over large areas of Europe north and west of the Danube River (from Slovakia to the Netherlands) about the 5th millennium bc. Farmers probably practiced a form of shifting cultivation on the loess soil. Emmer wheat and barley were grown, and domestic animals, usually cattle, were kept. The name LBK derives from an abbreviation of the German Linienbandk...
  • Danubian Lowland (basin, Europe)
    extensive basin occupying the northwestern part of Transdanubia in northwestern Hungary, and extending into Austria and Slovakia (where it is called Podunajská Lowland). It has an area of approximately 3,000 square miles (8,000 square km). It is bounded on the south and east by the highlands of Transdanubia (Bakony and Vértes), to the west by the foothills of the Austrian Alps, and t...
  • Danubian Plain (region, Europe)
    ...often steep banks on the Bulgarian side contrast with the swamps and lagoons of the Romanian side. Extending southward from the Danube to the foothills of the Balkan Mountains is the fertile, hilly Danubian Plain. The average elevation of the region is 584 feet (178 metres), and it covers some 12,200 square miles (31,600 square km). Several rivers cross the plain, flowing northward from the......
  • Danubian principalities (historical area, Europe)
    Supported by Britain, the Turks took a firm stand against the Russians, who occupied the Danubian principalities (modern Romania) on the Russo-Turkish border in July 1853. The British fleet was ordered to Constantinople (Istanbul) on September 23. On October 4 the Turks declared war on Russia and in the same month opened an offensive against the Russians in the Danubian principalities. After......
  • Danubyu (Myanmar)
    After raising a large army in northern Myanmar, Maha Bandula marched to Danubyu, on the Irrawaddy River, where he established his headquarters in October 1824. In December he attempted, unsuccessfully, to encircle the British, who were entrenched in the neighbourhood of Yangon. When his headquarters fell to the British, he retreated to prepare for the defense of Danubyu....
  • Danvers (Massachusetts, United States)
    town (township), Essex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies just northeast of Boston. Founded in the 1630s by Governor John Endecott, it was part of Salem and originally known as Salem Village (site of the witchcraft hysteria of 1692). Set off from Salem as a district in 1752, it was incorporated in 1775 (a 1757 act...
  • Danville (Kentucky, United States)
    city, seat of Boyle county, central Kentucky, U.S., in the Bluegrass region, 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Lexington. Located along the Old Wilderness Road, it was settled in about 1775 and named for Walker Daniel, who purchased the deed for the site (1784). It was capital of the Kentucky District of Virginia from 1785 until Kentucky became a state in 1792. Co...
  • Danville (Virginia, United States)
    city, administratively independent of, but located in, Pittsylvania county, south-central Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Dan River, just north of the North Carolina border, 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Greensboro, North Carolina....
  • Danville (Illinois, United States)
    city, seat (1827) of Vermilion county, eastern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the junction of forks of the Vermilion River (there bridged) near the Indiana border, about 35 miles (55 km) east of Champaign. Early inhabitants of the area included Miami, Kickapoo, and Potawatomi Indians, and a number of trails p...
  • Danylo Romanovych (ruler of Galicia and Volhynia)
    ruler of the principalities of Galicia and Volhynia (now in Poland and Ukraine, respectively), who became one of the most powerful princes in east-central Europe....
  • Danza de la muerte (Spanish literature)
    An outstanding anonymous 15th-century poem, the Danza de la muerte (“Dance of Death”), exemplifies a theme then popular with poets, painters, and composers across western Europe. Written with greater satiric force than other works that treated the dance of death theme, it introduced characters (e.g., a rabbi) not found in its predecessors and presented a......
  • danza general de la muerte, La (Spanish poem)
    The proliferation of literary versions of the dance of death included a Spanish masterpiece, the poem “La danza general de la muerte,” which was inspired by the verses at the Innocents and by several German poems. Late Renaissance literature contains references to the theme in varied contexts....
  • danzante (Mesoamerican art)
    ...that site’s history, a peculiar group of reliefs was carved on stone slabs and affixed to the front of a rubble-faced platform mound and around a contiguous court. The reliefs are usually called danzantes, a name derived from the notion that they represent human figures in dance postures. Actually, almost all of the danzante sculptures show Olmecoid men in strange, rubbery....
  • Danzi, Franz (German composer)
    the most important member of a German family of musicians of Italian ancestry. Although Danzi was a prolific composer of operas, church music, lieder, symphonies, and concerti, it is for his chamber music, particularly for woodwind ensemble, that he is best known....
  • Danzi, Franz Ignaz (German composer)
    the most important member of a German family of musicians of Italian ancestry. Although Danzi was a prolific composer of operas, church music, lieder, symphonies, and concerti, it is for his chamber music, particularly for woodwind ensemble, that he is best known....
  • Danzig (Poland)
    city, capital of Pomorskie województwo (province), north-central Poland, situated at the mouth of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea....
  • Danzig, Gulf of (gulf, Baltic Sea)
    southern inlet of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Poland on the west, south, and southeast and by Kaliningrad oblast (province) of Russia on the east. The gulf extends 40 miles (64 km) from north to south and 60 miles (97 km) from east to west and reaches its maximum depth, more than 371 feet (113 m), in its northern section....
  • Danzig, Sarah Palfrey (American tennis player)
    U.S. tennis champion who combined grace and skill at the net to capture 18 Grand Slam titles, 16 of them collected in doubles and mixed doubles competition (b. Sept. 18, 1912--d. Feb. 27, 1996)....
  • Danzig trilogy (novels by Grass)
    ...the same time, Günter Grass, perhaps the most important writer of the period and later, in 1999, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, began to publish what eventually became known as his Danzig trilogy, consisting of Die Blechtrommel (1959; The Tin Drum), Katz und Maus (1961; Cat and......
  • Danziger, Paula (American author)
    American children’s author (b. Aug. 18, 1944, Washington, D.C.—d. July 8, 2004, New York, N.Y.), wrote more than 30 books, notably the popular Amber Brown series, that presented serious issues with humour and honesty. Danziger was also well known for her warm and flamboyant personal style. Her first book, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit (1974), was an immediate success that became a cl...
  • dao (Chinese philosophy)
    in Chinese philosophy, a fundamental concept signifying “the proper way,” or “heaven’s way.” In the Confucian tradition, dao signifies a morally proper path of human conduct and is thus limited to behaviour. In the rival school of Daoism (the name of which derives from dao), the concept takes on a metaphysical sense transcending the human realm. The D...
  • Dao (people)
    peoples of southern China and Southeast Asia. In the early 21st century, they numbered some 2,700,000 in China, more than 350,000 in Vietnam, some 40,000 in Thailand, and approximately 20,000 in Laos. Several thousand Mien refugees from Laos have also settled in North America, Australia, and France. Mien peoples speak dialects of the Hmong-Mien languages. In some areas, such as ...
  • Dao Khung (Vietnamese philosopher)
    Vietnamese philosopher, Buddhist reformer, and founder (1939) of the religion Phat Giao Hoa Hao, more simply known as Hoa Hao, and an anti-French, anticommunist military and political activist....
  • Dao Phu Quoc (island, Vietnam)
    island in the Gulf of Thailand, belonging to Vietnam. Lying 7 miles (11 km) off the Cambodian coast south of Bok Koŭ (formerly Bokor) and 43 miles (69 km) west of the west coast of southern Vietnam, the partially forested island is almost 30 miles (48 km) long from north to south and has a maximum width of 17 miles (27 km). It has an area of 230 square miles (596 square km). The climate is ...
  • Dao Sheng (Chinese Buddhist monk)
    eminent Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar....
  • Dao Tan (Vietnamese writer)
    ...of Emperor Tu Duc, and it is probable that the present form of hat boi dates from this period. At Tu Duc’s court in Hue, the playwright and scholar Dao Tan gathered 300 actors and with them wrote out texts of the standard repertory that previously had been preserved orally. He then had the texts published and distributed them to actors and......
  • Daodejing (Chinese literature)
    classic of Chinese philosophical literature. The name was first used during the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220); it had previously been called Laozi in the belief that it was written by Laozi, identified by the historian Sima Qian as a 6th-century-bc curator of the imperial Chinese archives. Laozi, howe...
  • Daoguang (emperor of Qing dynasty)
    reign name (nianhao) of the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty of China, during whose reign (1820–50) attempts to prevent governmental decline met with little success....
  • Daoism (Chinese philosophy and religion)
    indigenous religio-philosophical tradition that has shaped Chinese life for more than 2,000 years. In the broadest sense, a Taoist attitude toward life can be seen in the accepting and yielding, the joyful and carefree sides of the Chinese character, an attitude that offsets and complements the moral and duty-conscious, austere and purposeful character ascribed to Confucianism. ...
  • Daonella (fossil)
    genus of extinct pelecypods (clams) useful as a guide, or index, fossil in Triassic rocks. The shell is characterized by a wide dorsal region and by fine, radiating, riblike lineations. The shell is circular in outline and may show fine growth lines....
  • daoshi (Daoism)
    ...decapitated. With the elimination of its highest leadership, the movement had fallen apart into many small religious communities, each led by a local Daoist master (daoshi), assisted by a council of wealthy Daoist laity. Under such circumstances, local Daoist masters could easily become leaders of independent sectarian movements. They could also, in......
  • daotai (Chinese official)
    ...as the population expanded, and as administration became increasingly complex, coordinators proliferated even at sub-provincial levels in the form of circuit intendants (daotai), who were delegated from provincial agencies as functionally specialized intermediaries with prefectural administrations....
  • Daoud (Algeria)
    town, northeastern Algeria. It is situated on a plateau at the eastern edge of the Sétif plains. The plateau, once occupied by a large lake, now has several shallow depressions containing saline lakes. Sheltered on the east by wooded hills, Aïn Beïda is in a grain-producing area irrigated by wells and springs....
  • Daoxue (Chinese philosophy)
    ...Yang-ming. The name of their school is Hsin Hsüeh, often called the Lu-Wang school, after its two great proponents. It was opposed to the other great school (and the one that was dominant), the Li Hsüeh, often called the Ch’eng-Chu after its leading philosophers, Ch’eng I and Chu Hsi....
  • Dapenkeng culture (ancient culture)
    ...shale plow for cultivating the wet soils of the region. Fragments of woven silk from about 3000 bc have been found at Qianshanyang (northern Zhejiang). Along the southeast coast and on Taiwan, the Dapenkeng corded-ware culture emerged during the 4th and 3rd millennia. This culture, with a fuller inventory of pot and tool types than had previously been seen in the area, developed i...
  • Dapha Bum (mountain, India)
    ...is unstable; it is crisscrossed by several faults. Its north–south-aligned hill ranges are defined by narrow parallel valleys tending toward the west. The highest peak in the region is Mount Dapha (in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh), with an elevation of 15,020 feet (4,578 metres). The major rivers are the Lohit, Burhi Dihang, Diyung, Kusiyara, Gumti, Kaladan, Manipur, Tixu,......
  • Daphnae (ancient city, Egypt)
    ancient fortress town (Fortress of Penhase), situated near Qanṭarah, in present-day ash-Sharqīyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northeastern Egypt. Excavations by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1886 uncovered a massive fort and enclosure surrounded by a wall 40 feet (13 m) thick, built by Psamtik I in the 7th century bc. A garrison of m...
  • Daphnai (ancient city, Egypt)
    ancient fortress town (Fortress of Penhase), situated near Qanṭarah, in present-day ash-Sharqīyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northeastern Egypt. Excavations by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1886 uncovered a massive fort and enclosure surrounded by a wall 40 feet (13 m) thick, built by Psamtik I in the 7th century bc. A garrison of m...
  • Daphne (ancient town, Turkey)
    ...state for about a century. The fighting spirit of the Jews was all the more impressive because at the beginning of their rebellion in 166 Antiochus had just demonstrated his might to the world at Daphne, near Antioch, with a grand review of his army: 46,000 foot soldiers were on parade, among them a Macedonian phalanx of 20,000 men and 500 mercenaries equipped with Roman arms, followed by......
  • Daphne (plant genus)
    genus of about 50 species of flowering shrubs of the mezereum family (Thymelaeaceae) native to Eurasia but widely cultivated for their form and flower clusters. The most popular species include low-growing evergreen types that are often grown in borders and rock gardens in mild climates. Among them is the spurge-laurel (D. laureola), with thick, glossy leaves and small greenish flowers nea...
  • Daphne (Greek mythology)
    in Greek mythology, the personification of the laurel (Greek daphnē), a tree whose leaves, formed into garlands, were particularly associated with Apollo. Traditionally, the special position of the laurel was connected with Apollo’s love for Daphne, the beautiful daughter of a river god (probably Ladon) who lived a pastoral existence in either Thessaly, the...
  • Daphne cneorum (Daphne cneorum)
    ...mezereon (D. mezereum) is a larger shrub, up to 1.5 m (5 feet), with deciduous leaves and spicy-fragrant pink flowers; the entire plant, including its bright-orange berries, is poisonous. The garland flower (D. cneorum) is a hardy evergreen trailing shrub, or ground cover, with pink, sweet-scented flowers. Popular greenhouse subjects include the several varieties of winter daphne....
  • Daphne laureola (plant)
    ...cultivated for their form and flower clusters. The most popular species include low-growing evergreen types that are often grown in borders and rock gardens in mild climates. Among them is the spurge-laurel (D. laureola), with thick, glossy leaves and small greenish flowers near the ends of the branches. It produces poisonous black berries. The mezereon (D. mezereum) is a......
  • Daphne mezereum (plant)
    ...in mild climates. Among them is the spurge-laurel (D. laureola), with thick, glossy leaves and small greenish flowers near the ends of the branches. It produces poisonous black berries. The mezereon (D. mezereum) is a larger shrub, up to 1.5 m (5 feet), with deciduous leaves and spicy-fragrant pink flowers; the entire plant, including its bright-orange berries, is poisonous. The.....
  • Daphne odora (plant)
    ...poisonous. The garland flower (D. cneorum) is a hardy evergreen trailing shrub, or ground cover, with pink, sweet-scented flowers. Popular greenhouse subjects include the several varieties of winter daphne (D. odora), which have very fragrant white to purplish flowers in crowded clusters. D. indica, with red blossoms, and D. japonica, with white or......
  • Daphnephoria (Greek religious festival)
    in Greek religion, festival held every ninth year at Thebes in Boeotia in honour of Apollo Ismenius (after the Theban river called Ismenus) or Apollo Chalazius (god of hail). It consisted of a procession in which the chief figure was a boy who was of good family and whose parents were still alive. In front of the boy walked one of his nearest relatives, carryi...
  • Daphnēphoros (Greek priest)
    ...In front of the boy walked one of his nearest relatives, carrying an olive branch hung with laurel (daphnē) flowers and bronze balls and twined round with ribbons. Then followed the Daphnēphoros (“Laurel Bearer”), i.e., the young priest of Apollo Ismenius. The Daphnēphoros also dedicated a bronze tripod in the temple of Apollo. Acco...
  • Daphnia (crustacean)
    well-known water flea genus....
  • Daphnia magna (crustacean)
    The water flea (Daphnia magna) and the brine shrimp (Artemia salina) are used as fish food in aquariums and fish ponds, and the larvae of the latter are widely used as food for the larvae of larger crustaceans reared in captivity. Ostracods, of which numerous fossil and subfossil species are known, are important to geologists and oil prospectors....
  • Daphnia middendorffiana (crustacean)
    ...conditions. Many anomopods survive the winter as fertilized eggs; species that dwell in temporary pools lay such eggs to survive periods of drought. Certain Arctic or alpine anomopods, such as Daphnia middendorffiana, produce resistant eggs that do not require fertilization. The resistant, or dormant, fertilized eggs normally hatch in the following spring, giving rise to the usual......
  • Daphnis (Greek mythology)
    legendary hero of the shepherds of Sicily and the reputed inventor of bucolic poetry. According to tradition, Daphnis was the son of Hermes and a Sicilian nymph and was found by shepherds in a grove of laurels (Greek daphnē). He later won the affection of a nymph, who swore him to eternal fidelity, or perhaps chastity. A king’s daughter got him drunk and seduced him, so the n...
  • Daphnis and Chloë (work by Longus)
    Greek writer, author of Daphnis and Chloe, the first pastoral prose romance (see pastoral literature) and one of the most popular of the Greek erotic romances in Western culture after the Renaissance....
  • Daphnis and Chloe (ballet by Fokine)
    ...success, most leading composers in the 20th century have contributed something to the art of dance. Diaghilev directly commissioned two outstanding examples in the French composer Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (1912), which the composer defined as a “poème choréographique,” and The Three-cornered Hat (1919) by the Spanish composer Manue...
  • “Daphnis et Chloé” (ballet by Fokine)
    ...success, most leading composers in the 20th century have contributed something to the art of dance. Diaghilev directly commissioned two outstanding examples in the French composer Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (1912), which the composer defined as a “poème choréographique,” and The Three-cornered Hat (1919) by the Spanish composer Manue...
  • dapifer (French feudal official)
    ...for organizing the journeys of king or emperor and, by 1071, was the chief officer—steward of the household, head of the army, and administrator of the royal demesne. With the title dapifer he headed the names of those witnessing royal diplomas. By the mid-12th century, however, the office had weakened and become largely honorary....
  • Dapitan (Philippines)
    chartered city and port, western Mindanao, Philippines, situated on Dapitan Bay of the Sulu Sea. One of the principal cities located on the Zamboanga Peninsula, it lies 8 miles (12 km) northwest of Dipolog, the largest settlement of the region. José Rízal, the Filipino patriot whose writing...
  • Dapper Don (American organized-crime boss)
    American organized-crime boss whose flamboyant lifestyle and frequent public trials made him a prominent figure in New York City in the 1980s and ’90s....
  • dapping (fishing)
    ...trout on artificial flies and described how each fly was dressed (made). The rod they used was only 6 feet (1.8 metres) long and the line the same length, so that the method used was probably dapping, gently laying the bait on the surface of the water....
  • Dapsang (mountain, Asia)
    the world’s second highest peak (28,251 feet [8,611 m]), second only to Mount Everest. K2 forms part of the Karakoram Range (Himalayas) and lies partly in China and partly on the western side of the Indian-Pakistani line of control in Jammu and Kashmir; it is presently under Pakistani administration. The glacier- and snow-covered mountain rises from its base at about 15,000 feet on the Godw...
  • dapsone (drug)
    For patients with localized forms of leprosy and relatively few leprosy bacilli in their bodies, two drugs, dapsone and rifampicin, are given for a total of six months. For patients with more widespread disease and relatively large numbers of bacilli, three drugs—dapsone, clofazimine, and rifampicin—are given for 24 months. Most patients are able to tolerate the drugs well, but a......
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