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  • Ge yao (pottery)
    kiln known for the wares it produced during the early Song dynasty (960–1162), probably in the Zhejiang province in China. Scholars are uncertain of the kiln’s exact location. Legends recorded in documents of the Ming dynasty suggest that the kiln was named after the elder brother of the director of the Longquan kiln. Typical forms of Ge ware included tripods, fish...
  • Geagea, Samir (Lebanese politician)
    In January 1990 intense strife broke out in East Beirut between Aoun and Samir Geagea, who then headed the LF, which proved very costly for the Maronite community and, over several months, resulted in the deaths of numerous (mostly Christian) Lebanese. The final vestiges of the Lebanese civil war were at last extinguished on Oct. 13, 1990, when Syrian troops launched a ground and air attack......
  • GEAR (South African economic plan)
    ...South Africa was then faced with the problem of integrating the previously disenfranchised and oppressed majority into the economy. In 1996 the government created a five-year plan—Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR)—that focused on privatization and the removal of exchange controls. GEAR was only moderately successful in achieving some of its goals but was......
  • gear (mechanics)
    machine component consisting of a toothed wheel attached to a rotating shaft. Gears operate in pairs to transmit and modify rotary motion and torque (turning force) without slip, the teeth of one gear engaging the teeth on a mating gear. If the teeth on a pair of mating gears are arranged on circles, i.e., if the gears are toothed wheels, the ratios of the rotary speeds and torques of the ...
  • gear oil
    In gear lubrication the oil separates metal surfaces, reducing friction and wear. Extreme pressures develop in some gears, notably those in the rear axles of cars, and special additives must be employed to prevent the seizing of the metal surfaces. These oils contain sulfur compounds that form a resistant film on the surfaces, preventing actual metal-to-metal contact....
  • gear pump (mechanics)
    The most common type of gear pump is illustrated in Figure 1. One of the gears is driven and the other runs free. A partial vacuum, created by the unmeshing of the rotating gears, draws fluid into the pump. This fluid is then transferred to the other side of the pump between the rotating gear teeth and the fixed casing. As the rotating gears mesh together, they generate an increase in pressure......
  • gear shaper (tool)
    ...such as making screws, and it presaged the momentous developments of the 20th century. Various gear-cutting machines reached their full development in 1896 when F.W. Fellows, an American, designed a gear shaper that could rapidly turn out almost any type of gear....
  • gear wheel
    machine component consisting of a toothed wheel attached to a rotating shaft. Gears operate in pairs to transmit and modify rotary motion and torque (turning force) without slip, the teeth of one gear engaging the teeth on a mating gear. If the teeth on a pair of mating gears are arranged on circles, i.e., if the gears are toothed wheels, the ratios of the rotary speeds and torques of......
  • gear-cutting machine
    Three basic cutting methods are used for machining gears: (1) form cutting, (2) template cutting, and (3) generating. The form-cutting method uses a cutting tool that has the same form as the space between two adjacent teeth on a gear. This method is used for cutting gear teeth on a milling machine. The template-cutting method uses a template to guide a single-point cutter on large bevel-gear......
  • gear-generating method (machinery)
    Most cut gears produced in large lots are made on machines that utilize the gear-generating method. This method is based on the principle that two involute gears, or a gear and rack, with the same diametral pitch will mesh together properly. Therefore, a cutting tool with the shape of a gear or rack may be used to cut gear teeth in a gear or rack blank. This principle is applied in the design......
  • gear-hobbing machine
    Gear-hobbing machines use a rotating, multiple-tooth cutting tool called a hob for generating teeth on spur gears, worm gears, helical gears, splines, and sprockets. More gears are cut by hobbing than by other methods because the hobbing cutter cuts continuously and produces accurate gears at high production rates. In gear-making machines gears can be produced by cutting, grinding, or a......
  • Geash (Nigeria)
    town, capital of Plateau state, on the Jos Plateau (altitude 4,250 feet [1,295 metres]) of central Nigeria, on the Delimi River and near the source of the Jamaari River (called the Bunga farther downstream). Formerly the site of Geash, a village of the Birom people, the town developed rapidly after the British learned, about 1903, of vast tin...
  • Geaster (genus of fungi)
    Another genus is Geastrum (Geaster), consisting of about 50 widespread species of earthstars with an expanded starlike base. They are found among dead leaves in woods in summer and autumn....
  • Geastrales (order of fungi)
    ...puffballs; included in subclass Agaricomycetidae; example genera include Boletus, Scleroderma, Coniophora, and Rhizopogon. Order GeastralesFound under trees, mainly conifers; spherical or egg-shaped fruiting bodies resemble mushrooms, some become star-shaped after splitting open to release spor...
  • Geastrum (genus of fungi)
    Another genus is Geastrum (Geaster), consisting of about 50 widespread species of earthstars with an expanded starlike base. They are found among dead leaves in woods in summer and autumn....
  • Geb (Egyptian god)
    in ancient Egyptian religion, the god of the earth, the physical support of the world. Geb constituted, along with Nut, his sister, the second generation in the Ennead (group of nine gods) of Heliopolis. In Egyptian art Geb, as a portrayal of the earth, was often depicted lying by the feet of Shu, the air god, with ...
  • Gêba River (river, Africa)
    ...concelhos (municipalities) of Farim, Bissorã, and Mansôa in the mid-1970s. Oio’s border with the Quinará region, its neighbour to the south, is formed by the Gêba River, which flows east-west. The Mansôa River flows east-west through the southern half of the region, and the Farim River (called the Cacheu River in its lower course)...
  • Gebal (ancient city, Lebanon)
    ancient seaport, the site of which is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, about 20 miles (30 km) north of the modern city of Beirut, Lebanon. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world. The name Byblos is Greek; papyrus received its early Greek name (byblos, byblinos) from its bein...
  • Gebel, Matthes (German artist)
    ...the greatest sensitivity in capturing individual character in his portraits. Friedrich Hagenauer, active in Munich and in Augsburg (1527–32), produced more than 230 medals. In Nürnberg, Matthes Gebel (active 1525–54) and his follower Joachim Deschler (active 1540–69) were the principal medalists. Ludwig Neufahrer worked mainly in Nürnberg and the Austrian Habs...
  • Gebel-Williams, Gunther (American animal trainer)
    German-born American circus animal trainer (b. Sept. 12, 1934, Schweidnitz, Ger. [now Swidnica, Pol.]—d. July 19, 2001, Venice, Fla.), was one of the most celebrated circus entertainers in history. As animal trainer for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, he was particularly known for his work with big cats; among other feats, he trained lions to ride on the backs of el...
  • Geber (Spanish alchemist)
    unknown author of several books that were among the most influential works on alchemy and metallurgy during the 14th and 15th centuries....
  • Gebhard (archbishop of Cologne)
    ...for power in Europe among the Habsburg dynasties, France, England, and the Netherlands—was likely to lead to a general war. A series of incidents moved events toward the brink. In 1582 the archbishop-elector of Cologne, having converted to Calvinism, challenged the Ecclesiastical Reservation of the 1555 Augsburg treaty by holding on to his title, thus threatening to give the majority......
  • Gebhard of Dollnstein-Hirschberg (pope)
    pope from 1055 to 1057....
  • Gebrauchsmusik (music)
    music intended, by virtue of its simplicity of technique and style, primarily for performance by the talented amateur rather than the virtuoso. Gebrauchsmusik is, in fact, a modern reaction against the intellectual and technical complexities of much 19th- and 20th-century music, complexities that exalt the professional virtuoso and exclude the amateur from active participation. The purpose ...
  • Gebroeders Jurgens (Netherlands company)
    ...companies founded in the 19th century. In The Netherlands the Jurgens family had been in the dairy business for some 50 years when in 1854 two brothers, Anton and Johannes, formed a partnership, Gebroeders Jurgens, at Oss and began concentrating on butter export, chiefly to Britain. The heavy demand for increasingly expensive butter, however, led the company in 1871 to start producing the......
  • Gebrüder Thonet (German corporation)
    His representative works shown at the Great Exhibition, London (1851), were a huge success. In 1853 he incorporated with his sons, renaming his firm Gebrüder Thonet. By 1856 he had perfected the bending by heat of solid beechwood into curvilinear shapes, and he was ready for mass production, exporting as far as South America. Factories were later established in Hungary and Moravia.......
  • “Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik, Die” (work by Nietzsche)
    Nietzsche’s first book, Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik (1872; The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music), marked his emancipation from the trappings of classical scholarship. A speculative rather than exegetical work, it argued that Greek tragedy arose out of the fusion of what he termed Apollonian and Dionysian elements—the former represent...
  • Gécamines (African company)
    ...of Conakat (Confédération des Associations Tribales du Katanga), a political party that was supported by Tshombe’s ethnic group, the powerful Lunda, and by the Belgian mining monopoly Union Minière du Haut Katanga, which controlled the province’s rich copper mines. At a conference called by the Belgian government in 1960 to discuss independence for the Congo, ...
  • Gecarcinidae (invertebrate)
    any crab of the family Gecarcinidae (order Decapoda of the class Crustacea), typically terrestrial, square-bodied crabs that only occasionally, as adults, return to the sea. They occur in tropical America, West Africa, and the Indo-Pacific region. All species feed on both animal and plant tissue. Cardisoma guanhumi, a land crab of Bermuda, the West Indies, and the southern United St...
  • Gecarcinus lateralis (crustacean)
    ...fields, swamps, and mangrove thickets. Some penetrate inland as far as 8 km (about 5 miles). Adults weigh about 0.5 kg (18 ounces) and measure about 11 cm (4 inches) across the carapace, or back. Gecarcinus lateralis, occurring from Bermuda to Guyana, is 9 cm wide. Like Cardisoma, it may live a considerable distance from the ocean....
  • gecko (reptile)
    any lizard of the family Gekkonidae, which contains over 100 genera and nearly 1,000 species. Geckos are mostly small, usually nocturnal reptiles with a soft skin. They also possess a short stout body, a large head, and typically well-developed limbs. The ends of each limb are often equipped with digits possessing adhesive pads. Most species are 3 to 15 cm (1....
  • Gecko (missile)
    The SA-8 Gecko, first deployed in the mid-1970s, was a fully mobile system mounted on a novel six-wheeled amphibious vehicle. Each vehicle carried four canister-launched, semiactive radar homing missiles, with a range of about 7.5 miles, plus guidance and tracking equipment in a rotating turret. It had excellent performance but, in Syrian hands during the 1982 conflict in Lebanon, proved......
  • Ged, William (Scottish goldsmith)
    Scottish goldsmith who invented (1725) stereotyping, a process in which a whole page of type is cast in a single mold so that a printing plate can be made from it. His work was opposed by typefounders and compositors, and the process was abandoned until the early 1800s....
  • Gedaliah (governor of Judah)
    When Jerusalem finally fell, Jeremiah was released from prison by the Babylonians and offered safe conduct to Babylonia, but he preferred to remain with his own people. So he was entrusted to Gedaliah, a Judaean from a prominent family whom the Babylonians appointed as governor of the province of Judah. The prophet continued to oppose those who wanted to rebel against Babylonia and promised the......
  • Gedaliah, Fast of (Judaism)
    a minor Jewish observance (on Tishri 3) that mournfully recalls the assassination of Gedaliah, Jewish governor of Judah and appointee of Nebuchadrezzar, the Babylonian king. Gedaliah, a supporter of Jeremiah, was slain by Ishmael, a member of the former royal family of Judah. When the remaining Jews fled to Egypt, Jewish self-rule was thus effectively ended. Liturgically, the fast of Gedaliah foll...
  • “Gedancken über die Nachahmung der griechischen wercke in der Mahlerey und Bildhauer-Kunst” (essay by Winckelmann)
    ...that he came into contact with the world of Greek art. There he wrote the formative essay, Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst (1755; Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks, 1765), in which he maintained, “The only way for us to become great, or even inimitable if possible, is to imitate the......
  • “Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst” (essay by Winckelmann)
    ...that he came into contact with the world of Greek art. There he wrote the formative essay, Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst (1755; Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks, 1765), in which he maintained, “The only way for us to become great, or even inimitable if possible, is to imitate the......
  • Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit (work by Feuerbach)
    ...theological studies to become a student of philosophy under G.W.F. Hegel for two years at Berlin. In 1828 he went to Erlangen to study natural science, and two years later his first book, Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit (“Thoughts on Death and Immortality”), was published anonymously. In this work Feuerbach attacked the concept of personal immortality and......
  • Gedaref, El- (The Sudan)
    town, east-central Sudan. It is situated about 120 miles (200 km) southwest of Kassalā town. Located at an elevation of 1,975 feet (608 metres), it is a commercial centre for the cotton, cereals, sesame seeds, and fodder produced in the surrounding area. The Gash Irrigation Project is located to the northeast of Al-Qaḍārif. Light industries include cotton ginning and spinning ...
  • Gedda, Luigi (Italian politician)
    ...high point in the 1950s when Pius’s failing health left the power of the Vatican increasingly in the hands of conservative cardinals, including Alfredo Ottaviani, head of the Holy Office. In 1952 Luigi Gedda, president of Catholic Action, fearing that the Christian Democrats might lose the municipal elections in Rome, proposed a Christian Democratic coalition with the parties of the righ...
  • Geddes, James (American engineer, lawyer, and politician)
    American civil engineer, lawyer, and politician who played a leading role in the construction of the Erie Canal, one of the first great engineering works in North America....
  • Geddes, Norman Bel (American theatrical designer)
    American theatrical designer whose clean, functional decors contributed substantially to the trend away from naturalism in 20th-century stage design. As an important industrial designer he helped popularize “streamlining” as a distinct modern style....
  • Geddes, Norman Melancton (American theatrical designer)
    American theatrical designer whose clean, functional decors contributed substantially to the trend away from naturalism in 20th-century stage design. As an important industrial designer he helped popularize “streamlining” as a distinct modern style....
  • Geddes, Sir Patrick (Scottish biologist and sociologist)
    Scottish biologist and sociologist who was one of the modern pioneers of the concept of town and regional planning....
  • Gede, Mount (mountain, Indonesia)
    The landscape of Jawa Barat is dominated by a chain of volcanoes, both active and extinct, that from west to east includes Mounts Sanggabuwana, Gede, Pangrango, Kendang, and Tjereme. The highest of these peaks rise to elevations of about 10,000 feet (3,000 metres). A series of these volcanoes cluster together to form a great tangle of upland that also includes the Priangar Plateau,......
  • Gedenklider (book by Glatstein)
    ...in which Glatstein renounces Western civilization and defiantly turns back to the Jewish ghetto. As the destruction of eastern European Jews was taking place, Glatstein published Gedenklider (1943; “Memorial Poems”). A persona poem, Der bratslaver tsu zayn soyfer (“The Bratslav Rebbe to His Scribe”), in the voice of.....
  • Gedeon (biblical figure)
    a judge and hero-liberator of Israel whose deeds are described in the Book of Judges. The author apparently juxtaposed two traditional accounts from his sources in order to emphasize Israel’s monotheism and its duty to destroy idolatry. Accordingly, in one account Gideon led his clansmen of the tribe of Manasseh in slaying the Midianites, a horde of desert raiders; but, influenced by the cu...
  • Gedge, Ernest (British explorer)
    ...slopes. Elgonyi was the Masai name for the mountain. The Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson visited the southern side of Elgon in 1883; in 1890 Frederick (later Sir Frederick) Jackson and Ernest Gedge traversed the caldera from north to south....
  • Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (Tibetan Buddhist)
    Following the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, a search was undertaken to discover his reincarnation. In 1995 the Dalai Lama recognized six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama, but this choice was rejected by the Chinese government, which took the boy into custody. The Chinese government appointed Gyancain Norbu the 11th Panchen Lama in late 1995....
  • Gedicht eines Skalden (work by Gerstenberg)
    ...He left the service and spent the next 12 years in Copenhagen, where he became a friend of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, the leading writer of the German Enlightenment. During that time he wrote Gedicht eines Skalden (1766; “Poems of an Old Norse Bard”), in which he introduced bardic poetry into German literature with the use of material and themes from Norse antiquity. His...
  • Gedichte (collection of poetry)
    ...to a young novelist, Levin Schücking (1814–83), for whom, despite their difference in age, she developed a deep, suppressed, and unreciprocated passion. Her first collection of poetry, Gedichte (1838; “Poems”), included poems of a deeply religious nature. Between 1829 and 1839 she wrote a cycle of religious poems, Das geistliche Jahr (1851; “The....
  • “Gedichte 1853 und 1854” (work by Heine)
    ...(1851), is full of heartrending laments and bleak glosses on the human condition; many of these poems are now regarded as among his finest. A final collection, Gedichte 1853 und 1854 (Poems 1853 and 1854), is of the same order. After nearly eight years of torment, Heine died and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery....
  • Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten (poetry by Müller)
    Müller’s reputation was established by the Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten, 2 vol. (1821–24; “Poems from the Posthumous Papers of a Traveling Bugler”), folk lyrics that attempt to display emotion with complete simplicity, and Lieder der Griechen (1821–24; “Songs of the Greeks”), a collectio...
  • Gedichte eines Lebendigen (work by Herwegh)
    ...literary career as a journalist. Called up for military duty, he tactlessly insulted an officer and was forced to flee to Switzerland. There he found a publisher for his best-known collection, Gedichte eines Lebendigen (1841, 1843; “Poems of One Living”), political poems expressing the aspirations of German youth. Although the book was confiscated, it made his reputation......
  • Gedichten (poetry by Ostaijen)
    ...a poetic system of his own. He set out this principle in the profound essay Gebruiksaanwijzing der lyriek (1927; “Lyrical Poetry: Directions for Use”) and embodied it in Gedichten (1928; “Poems”), a collection of evocative fragments of exceptional sensibility and haunting musicality that represents his best and most original poems....
  • Gedichten, 1904–1938 (work by Nijlen)
    ...“The Phoenix Bird”), and Geheimschrift (1934; “Secret Writing”). He gained a wider audience when in 1938 he at last published a one-volume selection from his poems, Gedichten, 1904–1938. Subsequent publications included De Dauuwtrapper (1947; “The Dew Trapper”) and Te laat voor deze wereld (1957; “Too Late for T...
  • Gedik Paşa Theatre (theatre, Istanbul, Turkey)
    The Gedik Paşa Theatre, which is named for the area in Istanbul where it was located, was the first theatre in which Turkish plays were produced by native actors speaking in Turkish. The actors received a salary, and local writers presented their own plays. Originally built for foreign companies, the theatre was reconstructed in 1867 and reopened in 1868 for a Turkish company headed by......
  • Gediminas (grand duke of Lithuania)
    grand duke of Lithuania, the strongest contemporary ruler of eastern Europe....
  • Gedling (district, England, United Kingdom)
    borough (district), administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, east-central England. The district takes its name from the former village of Gedling, which was engulfed in the expansion of the eastern suburbs of the city of Nottingham. The district extends from the River Trent in the south to the Sherwood Forest in the north and includes the Nottingham suburbs of Arno...
  • Gedrosia (historical region, Pakistan)
    historic region west of the Indus River, in what is now the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. In 325 bc Alexander the Great’s forces suffered disastrous losses there from the effects of the desert, supply shortages, and monsoons. They captured the area, but after Alexander’s death his general Seleucus Nicator was forced to make peace with Chandragupta ...
  • Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (arts centre, Jakarta, Indonesia)
    ...theatrical works that typically fuse Indonesian and international idioms. In 1987 the Indonesian government completed the renovation of colonial Schouwburg Weltevreden (1821) theatre to become the Jakarta Arts Building (Gedung Kesenian Jakarta); this institution also hosts major musical and theatrical productions from across the globe. Both institutions sponsor an array of international......
  • Gedymin (grand duke of Lithuania)
    grand duke of Lithuania, the strongest contemporary ruler of eastern Europe....
  • Gee (British radar-beam system)
    From late 1943 the RAF used two radar-beam systems called Gee and Oboe to guide its Lancaster and Halifax bombers to cities on the Continent. In addition, the bombers carried a radar mapping device, code-named H2S, that displayed reasonably detailed pictures of coastal cities such as Hamburg, where a clear contrast between land and water allowed navigators to find the target areas.......
  • Gee, Kenneth (British athlete)
    English rugby player, a member of the powerful Wigan club that won the Rugby League (RL) Challenge Cup in 1948. He was also vital as forward in Wigan’s RL championship wins of 1945–46, 1946–47, and 1949–50 and the Challenge Cup victory of 1951....
  • Gee, Maurice (New Zealander author)
    novelist best known for his realistic evocations of New Zealand life. He also wrote popular books for juveniles....
  • Geechee (people)
    ...grew rich. Meanwhile, the island’s black population, brought to the island to work the plantations, contributed to the development of the region’s creole language and culture that came to be called Gullah. In 1861 Union forces attacked and occupied the island, which was then used as a fueling station for ships blockading the Confederate coast during the American Civil War....
  • Geechee (language)
    English-based creole vernacular spoken primarily by African Americans living on the seaboard of South Carolina and Georgia (U.S.), who are also culturally identified as Gullahs or Geechees (see also Sea Islands). Gullah developed in rice fields during the 18th century as a result of contact between colonial varieties of English and th...
  • Geel (Belgium)
    commune, Antwerp province, northern Belgium, in the Kempenland (Campine) Plateau, east of Antwerp. Renowned for its unique system of family care for the mentally ill, it is linked with the Irish martyr St. Dymphna. According to tradition, in the 7th century, she was beheaded there by her demented father after she refused to marry him, and persons suffering from men...
  • Geel, Jacob (Dutch writer)
    Although Jacob Geel’s essays in Onderzoek en phantasie (1838; “Inquiry and Fantasy”) set a new standard in philological and philosophical criticism in Dutch literature, Geel’s liberal rationalism was almost swept aside by the growing wave of Romanticism. Simultaneously, the freethinking born of the Enlightenment roused the militancy of the Calvinists, who realize...
  • geeldikopp (veterinary science)
    ...animals result from ingestion of plants having photodynamic pigments. For example, St. Johnswort’s disease is caused by the plant Hypericum. Fagopyrism results from eating buckwheat. In geeldikopp (“yellow thick head”), the photodynamic agent is produced in the animal’s own intestinal tract from chlorophyll derived from plants. In humans the heritable conditio...
  • Geelong (Victoria, Australia)
    second largest city of Victoria, Australia, and a major port on Corio Bay (an extension of Port Phillip Bay). Founded in 1837, its name is a derivation of the Aboriginal word jillong, which means “the place of the native companion,” referring to a long-legged water bird. Formally declared a town in 1838, it was proclaimed a municipality in 18...
  • Geelong and Dutigalla Association (Tasmanian settler organization)
    (1836–39), organization of settlers from Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) formed to purchase and develop the grazing land of the unsettled Port Phillip District (later the colony of Victoria) of southeastern Australia; its efforts precipitated the large-scale colonization of the area....
  • Geelong Cats (Australian football team)
    ...as the AFL) in 1982 with the Hawthorn Football Club, where he played in only six games before returning home to further develop his skills. He returned to the top league in 1984, signing with the Geelong Football Club. He stayed at Geelong for the remainder of his career, playing 242 games for the Cats before retiring in 1996. He won Geelong’s Best and Fairest (top player) Award in 1984 ...
  • Geelong Football Club (Australian football team)
    ...as the AFL) in 1982 with the Hawthorn Football Club, where he played in only six games before returning home to further develop his skills. He returned to the top league in 1984, signing with the Geelong Football Club. He stayed at Geelong for the remainder of his career, playing 242 games for the Cats before retiring in 1996. He won Geelong’s Best and Fairest (top player) Award in 1984 ...
  • Geelvink Bay (bay, New Guinea)
    The Geelvink Bay area, including several offshore islands, is located at the northwestern end of New Guinea in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. Its style of sculpture seems closely related to those of such eastern Indonesian islands as Tanimbar and Leti, probably as a result of relatively recent influences. The most famous works from the area are the korwar figures, small statues......
  • geer (Indian dance)
    The typical folk dance of Rājasthān is the ghoomar, which is performed on festive occasions only by women. The geer dance (performed by men and women), the paniharī (a graceful dance for women), and the kacchi ghori (in which male dancers ride dummy horses) are also popular. The most famous song is “Kurja,” which tells the story of a.....
  • Geer, Dirk Jan de (prime minister of The Netherlands)
    conservative statesman and prime minister of The Netherlands (1926–29, 1939–40) who was disgraced for attempting to negotiate a peace settlement between Great Britain and Nazi Germany in 1940....
  • Geer, Gerhard Jakob, Friherre De (Swedish geologist)
    Swedish geologist, originator of the varve-counting method used in geochronology....
  • Ge’ermu (China)
    city, central Qinghai sheng (province), western China. Golmud is an important highway centre, standing at the intersection of two ancient routes that more recently have become highways. One links Xining in Qinghai and Lanzhou in Gansu province in the east with the western Qaidam Basin...
  • Geertgen tot Sint Jans (Dutch painter)
    Dutch painter of religious subjects, notable for his harmonious fusion of the elements of the landscape....
  • Geertz, Clifford (American anthropologist)
    American cultural anthropologist, a leading rhetorician and proponent of symbolic anthropology and interpretive anthropology....
  • Geertz, Clifford James (American anthropologist)
    American cultural anthropologist, a leading rhetorician and proponent of symbolic anthropology and interpretive anthropology....
  • Geesink, Anton (Dutch athlete)
    Dutch athlete who was the first non-Japanese to win a world championship in judo....
  • Geestmünde (Germany)
    ...the Weser. It became a municipality by the amalgamation of three separate towns: Bremerhaven, founded (1827) as a port for Bremen by its burgomaster, Johann Smidt, on territory ceded by Hanover; Geestemünde, founded by Hanover in competition in 1845; and Lehe, a borough dating from medieval times that attained town status in 1920. The union of Lehe and Geestemünde in 1924 formed.....
  • geʿez (vocal music)
    ...a specific melodic formula, or serayu. In performance, a formula is embellished with improvised melodic ornaments. There are also apparently three distinctly different manners of chanting: geʿez, in which most melodies are performed; araray, presumably containing “cheerful” melodies and used only infrequently in services; and ezel, used in period...
  • Geez language
    liturgical language of the Ethiopian church. Geʿez is a Semitic language of the Southern Peripheral group, to which also belong the South Arabic dialects and Amharic, one of the principal languages of Ethiopia. Both Geʿez and the related languages of Ethiopia are written and read from left to right, in contrast to the other Semitic languages....
  • Geʿez language
    liturgical language of the Ethiopian church. Geʿez is a Semitic language of the Southern Peripheral group, to which also belong the South Arabic dialects and Amharic, one of the principal languages of Ethiopia. Both Geʿez and the related languages of Ethiopia are written and read from left to right, in contrast to the other Semitic languages....
  • Geʿez Tewahdo (church, Ethiopia)
    independent Christian patriarchate in Ethiopia. The church recognizes the honorary primacy of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria. It is headquartered in Addis Ababa....
  • Gefäller, Georg (German engineer)
    ...was patented in the United States in 1892 and an Austrian device in 1902. Swiss mailmen and delivery boys used the device, but the sport did not develop until after World War II. In 1948 the German Georg Gefäller manufactured the Gefäller Ei (“Gefäller Egg”), which he called a skibob. The sport slowly became international as it spread from Austria to......
  • “Gefangenen Befreiung; Predigten aus den Jahren 1954–59, Den” (work by Barth)
    ...made regular visits to the prison in Basel, and his sermons to the prisoners, Den Gefangenen Befreiung; Predigten aus den Jahren 1954–59 (1959; Deliverance to the Captives), reveal in a unique way the combination of evangelical passion and social concern that had characterized all of his life. Barth died in Basel at age 82....
  • Gefara (plain, Africa)
    coastal plain of northern Africa, on the Mediterranean coast of extreme northwestern Libya and of southeastern Tunisia. Roughly semicircular, it extends from Qābis (Gabes), Tunisia, to about 12 miles (20 km) east of Tripoli, Libya. Its maximum inland extent is approximately 80 miles (130 km), and its area of 14,300 square miles (37,000 square km) is abo...
  • Geffen, David (American businessman)
    Spielberg was also the executive producer of many television series, documentaries, and films by other directors. In 1994 he joined with studio executives Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to form DreamWorks SKG, an entertainment company created to produce movies, animation, recordings, and television programs. In 2006 they sold the company to Viacom for $1.6 billion. Two years later......
  • Geffrard, Fabre (president of Haiti)
    ...and became particularly repressive; however, his regime was in some ways a return to power for the blacks. He tried unsuccessfully to annex the Dominican Republic, and in 1859 one of his generals, Fabre Geffrard, overthrew him. Geffrard encouraged educated mulattoes to join his government and established Haitian respectability abroad....
  • Gefn (Norse mythology)
    (Old Norse: “Lady”), most renowned of the Norse goddesses, who was the sister and female counterpart of Freyr and was in charge of love, fertility, battle, and death. Her father was Njörd, the sea god. Pigs were sacred to her, and she rode a boar with golden bristles. A chariot drawn by cats was another of her vehicles. It was Freyja...
  • Geg (people)
    The two main subgroups of Albanians are the Gegs (Ghegs) in the north and the Tosks in the south. Differences between the two groups were quite pronounced before World War II. Until the communist takeover in 1944, Albanian politics were dominated by the more numerous Gegs. Renowned for their independent spirit and fighting abilities, they traditionally opposed outside authority, whether that of......
  • Geg (language)
    ...family. Influenced by centuries of rule by foreigners, the Albanian vocabulary has adopted many words from the Latin, Greek, Turkish, Italian, and Slavic tongues. There are two principal dialects: Geg, spoken north of the Shkumbin River, and Tosk, spoken in the south. Geg dialects are also spoken in Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia, and Tosk dialects, though somewhat archaic as a......
  • Gegenbaur, Karl (German anatomist)
    German anatomist who demonstrated that the field of comparative anatomy offers important evidence in support of evolutionary theory....
  • gegenschein (astronomy)
    oval patch of faint luminosity exactly opposite to the Sun in the night sky. The patch of light is so faint it can be seen only in the absence of moonlight, away from city lights, and with the eyes adapted to darkness. The gegenschein is lost in the light of the Milky Way in the summer and winter. The best observing periods are February, March, April, August, September, and October. The gegenschei...
  • Geharnischte Sonette (poem by Rückert)
    ...Liebesfrühling (1844; “Dawn of Love”), poems written during his courtship of Luise Wiethaus, whom he married in 1821. One of his best known works is a martial poem, Geharnischte Sonette (published in Deutsche Gedichte,1814; “Armoured Sonnets”), a stirring exhortation to Prussians to join in the Wars of Liberation (1813–15) from......
  • Geheime Staatspolizei (Nazi political police)
    the political police of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo ruthlessly eliminated opposition to the Nazis within Germany and its occupied territories and was responsible for the roundup of Jews throughout Europe for deportation to extermination camps....
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