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  • Ferdinand (count of Flanders)
    ...that gave a decisive victory to the French king Philip II Augustus over an international coalition of the Holy Roman emperor Otto IV, King John of England, and the French vassals—Ferdinand (Ferrand) of Portugal, count of Flanders, and Renaud (Raynald) of Dammartin, count of Boulogne. The victory enhanced the power and the prestige of the French monarchy in France and in the rest of......
  • Ferdinand (Bulgaria)
    town, northwestern Bulgaria. It lies along the Ogosta River in a fertile agricultural region noted for its grains, fruits, vines, market-garden produce, and livestock breeding. Relatively new housing estates as well as industry are evident in the town. In the region are forests and game reserves in which deer, pheasant, and rabbit are hunted....
  • Ferdinand August Franz Anton, Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha (king consort of Portugal)
    second husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal, who proclaimed him king consort with the title of Ferdinand II upon the birth of their first son (the future Peter V) in 1837....
  • “Ferdinand, Count Fathom” (novel by Smollett)
    The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom (now, with The History and Adventures of an Atom, the least regarded of his novels) appeared in 1753. It sold poorly, and Smollett was forced into borrowing from friends and into further hack writing. In June 1753 he visited Scotland for the first time in 15 years; his mother, it is said, recognized him only because of his “roguish......
  • Ferdinand der Gütige (emperor of Austria)
    emperor of Austria from 1835 to 1848, when he abdicated his throne....
  • Ferdinand, El de Antequera (king of Aragon)
    king of Aragon from 1412 to 1416, second son of John I of Castile and Eleanor, daughter of Peter IV of Aragon....
  • Ferdinand, Francis (Austrian archduke)
    Austrian archduke whose assassination was the immediate cause of World War I....
  • Ferdinand I (king of Romania)
    king of Romania from 1914 to 1927, who, though a Hohenzollern and a believer in German strength, joined the Allies in World War I....
  • Ferdinand I (king of Naples)
    king of Naples from 1458....
  • Ferdinand I (king of the Two Sicilies)
    king of the Two Sicilies (1816–25) who earlier (1759–1806), as Ferdinand IV of Naples, led his kingdom in its fight against the French Revolution and its liberal ideas. A relatively weak and somewhat inept ruler, he was greatly influenced by his wife, Maria Carolina of Austria, who furthered the policy of her favourite adviser, the Englishman Sir John Acton....
  • Ferdinand I (grand duke of Tuscany)
    third grand duke (granduca) of Tuscany (1587–1609), who greatly increased the strength and prosperity of the country....
  • Ferdinand I (Holy Roman emperor)
    Holy Roman emperor (1558–64) and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526, who, with his Peace of Augsburg (1555), concluded the era of religious strife in Germany following the rise of Lutheranism by recognizing the right of territorial princes to determine the religion of their subjects. He also converted the elected crowns of Bohemia and Hungary into hereditary possession...
  • Ferdinand I (emperor of Austria)
    emperor of Austria from 1835 to 1848, when he abdicated his throne....
  • Ferdinand I (king of Portugal)
    ninth king of Portugal (1367–83), whose reign was marked by three wars with Castile and by the growth of the Portuguese economy....
  • Ferdinand I (king of Castile and Leon)
    the first ruler of Castile to take the title of king. He also was crowned emperor of Leon....
  • Ferdinand I (king of Aragon)
    king of Aragon from 1412 to 1416, second son of John I of Castile and Eleanor, daughter of Peter IV of Aragon....
  • Ferdinand II (king of Leon)
    king of Leon from 1157 to 1188, second son of Alfonso VII....
  • Ferdinand II (king of Naples)
    prince of Capua, duke of Calabria, and king of Naples (1495–96), who recovered his kingdom from French occupation....
  • Ferdinand II (grand duke of Tuscany)
    fifth grand duke (granduca) of Tuscany, a patron of sciences, whose rule was subservient to Rome....
  • Ferdinand II (king of Spain)
    king of Aragon and king of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1479, joint sovereign with Queen Isabella I. (As Spanish ruler of southern Italy, he was also known as Ferdinand III of Naples and Ferdinand II of Sicily.) He united the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain’s entry into the modern period of imperial expansion....
  • Ferdinand II (Holy Roman emperor)
    Holy Roman emperor (1619–37), archduke of Austria, king of Bohemia (1617–19, 1620–27), and king of Hungary (1618–25). He was the leading champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation and of absolutist rule during the Thirty Years’ War....
  • Ferdinand II (king of the Two Sicilies)
    king of the Two Sicilies from 1830. He was the son of the future King Francis I and the Spanish infanta María Isabel, a member of the branch of the House of Bourbon that had ruled Naples and Sicily from 1734....
  • Ferdinand II (king consort of Portugal)
    second husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal, who proclaimed him king consort with the title of Ferdinand II upon the birth of their first son (the future Peter V) in 1837....
  • Ferdinand II of Sicily (king of Spain)
    king of Aragon and king of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1479, joint sovereign with Queen Isabella I. (As Spanish ruler of southern Italy, he was also known as Ferdinand III of Naples and Ferdinand II of Sicily.) He united the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain’s entry into the modern period of imperial expansion....
  • Ferdinand III (king of Castile and Leon)
    king of Castile from 1217 to 1252 and of Leon from 1230 to 1252 and conqueror of the Muslim cities of Córdoba (1236), Jaén (1246), and Sevilla (1248). During his campaigns, Murcia submitted to his son Alfonso (later Alfonso X), and the Muslim kingdom of Granada became his vassal....
  • Ferdinand III (Holy Roman emperor)
    Holy Roman emperor who headed the so-called peace party at the Habsburg imperial court during the Thirty Years’ War and ended that war in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia....
  • Ferdinand III (grand duke of Tuscany)
    grand duke of Tuscany whose moderate, enlightened rule distinguished him from other Italian princes of his time....
  • Ferdinand III of Naples (king of Spain)
    king of Aragon and king of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1479, joint sovereign with Queen Isabella I. (As Spanish ruler of southern Italy, he was also known as Ferdinand III of Naples and Ferdinand II of Sicily.) He united the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain’s entry into the modern period of imperial expansion....
  • Ferdinand IV (king of Bohemia)
    king of Bohemia (from 1646) and of Hungary (from 1647) and king of the Romans (from 1653)....
  • Ferdinand IV (king of Castile and Leon)
    king of Castile and Leon, succeeding his father, Sancho IV, in 1295....
  • Ferdinand IV of Naples (king of the Two Sicilies)
    king of the Two Sicilies (1816–25) who earlier (1759–1806), as Ferdinand IV of Naples, led his kingdom in its fight against the French Revolution and its liberal ideas. A relatively weak and somewhat inept ruler, he was greatly influenced by his wife, Maria Carolina of Austria, who furthered the policy of her favourite adviser, the Englishman Sir John Acton....
  • Ferdinand Karl Leopold Maria (king of Bulgaria)
    prince (1887–1908) and first king (1908–18) of modern Bulgaria....
  • Ferdinand Maria (elector of Bavaria)
    elector of Bavaria (1651–79), son of Maximilian I. A minor when he succeeded, he did much to repair the wounds caused by the Thirty Years’ War, encouraging agriculture and industries, and building or restoring numerous churches and monasteries. In 1669, moreover, he again called a meeting of the imperial diet, which had been suspended since 1612....
  • Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph (archduke of Austria and emperor of Mexico)
    archduke of Austria and the emperor of Mexico, a man whose naive liberalism proved unequal to the international intrigues that had put him on the throne and to the brutal struggles within Mexico that led to his execution....
  • Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince (king of Bulgaria)
    prince (1887–1908) and first king (1908–18) of modern Bulgaria....
  • Ferdinand, Saint (king of Castile and Leon)
    king of Castile from 1217 to 1252 and of Leon from 1230 to 1252 and conqueror of the Muslim cities of Córdoba (1236), Jaén (1246), and Sevilla (1248). During his campaigns, Murcia submitted to his son Alfonso (later Alfonso X), and the Muslim kingdom of Granada became his vassal....
  • Ferdinand the Benign (emperor of Austria)
    emperor of Austria from 1835 to 1848, when he abdicated his throne....
  • Ferdinand the Catholic (king of Spain)
    king of Aragon and king of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1479, joint sovereign with Queen Isabella I. (As Spanish ruler of southern Italy, he was also known as Ferdinand III of Naples and Ferdinand II of Sicily.) He united the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain’s entry into the modern period of imperial expansion....
  • Ferdinand the Desired (king of Spain)
    king of Spain in 1808 and from 1814 to 1833. Between 1808 and 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars, Ferdinand was imprisoned in France by Napoleon....
  • Ferdinand the Fickle (king of Portugal)
    ninth king of Portugal (1367–83), whose reign was marked by three wars with Castile and by the growth of the Portuguese economy....
  • Ferdinand the Great (king of Castile and Leon)
    the first ruler of Castile to take the title of king. He also was crowned emperor of Leon....
  • Ferdinand the Handsome (king of Portugal)
    ninth king of Portugal (1367–83), whose reign was marked by three wars with Castile and by the growth of the Portuguese economy....
  • Ferdinand V (king of Spain)
    king of Aragon and king of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1479, joint sovereign with Queen Isabella I. (As Spanish ruler of southern Italy, he was also known as Ferdinand III of Naples and Ferdinand II of Sicily.) He united the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain’s entry into the modern period of imperial expansion....
  • Ferdinand VI (king of Spain)
    third king of Spain of the house of Bourbon, reigning from 1746 to 1759. He pursued a policy of neutrality and gradual reform....
  • Ferdinand VII (king of Spain)
    king of Spain in 1808 and from 1814 to 1833. Between 1808 and 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars, Ferdinand was imprisoned in France by Napoleon....
  • Ferdinand-Marie, vicomte de Lesseps (French diplomat)
    French diplomat famous for building the Suez Canal across the Isthmus of Suez (1859–69) in Egypt....
  • Ferdinandeum (museum, Innsbruck, Austria)
    ...of Hofer and other Tirolian heroes. The university was founded by Emperor Leopold I in 1677, and its great library was a gift of the empress Maria Theresa in 1745. There are four major museums: the Ferdinandeum, with prehistoric, industrial-art, and natural-history collections and a picture gallery; the Tirolean Folk Art Museum; the Museum of the Imperial Rifles; and parts of the collections of...
  • Ferdinando (king of Naples)
    king of Naples from 1458....
  • Ferdinando de’ Medici (grand duke of Tuscany)
    third grand duke (granduca) of Tuscany (1587–1609), who greatly increased the strength and prosperity of the country....
  • Ferdowsī (Persian poet)
    Persian poet, author of the Shāh-nāmeh (“Book of Kings”), the Persian national epic, to which he gave its final and enduring form, although he based his poem mainly on an earlier prose version....
  • Ferdydurke (novel by Gombrowicz)
    ...were prosperous members of the gentry. He studied law at the University of Warsaw but abandoned his career to pursue his literary interests. After the initial huge success of his first novel, Ferdydurke (1937; Eng. trans. Ferdydurke)—a grotesque image of contemporary society that shocked the reading public—Gombrowicz visited Argentina, where he became......
  • Ferenczi, Sándor (Hungarian psychoanalyst)
    Hungarian psychoanalyst noted for his contributions to psychoanalytic theory and his experimentation with techniques of therapy....
  • Ferentino (Italy)
    town, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. The town is situated on a hill that commands the Sacco valley and the Via Casilina (the ancient Roman road Via Latina), 46 miles (65 km) southeast of Rome. The ancient Ferentinum was the chief city of the Hernici people and passed to Rome in 361 bc. A favoured papal residence in the Middle Ages,...
  • Ferentinum (Italy)
    town, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. The town is situated on a hill that commands the Sacco valley and the Via Casilina (the ancient Roman road Via Latina), 46 miles (65 km) southeast of Rome. The ancient Ferentinum was the chief city of the Hernici people and passed to Rome in 361 bc. A favoured papal residence in the Middle Ages,...
  • Fergana (Uzbekistan)
    city, eastern Uzbekistan. It lies at the foot of the Alay Mountains in the southern part of the Fergana Valley. It was founded by the Russians in 1877 as the military and administrative centre of the province of Fergana, formed from the newly conquered khanate of Kokand (Quqŏn). It became part of the Turkestan A.S.S.R. in 1918, part of the Uzbek S.S.R in 1924, and part of independent Uzbeki...
  • Fergana (oblast, Uzbekistan)
    oblast (province) eastern Uzbekistan, with an area of 2,750 square miles (7,100 square km) in the southwestern Fergana valley. The climate is continental with hot summers and moderately cold winters. The south is irrigated by streams descending from the Alay Mountains and by the Great (Bolshoy) Fergana and Southern (Yuzhny) Fergana canals. In the north the terrain is a combination of deser...
  • Fergana Kyrka Mountains (mountains, Asia)
    ...(4,000 metres). The eastern margin of the highlands, meanwhile, underwent subsidences of up to 2,300 feet (700 metres). Uplifting as a result of fractures at great depths, of which the Kopet-Dag and Fergana ranges provide typical examples, and of folding over a large radius, examples of which may be seen in the Tien Shan and Gissar and Alay ranges, played a significant role....
  • Fergana Range (mountains, Asia)
    ...(4,000 metres). The eastern margin of the highlands, meanwhile, underwent subsidences of up to 2,300 feet (700 metres). Uplifting as a result of fractures at great depths, of which the Kopet-Dag and Fergana ranges provide typical examples, and of folding over a large radius, examples of which may be seen in the Tien Shan and Gissar and Alay ranges, played a significant role....
  • Fergana Valley (valley, Central Asia)
    enormous depression between the Tien Shan and Gissar and Alay mountain systems, lying mainly in eastern Uzbekistan and partly in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The roughly triangular valley has an area of 8,500 square miles (22,000 square km). It is bordered on the northwest by the Chatkal and Kurama mountains, on the northeast by the Fergana Mountains, and on the south by the Alay and Turkistan range...
  • Fergansky Khrebet (mountains, Asia)
    ...(4,000 metres). The eastern margin of the highlands, meanwhile, underwent subsidences of up to 2,300 feet (700 metres). Uplifting as a result of fractures at great depths, of which the Kopet-Dag and Fergana ranges provide typical examples, and of folding over a large radius, examples of which may be seen in the Tien Shan and Gissar and Alay ranges, played a significant role....
  • Ferghana (Uzbekistan)
    city, eastern Uzbekistan. It lies at the foot of the Alay Mountains in the southern part of the Fergana Valley. It was founded by the Russians in 1877 as the military and administrative centre of the province of Fergana, formed from the newly conquered khanate of Kokand (Quqŏn). It became part of the Turkestan A.S.S.R. in 1918, part of the Uzbek S.S.R in 1924, and part of independent Uzbeki...
  • Fergus (king of Galloway)
    ...established hegemony in the area. With the Norse conquest Wigtown became part of Galloway, a district that was ruled by Scots-Norse kings and that covered most of southwestern Scotland. In the 1120s Fergus, the ruler of Galloway, reconstituted the area’s Anglian bishopric, which was first established in the 8th century, and he built a priory at Whithorn as the bishopric’s cathedra...
  • Fergus (Celtic mythology)
    ...with an insatiable sexual appetite. The list of her mates is impressive; at the time of the battle against Ulster, the king Ailill was her mate, but she also had an affair with the mighty hero Fergus, distinguished for his prodigious virility. Medb had a sacred tree, bile Medb, and was often represented with a squirrel and a bird sitting on her shoulders....
  • Fergus Falls (Minnesota, United States)
    city, seat (1872) of Otter Tail county, west-central Minnesota, U.S. It lies along the Otter Tail River in a lake area, about 115 miles (185 km) northwest of St. Cloud and about 25 miles (40 km) east of the Minnesota–North Dakota border. The city was claimed in 1857 by Joseph Whitford, named for James Fergus, financial backer of Whitford’s expedi...
  • Fergus mac Léti, saga of (Irish saga)
    Stories popular with the fili steadily dropped out of favour. Sometimes they were combined with folktale elements, as was the case with the very old saga of Fergus mac Léti, which was rewritten, perhaps in the 14th century, to include a story of a people of tiny stature—the leprechauns. Most important of all, a flood of translations from Latin and English began. The stories of......
  • Ferguson, Abbie Park (American educator)
    American educator, a founder and preserver of Huguenot College as the only women’s college in South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
  • Ferguson, Adam (Scottish philosopher)
    historian and philosopher of the Scottish “common sense” school of philosophy who is remembered as a forerunner of modern sociology for his emphasis on social interactions. Ferguson’s article on history appeared in the second edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (see Britannica Classic: history)....
  • Ferguson, Donald (American music theorist)
    ...in music, though this emotional content may be extramusical (even if not explicit) in origin, according to the American theorists John Hospers in Meaning and Truth in the Arts (1946) and Donald Ferguson in Music as Metaphor (1960). Meyer has made the observation that while most referentialists are expressionists, not all expressionists are referentialists. He makes the useful......
  • Ferguson, Elizabeth Graeme (American writer)
    early American writer, perhaps best remembered for her personal correspondence, journal, and salons and for her incongruously pro-British actions during the American Revolution....
  • Ferguson, Harry George (Irish industrialist)
    British industrialist who designed and manufactured agricultural machines, notably the Ferguson tractor....
  • Ferguson, Helen (British author)
    British novelist and short-story writer known for her semiautobiographical surreal fiction dealing with the themes of mental breakdown and self-destruction....
  • Ferguson, Lake (lake, Mississippi, United States)
    ...Union troops during the American Civil War. The present city was established on the Blantonia Plantation during the Reconstruction period. After a disastrous flood in 1927, higher levees were built. Lake Ferguson was created in the 1930s when an S-shaped curve in the Mississippi River was straightened....
  • Ferguson, Maynard (Canadian musician)
    Canadian jazz musician (b. May 4, 1928, Verdun [now Montreal], Que.—d. Aug. 23, 2006, Ventura, Calif.), was a virtuoso trumpet player who thrilled audiences by playing solos in phenomenally high notes and leading big bands of top young musicians. Ferguson moved to the United States in the late 1940s and first became regarded as a high-note specialist while in the Stan Kenton band (1950...
  • Ferguson, Patrick (Scottish soldier and inventor)
    British soldier, marksman, and inventor of the Ferguson flintlock rifle....
  • Ferguson rifle (firearms)
    British soldier, marksman, and inventor of the Ferguson flintlock rifle....
  • Ferguson, Robert (British conspirator)
    Scottish conspirator and pamphleteer known as “the Plotter,” who gave indiscriminate support to the opponents of Charles II and James II and then to the Jacobites against William III....
  • Ferguson, Samuel (Irish writer)
    Samuel Ferguson was an Ulster Protestant, unionist, and cultural nationalist whose poetry and prose, as well as antiquarian work, provided foundational texts for the Gaelic revival of the 1830s and also, crucially, for a subsequent revival, the Irish literary renaissance, that began in the last decades of the 19th century. In 1833 he wrote A Dialogue Between the Head and Heart......
  • Ferguson, Samuel David (American religious leader)
    first African American bishop of the Episcopal Church....
  • Ferguson, Tom R. (American cowboy)
    American cowboy who six times consecutively (1974–79) won the all-around cowboy title of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (before 1975, the Rodeo Cowboys Association), breaking Larry Mahan’s record of five consecutive titles (1966–70)....
  • Ferguson tractor (agricultural machine)
    British industrialist who designed and manufactured agricultural machines, notably the Ferguson tractor....
  • Ferguson, Walter Maynard (Canadian musician)
    Canadian jazz musician (b. May 4, 1928, Verdun [now Montreal], Que.—d. Aug. 23, 2006, Ventura, Calif.), was a virtuoso trumpet player who thrilled audiences by playing solos in phenomenally high notes and leading big bands of top young musicians. Ferguson moved to the United States in the late 1940s and first became regarded as a high-note specialist while in the Stan Kenton band (1950...
  • Ferguson, William (Australian politician)
    ...government control policy. In 1932 the formation, under William Cooper, of the Australian Aboriginals League spurred black political action—which had some history back to the 1840s. Cooper and William Ferguson organized protest against Australia’s sesquicentennial celebrations in January 1938: “There are enough of us remaining to expose the humbug of your claims, as White.....
  • fergusonite (mineral)
    The niobium titanate minerals, such as fergusonite, euxenite, samarskite, and blomstrandine, are rich in the heavy rare-earth elements but are not used much commercially. The same is true of such silicates as gadolinite and allanite. Other commercial sources of rare-earth oxides are certain uranium- and apatite-mining operations in which the rare earths are obtained as a by-product......
  • Fergusson Island (island, Papua New Guinea)
    largest of the D’Entrecasteaux Islands, Papua New Guinea, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The island lies 30 miles (50 km) across Ward Hunt Strait from the southeastern tip of New Guinea, in the Solomon Sea. It is separated from Goodenough Island (northwest) by Moresby Strait and from Normanby Island (southeast) by Dawson Strait. The volcanic island, measuring 40 by 30...
  • Fergusson, Robert (Scottish poet)
    Scottish poet who was one of the leading figures of the 18th-century revival of Scots vernacular writing and the chief forerunner of Robert Burns....
  • feriae (ancient Roman festival days)
    ancient Roman festival days during which the gods were honoured and all business, especially lawsuits, was suspended. Feriae were of two types: feriae privatae and feriae publicae. The feriae privatae, usually celebrated only by ...
  • Feriae Conceptivae (ancient Roman festival)
    ...to Jupiter, and the Kalends of March, which belonged to Mars. Famous examples of Feriae Publicae were the Lupercalia (February 15) and Saturnalia (December 17, later extended). There were also the Feriae Conceptivae, the dates of which were fixed each year by the proper authority, and which included the Feriae Latinae (“Latin Festival”) celebrated in the Alban Hills, usually at th...
  • Feriae Latinae (ancient Roman festival)
    in Roman religion, the Festival of Jupiter Latiaris (Latialis), held in the spring and fall each year on Mons Albanus (Monte Cavo), in the Alban Hills near Rome. Apparently antedating the foundation of Rome, it eventually was observed by all 47 members of the Latin League....
  • feriae privatae (ancient Roman festival days)
    ...festival days during which the gods were honoured and all business, especially lawsuits, was suspended. Feriae were of two types: feriae privatae and feriae publicae. The feriae privatae, usually celebrated only by families or individuals,......
  • feriae publicae (ancient Roman festival days)
    ...all business, especially lawsuits, was suspended. Feriae were of two types: feriae privatae and feriae publicae. The feriae privatae, usually celebrated only by families or individuals, commemorated an event of personal or ancestral importance.....
  • Ferio (syllogistic)
    First figure:Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferio,...
  • Ferison (syllogistic)
    Bocardo, Ferison....
  • Férj és nő (novel by Kemény)
    ...the atmosphere is depressing, and the style is difficult. His heroes, entangled in personal and historical conflicts, move inexorably toward destruction. His novels of contemporary life, such as Férj és nő (1852; “Husband and Wife”), are pervaded by the same atmosphere of tragedy. Kemény’s masterful grasp of motivation and his fine evocati...
  • Ferlinghetti, Lawrence (American poet)
    American poet, one of the founders of the Beat movement in San Francisco in the mid-1950s. His City Lights bookshop was an early gathering place of the Beats, and the publishing arm of City Lights was the first to print the Beats’ books of poetry....
  • Ferlinghetti, Lawrence Monsanto (American poet)
    American poet, one of the founders of the Beat movement in San Francisco in the mid-1950s. His City Lights bookshop was an early gathering place of the Beats, and the publishing arm of City Lights was the first to print the Beats’ books of poetry....
  • Ferlo (region, Senegal)
    relict river valley and region of interior northern Senegal. It lies south of the fertile valley of the Sénégal River and the Fouta region and east of the peanut (groundnut) basin of the western plains. Ferlo is a dry, featureless expanse of savanna with only a few small scattered settlements. Its inhabitants are the F...
  • Fermanagh (district, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    district, extreme southwestern Northern Ireland. Formerly a county, Fermanagh was established as a district (within the same boundaries) in 1973. It is bounded by the districts of Dungannon and Omagh to the northeast and by the Republic of Ireland to the west, south, and east. The district lies chiefly in the ruggedly scenic Erne basin, which divides it into two nearly equal sec...
  • Fermat, Pierre de (French mathematician)
    French mathematician who is often called the founder of the modern theory of numbers. Together with René Descartes, Fermat was one of the two leading mathematicians of the first half of the 17th century. Independently of Descartes, Fermat discovered the fundamental principle of analytic geometry. His methods for finding tangents to cu...
  • Fermat prime (mathematics)
    prime number of the form 22n + 1, for some positive integer n. For example, 223 + 1 = 28 + 1 = 257 is a Fermat prime. On the basis of his knowledge that numbers of this form are prime for values of n from 1 through 4, the French mathem...
  • Fermat’s great theorem (mathematics)
    the statement that there are no natural numbers (1, 2, 3, …) x, y, and z such that xn + yn = zn, in which n is a natural number greater than 2. For example, if n = 3, Fermat’s theorem states that no natural numbers x, y, and z ...
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