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  • halogen element (chemical element group)
    any of the five nonmetallic elements that constitute Group 17 (Group VIIa) of the periodic table. The halogen elements are fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and astatine (At). They were given the name halogen from the Greek roots ...
  • halogen lamp (light)
    The modern era in lighting began in the late 1960s when tungsten-halogen lamps with quartz envelopes came into wide use. The halogen compound is included inside the envelope, and its purpose is to combine with the tungsten evaporated from the hot filament. This forms a compound that is electrically attracted back to the tungsten filament. It thus prevents the evaporated tungsten from condensing......
  • halogen oxide (chemical compound)
    ...in bonding is for them to become partially occupied in accommodating lone-pair electrons from another atom, which is already attached by a single bond, thereby strengthening the bond. The phosphorus oxyhalides, of general formula POX3, appear to be examples of this; their phosphorus–oxygen bonds are observed to be shorter and stronger than expected for ordinary single bonds....
  • halogenated hydrocarbon (chemical compound)
    any chemical compound of the element carbon and one or more of the halogens (bromine, chlorine, fluorine, iodine); two important subclasses of halocarbons are the chlorocarbons, containing only carbon and chlorine, and the fluorocarbons, containing only carbon and fluorine. Examples of chlorocarbons are carbon tetrachloride and tetrachloroethylene; the best known fluorocarbon is...
  • halogenation (chemical reaction)
    An α-hydrogen of an aldehyde can be replaced by a chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), or iodine (I) atom when the compound is treated with Cl2, Br2, or I2, respectively, either without a catalyst or in the presence of an acidic catalyst....
  • Halogeton (plant genus)
    the genus and common name for a poisonous annual weed, belonging to the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae), native to southwestern Siberia and northwestern China. There are nine species in the genus. H. sativus yields an ash rich in bases. H. glomeratus, introduced into Nevada about 1930, has since spread widely in the northwestern United States. It is confined to semidesert, salty land...
  • Haloid Company (American corporation)
    major U.S. corporation and first manufacturer of xerographic, plain-paper copiers. Headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut....
  • Haloid Xerox Company (American corporation)
    major U.S. corporation and first manufacturer of xerographic, plain-paper copiers. Headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut....
  • halon (chemical compound)
    chemical compound formerly used in firefighting. A halon may be any of a group of organohalogen compounds containing bromine and fluorine and one or two carbons. The effectiveness of halons in extinguishing fires arises from their action in interrupting chain reactions that propagate the combustion proce...
  • Halon 104 (chemical compound)
    a colourless, dense, highly toxic, volatile, nonflammable liquid possessing a characteristic odour and belonging to the family of organic halogen compounds, used principally in the manufacture of dichlorodifluoromethane (a refrigerant and propellant). ...
  • Halonen, Tarja (president of Finland)
    On March 1, 2000, Tarja Halonen was inaugurated as president of Finland, the first woman to have won that office. The candidate of the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP), she had defeated on February 6 former prime minister Esko Aho of the Centre Party in the closely contested (51.6–48.4%) second round of Finland’s two-stage election process. She had prevailed by a wider ...
  • haloperidol (drug)
    ...meperidine through inexpensive chemical substitutions. Experiments gave rise to a compound that caused chlorpromazine-like sedation but had a completely different structure. This led to the compound haloperidol, a more powerful antipsychotic with relatively fewer side effects....
  • halophile (biology)
    Water is a fundamental requirement for life. Some bacteria prefer salty environments and are thus called halophiles. Extreme halophiles, such as Halobacterium, show optimum growth in conditions of 20 to 30 percent salt and will lyse (break open) if this salt level is reduced. Such bacteria are found in the Dead Sea, in brine ponds, and occasionally on salted fishes......
  • halophyte (plant)
    Saharan vegetation is generally sparse, with scattered concentrations of grasses, shrubs, and trees in the highlands, in oasis depressions, and along the wadis. Various halophytes (salt-tolerant plants) are found in saline depressions. Some heat- and drought-tolerant grasses, herbs, small shrubs, and trees are found on the less well-watered plains and plateaus of the Sahara....
  • Halosydna (annelid genus)
    ...(protrusible) proboscis cylindrical in shape, with border of soft papillae (nipplelike projections) and 4 chitinous jaws; size, 0.5 to 25 cm; examples of genera: Aphrodita (sea mouse), Halosydna (common scale worm), Arctonoe.Order AmphinomidaFree-moving; prostomium with 1 to 5 antennae, 2 palpi, and a...
  • halothane (drug)
    nonflammable, volatile, liquid drug introduced into medicine in the 1950s and used as a general anesthetic. Halothane rapidly achieved acceptance and became the most frequently used of the potent anesthetics, despite its substantially higher cost than ether and chloroform and its tendency to depress respiration and circulation. Its vapours are not nauseating or irritating to mucous membranes....
  • halotrichite (mineral)
    a sulfate mineral containing aluminum and iron [FeAl2(SO4)4·22H2O]. If more than 50 percent of the iron has been replaced by magnesium, the mineral is called pickeringite. These minerals are usually weathering products of sedimentary rocks that contain aluminum and metallic sulfides and usually occur as efflorescences. They als...
  • Halotti Beszéd (Hungarian funeral oration)
    ...written traces of the Hungarian language are mostly proper names embedded in the Latin text of legal or ecclesiastical documents. The first continuous example of the Hungarian language is the Halotti beszéd, a short funeral oration written in about 1200, moving in its simplicity. Many translations from Latin were made in the 13th and 14th centuries, but the only one that has......
  • Halpa-Runtiyas (king of Patina)
    ...of the leaders of the coalition against Assyria in 853—records that he has built a throne and erected a monument for the Semitic goddess Bahalatis. Another contemporary of Shalmaneser III was Halpa-Runtiyas of Patina, whose name has also been found in the Hieroglyphic Luwian texts of Tell Tayinat and has helped in the dating of that site. It seems likely that Assyria’s contacts wi...
  • Halper, Albert (American author)
    ...To Make My Bread (both 1932). Other notable proletarian novels included Jack Conroy’s The Disinherited (1933), Robert Cantwell’s The Land of Plenty (1934), and Albert Halper’s Union Square (1933), The Foundry (1934), and The Chute (1937), as well as some grim evocations of the drifters and ...
  • Halpern, Leivick (American author)
    H. Leivick (pseudonym of Leivick Halpern), who was born in Belorussia, spent several years imprisoned for political activities and immigrated to the United States in 1913. While he worked as a wallpaper hanger in New York, he was associated with the avant-garde literary group called Di Yunge (“The Young”). Like Peretz, he referred back to folklore and Jewish mysticism, as in his......
  • Halpern, Moyshe Leyb (American poet)
    American poet whose unsentimental and psychologically complex free verse in Yiddish extols socialism, individual rights, and social justice....
  • Hα line (spectral line)
    ...newly formed atom is in an excited energy level and cascades from that level to a lower one with the emission of a line photon. One of the brightest lines in diffuse nebulae, for example, is the red Hα line of hydrogen, arising either from recombination of an H+ ion to the n = 3 level of a hydrogen atom or from a recombination to a higher level followed by a......
  • Ḥalq al-Wādī (Tunisia)
    town located in northern Tunisia and an outport for Tunis. Situated on a sandbar between Lake Tūnis and the Gulf of Tunis, La Goulette (its Arabic name, Ḥalq al-Wādī, means “river’s throat”) is linked to the capital by a canal 7 miles (11 km) long. The main commercial port in Tunisia, it handles a large portion ...
  • ḥalqabandī system
    A laudable experiment in the field of vernacular education was carried out by Lieutenant Governor James Thomason in the North-Western Provinces. Thomason’s ḥalqabandī system attempted to bring primary education within easy reach of the common people. In each ḥalqah (circuit) of villages, a schoo...
  • ḥalqah (Muslim education)
    ...Isfahan, Mashhad, Ghom, Damascus, Cairo, and the Alhambra (Granada), became centres of learning for students from all over the Muslim world. Each mosque usually contained several study circles (ḥalqah), so named because the teacher was, as a rule, seated on a dais or cushion with the pupils gathered in a semicircle before him. The more advanced a student, the closer he was......
  • Hals, Frans (Dutch painter)
    great 17th-century portraitist of the Dutch bourgeoisie of Haarlem, where he spent practically all his life. Hals evolved a technique that was close to Impressionism in its looseness, and he painted with increasing freedom as he grew older. The jovial spirit of his early work is typified by The Merry Company (c. 1616–17). In his middle age his portraits g...
  • Halsey, William F., Jr. (United States naval commander)
    U.S. naval commander who led vigorous campaigns in the Pacific theatre during World War II. He was a leading exponent of warfare using carrier-based aircraft and became known for his daring tactics....
  • Halsey, William Frederick, Jr. (United States naval commander)
    U.S. naval commander who led vigorous campaigns in the Pacific theatre during World War II. He was a leading exponent of warfare using carrier-based aircraft and became known for his daring tactics....
  • Hälsingborg (Sweden)
    city and seaport, Skåne län (county), southern Sweden, at the narrowest part of The Sound (Öresund), opposite the Danish town of Helsingør (Elsinore). It is the most convenient place for motor traffic to cross to and from the European continent. Because of its situation, Helsingborg is kn...
  • Hälsinge Runes (runic alphabet)
    greatly abbreviated runic alphabet, found mainly in inscriptions dating from the 10th to the 12th century in the Hälsingland region of Sweden. Probably developed near Lake Malar, the runes seem to be a simplification of the Swedish-Norwegian Rök runes and lack vertical strokes. See also Rök Stone; runic alphabet....
  • Hälsingland (province, Sweden)
    landskap (province), east-central Sweden, in the southern part of Norrland region. It is bounded on the east by the Gulf of Bothnia, on the south by the landskap of Gästrikland, on the west by those of Dalarna and Härjedalen, and on the north by that of Medelpad. It is included in the administrative län (counties) of Gävleborg and...
  • Halske, Johann Georg (German mechanic)
    ...and invented improvements for it. A specialist on the electric telegraph, he laid an underground line for the Prussian army in 1847 and, at the same time, persuaded a young mechanic named Johann Georg Halske to start a telegraph factory with him in Berlin. In 1848, during hostilities with Denmark at Kiel, Siemens laid a government telegraph line from Berlin to the National Assembly of......
  • Halsted, William Stewart (American surgeon)
    American pioneer of scientific surgery who established at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, the first surgical school in the United States....
  • Halston (American designer)
    American designer of elegant fashions with a streamlined look....
  • Halswelle, Wyndham (British athlete)
    ...between American athletes and British officials. The 400-metre final was nullified by officials who disqualified the apparent winner, American John Carpenter, for deliberately impeding the path of Wyndham Halswelle of the United Kingdom. A new race was ordered, but the other qualifiers, both American, refused to run. Halswelle then won the gold in the only walkover in Olympic history.......
  • Ḥaltami (ancient kingdom, Iran)
    ancient country in southwestern Iran approximately equivalent to the modern region of Khūzestān. Four prominent geographic names within Elam are mentioned in ancient sources: Awan, Anshan, Simash, and Susa. Susa was Elam’s capital, and in classical sources the name of the country is sometimes Susiana....
  • haltere (entomology)
    Adult flies have only one pair of wings, on the mesothorax or second thoracic segment. The hind wings, modified into halteres, have a stalk and a knob, or club, that may be large and heavy relative to the size of the fly. The halteres vibrate up and down in time with the wings and act as gyroscopes in flight. If the fly yaws, rolls, or pitches during flight, the halteres, maintaining their......
  • Halteria grandinella (biology)
    ...mouth) ciliature. For many species an anterior spiralling band of membranelles (cilia fused into a flat plate) serves as an efficient, and in some cases the only, means of locomotion. The species Halteria grandinella is a common freshwater representative of the order. Small and spherical, it has seven groups of three cirri set in small grooves along the middle of the cell. The action of....
  • haltia (Balto-Finnic religion)
    a Balto-Finnic domestic spirit who oversees the household and protects it from harm. The word haltia is derived from the Germanic haldiaz, originally from Gothic haldan referring to the ruler or master of a given area....
  • Haltia, Mount (mountain, Finland)
    highest mountain in Finland, at the extreme northwestern tip of Finnish Lapland on the Norwegian border, rising to 4,357 feet (1,328 m). The peak is located in Finland’s only true mountain range, the Haltia (Halddia in Norway)....
  • Haltiatunturi (mountain, Finland)
    highest mountain in Finland, at the extreme northwestern tip of Finnish Lapland on the Norwegian border, rising to 4,357 feet (1,328 m). The peak is located in Finland’s only true mountain range, the Haltia (Halddia in Norway)....
  • Halticinae (insect)
    any member of the insect subfamily Alticinae (Halticinae) belonging to the leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae (order Coleoptera). These tiny beetles, worldwide in distribution, are usually less than 6 mm (0.25 inch) in length and dark or metallic in colour. The enlarged hindlegs are adapted for jumping. Flea beetles are important pests of cultivated plants: the adults feed on the leaves and the larv...
  • Halticus bractatus (insect)
    The garden fleahopper (Halticus bractatus) is a small, shiny black jumping bug about 2 mm long. The forewings of this short-winged leaf bug lack a membrane and resemble the hard forewings of a beetle. The fleahopper sucks the juices from garden plants. There are usually five generations every season....
  • halting problem (mathematics and logic)
    ...be read from the system once the machine has stopped. (However, in the case of Gödel’s undecidable propositions, the machine would never stop, and this became known as the “halting problem.”)...
  • Halton (unitary authority, England, United Kingdom)
    unitary authority, geographic county of Cheshire, England. The unitary authority comprises Widnes and surrounding suburban areas, on the north shore of the River Mersey in the historic county of Lancashire, and Runcorn and its suburbs, on the south shore of the Mersey in the historic county of Cheshire. The name Halton is ...
  • halus (language style)
    ...and death ceremonies, conform closely to the Javanese pattern, though often mixed with elements of Hindu origin. The Sundanese language, like Javanese, has status styles: kasar (informal), halus (deferential), and panengah (a middle style)....
  • halvah (confection)
    any of several confections of Balkan and eastern Mediterranean origin, made with honey, flour, butter, and sesame seeds or semolina, pressed into loaf form or cut into squares. Halvah is made with a variety of colourings and flavourings. Its texture is characteristically gritty and crisp....
  • Halverstadt, Constance (British actress)
    American-born actress (b. May 15, 1910, Seattle, Wash.—d. Nov. 23, 2005, Oxfordshire, Eng.), enchanted audiences in Britain and the U.S. during a stage and screen career that spanned almost 70 years (1928–96). Cummings began as a chorus girl and appeared in such comedic films as Movie Crazy (1932) and Blithe Spirit (1945), although she later focused on increasingly dark...
  • halyard (ship part)
    ...and sails, such as jibs, are manipulated for trimming to the wind and for making or shortening sail are known as the running rigging. The running rigging is subdivided into the lifts, jeers, and halyards (haulyards), by which the sails are raised and lowered, and the tacks and sheets, which hold down the lower corners of the sails. The history of the development of rigging over the centuries......
  • Halys River (river, Turkey)
    river, the longest wholly within Turkey. It rises in the Kızıl Mountains (kızıl, “red”) in north-central Anatolia at an elevation of about 6,500 feet (1,980 m) and flows southwest, past the towns of Zara and Sivas. It then turns northward in a great crescent-shaped bend, where it breaks through the Pontic Mountains and flows into the Black Sea betwe...
  • Halysites (fossil coral)
    extinct genus of corals found as fossils in marine rocks from the Late Ordovician Period to the end of the Silurian Period (461 million to 416 million years ago). Halysites is also known as the chain coral from the manner of growth observed in fossilized specimens; the genus is colonial, and individual members of the colony construct an elliptical tube next to each other in the manner of c...
  • Ham (biblical figure)
    ...first, the passage attributes the beginnings of agriculture, and in particular the cultivation of the vine, to Noah; second, it attempts to provide, in the persons of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, ancestors for three of the races of mankind and to account in some degree for their historic relations; and third, by its censure of Canaan, it offers a veiled justification for th...
  • Ham (France)
    town, upper valley of the Somme River, Somme département, Picardie région, France, southwest of Saint-Quentin. Its medieval fortress, used for centuries as a state prison, was destroyed by German forces in 1917. Among the fortress’ prisoners in the 15th century had been Joan of Arc, patron saint of France; Prince Louis-Napol...
  • ham (meat)
    the rear leg of a hog prepared as food, either fresh or preserved through a curing process that involves salting, smoking, or drying. The two hams constitute about 18–20 percent of the weight of a pork carcass. In the United States, shoulder portions of pork carcasses are frequently processed and marketed as shoulder hams, picnic hams, Callies, and Californias, but such ...
  • Ham Hindu Nahin (work by Kahn Singh Nabha)
    ...Panth), and they tolerated such things as idols in the Golden Temple. The Tat Khalsa, on the other hand, insisted that Sikhism was a distinct and independent faith. The pamphlet Ham Hindu Nahin (1898; “We Are Not Hindus”), by the Tat Khalsa writer Kahn Singh Nabha, provided an effective slogan for the movement. Other radical adherents, influenced by......
  • Ham Nghi (emperor of Annam)
    emperor of Annam (now Vietnam) in 1884–86 who rejected the role of a figurehead in the French colonial regime....
  • ham radio (communications)
    noncommercial, two-way radio communications. Messages are sent either by voice or in International Morse Code....
  • Hama (Syria)
    city, central Syria, on the banks of the Orontes River. It was an important prehistoric settlement, becoming the kingdom of Hamath under the Aramaeans in the 11th century bc. It fell under Assyrian control in the 9th century bc, later passing under Persian, Macedonian, and Seleucid rule, the Seleucids renaming the city Epiphaneia in the 2nd century ...
  • Ḥamād, Al- (region, Middle East)
    ...plains are duricrusted (covered with a crust of soil formed by salts), having smooth, firm surfaces formed by the cementation of sandy debris at groundwater level. Typical of the stony plains is Al-Ḥamād, which stretches from Al-Nafūd northward into the Syrian Desert. Chert plains were formed on the surface during the Oligocene in the......
  • Hamad Bari (Fulani Muslim leader)
    Fulani Muslim leader in western Africa who established a theocratic state in the Macina region of what is now Mali....
  • Hamada Shōji (Japanese artist)
    Japanese ceramist who revitalized pottery making in Mashiko, where ceramic arts had flourished in ancient times. Hamada was designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government in 1955....
  • Hamadan (Iran)
    city, west-central Iran, at the northeastern foot of Mount Alvand (11,716 feet [3,571 metres]), in Hamadān ostān (province). Itself at an elevation of 6,158 feet (1,877 metres), the city dominates the wide, fertile plain of the upper Qareh Sū River. There is a sizable Turkish-speaking minority....
  • Hamadān (Iran)
    city, west-central Iran, at the northeastern foot of Mount Alvand (11,716 feet [3,571 metres]), in Hamadān ostān (province). Itself at an elevation of 6,158 feet (1,877 metres), the city dominates the wide, fertile plain of the upper Qareh Sū River. There is a sizable Turkish-speaking minority....
  • Hamadan rug
    any of several handwoven floor coverings of considerable variety, made in the district surrounding the ancient city of Hamadan (Ecbatana) in western Iran and brought there for marketing. Several generations ago, many of these rugs were traded through Mosul and consequently were known as Mosul rugs....
  • Hamadānī, al- (Islamic mystic)
    mystic Persian theologian responsible for the propagation of the Kubrāwīyah order of Sufis (Islamic mystics) in Kashmir....
  • Hamadet el-Hamra (plateau, Libya)
    desolate rocky plateau of the Sahara, northwestern Libya. Located mostly in Tripolitania, it occupies an area measuring about 275 mi (440 km) by 190 mi. Its bare rock outcrops reach a height of about 2,700 ft (825 m). Wells are drilled for petroleum, which was discovered in the region in 1976. Some phosphates have also been discovered. The region’s name is Arabic for “red stony plate...
  • Hamadhānī, al- (Islamic author)
    Arabic-language author famed for the introduction of the maqāmah (“assembly”) form in literature....
  • Hamadou, Barakat Gourad (prime minister of Djibouti)
    ...posture in external relations was reflected in its internal politics. Hassan Gouled Aptidon, an Issa Somali, was elected to two consecutive terms as president in 1981 and 1987. Barkat Gourad Hamadou, an Afar serving as prime minister since 1978, was reappointed in 1987. Power appeared to be shared, with ministry appointments following a formula designed to maintain ethnic balance....
  • Hamadryad (Greek mythology)
    ...“mountain”) were nymphs of mountains and grottoes; the Napaeae (nape, “dell”) and the Alseids (alsos, “grove”) were nymphs of glens and groves; the Dryads or Hamadryads presided over forests and trees....
  • hamadryad (reptile)
    The world’s largest venomous snake is the king cobra, or hamadryad (Ophiophagus hannah). Found predominantly in forests from India through Southeast Asia to the Philippines and Indonesia, it preys chiefly on other snakes. Maximum confirmed length is 5.6 metres (18 feet), but most do not exceed 3.6 metres (12 feet). King cobras guard a nest of 20 to 40 eggs, which are laid in ...
  • hamadryas (primate)
    large, powerful monkey of the plains and open-rock areas of the Red Sea coast, both in Africa (Eritrea, The Sudan) and on the opposite coast in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The hamadryas is the smallest baboon species, with a body length of about 60–70 cm (24–28 inches) and weight of up to 18 kg (40 pounds). Females are brown, but males are silvery gr...
  • Hamaguchi Osachi (prime minister of Japan)
    Japanese politician and prime minister (1929–30) at the outset of the Great Depression....
  • Hamaguchi, Yozo (Japanese artist)
    ...used, although in the 20th century the French artist Georges Rouault and the English printmaker Stanley William Hayter each made several plates. Its most distinguished mid-20th-century advocate, Yozo Hamaguchi, a Japanese artist living in Paris, developed techniques for printing colour mezzotint, and other artists, such as Mario Avati of Great Britain and Merlyn Evans of France, have......
  • Hamaguchi Yuko (prime minister of Japan)
    Japanese politician and prime minister (1929–30) at the outset of the Great Depression....
  • Ḥamāh (Syria)
    city, central Syria, on the banks of the Orontes River. It was an important prehistoric settlement, becoming the kingdom of Hamath under the Aramaeans in the 11th century bc. It fell under Assyrian control in the 9th century bc, later passing under Persian, Macedonian, and Seleucid rule, the Seleucids renaming the city Epiphaneia in the 2nd century ...
  • Hamakita (Japan)
    former city, Shizuoka ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the west bank of the Tenryū River, northeast of Hamamatsu. In 2005 it became part of Hamamatsu. Hamakita’s cotton industry began in the late 19th century and grew to some 500 factories; cotton manufacturing declined at the end of the 20th century. Other industrial products include a...
  • Hämäläinen, Marja-Liisa (Finnish skier)
    Finnish Nordic skier who was Finland’s foremost female competitor in the sport. She captured three Olympic gold medals and a bronze at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina). She won seven Olympic medals between 1984 and 1988....
  • Hämäläiset (people)
    ...of Uralic (specifically Finno-Ugric) stock dominated two settlement areas. Those who entered southwestern Finland across the Gulf of Finland were the ancestors of the Hämäläiset (Tavastians, or Tavastlanders), the people of southern and western Finland (especially the historic region of Häme); those who entered from the southeast were the Karelians. Scandinavian peop...
  • Hamamatsu (Japan)
    city, Shizuoka ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies on the Pacific coast, midway between Tokyo and Kyōto. A leading industrial centre with strong economic ties to Nagoya, it is noted for pianos and other musical instruments, motorcycles, cotton dyeing and weaving, and consumer goods. Hamamatsu is the marketing centre for western Shizuoka, serving the areas of L...
  • Hamamelidaceae (plant family)
    the witch hazel family of the order Saxifragales, comprising 23 genera of shrubs and trees native to both tropical and warm temperate regions. It includes mildly popular ornamentals such as witch hazel, winter hazel, and Fothergilla, which are outstanding for their early flowering and fall leaf colour, and sweet gum trees. Members of the family are characterized by alternate, simple leaves ...
  • Hamamelis (plant)
    any of six species of the genus Hamamelis (family Hamamelidaceae), all of which are shrubs and small trees that are native to eastern North America and eastern Asia. Some are grown for their yellow flowers, with four narrow, twisted ribbonlike petals, borne on warm winter days or in early spring. Witch hazels produce small clusters of four-petalled flowers borne close to the branches and h...
  • Hamamelis virginiana (plant)
    American, or common, witch hazel (H. virginiana), up to 4 12 metres (15 feet) tall, bears its flowers in late fall, with the explosive fruits ripening in the following year. Its yellow, cuplike calyx (the collection of sepals) persists through the winter. The common name refers to the forked twigs that were sometimes used for water-witching or dowsing......
  • Haman (biblical figure)
    Haman, chief minister of King Ahasuerus, incensed that Mordecai, a Jew, held him in disdain and refused obeisance, convinced the King that the Jews living under Persian rule were rebellious and should be slaughtered. With the King’s consent, Haman set a date for the execution (the 13th day of the month of Adar) by casting lots and built a gallows for Mordecai....
  • Haman and Mordecai (masque by Handel)
    ...whom he composed the 11 Chandos Anthems and the English masque Acis and Galatea, among other works. Another masque, Haman and Mordecai, was to be the effective starting point for the English oratorio....
  • Hamann, Johann Georg (German philosopher)
    German Protestant thinker, fideist, and friend of the philosopher Immanuel Kant. His distrust of reason led him to conclude that a childlike faith in God was the only solution to vexing problems of philosophy....
  • Hamar (Norway)
    town, southeastern Norway. Hamar lies on the eastern shore of Lake Mjøsa (the largest lake in the country). The diocese of Hamar was founded in 1152 by Nicholas Breakspear, papal legate to Scandinavia, who later became the only English pope as Adrian IV. Ruins of the cathedral and bishop’s palace remain from the destruction of the town (1567) by ...
  • hamartia (drama)
    (hamartia from Greek hamartanein, “to err”), inherent defect or shortcoming in the hero of a tragedy, who is in other respects a superior being favoured by fortune....
  • Hamartigenia (work by Prudentius)
    ...doctrine in a form agreeable to those steeped in the old classical literary tradition. The Apotheosis is directed against disclaimers of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. The Hamartigenia (“The Origin of Sin”) attacks the Gnostic dualism of Marcion and his followers. The Psychomachia describes the struggle of faith, supported by the cardinal......
  • Hamartolos, Georgios (Byzantine historian)
    Byzantine historian, author of a world chronicle that constitutes a prime documentary source for mid-9th-century Byzantine history, particularly the iconoclast (Greek: “image destroyer”) movement....
  • hamartoma (pathology)
    benign tumourlike growth made up of normal mature cells in abnormal number or distribution. While malignant tumours contain poorly differentiated cells, hamartomas consist of distinct cell types retaining normal functions. Because their growth is limited, hamartomas are not true tumours and some, such as hemangiomas that occur as birthmarks, may disappear with time. Bony tumours such as osteoid o...
  • Ḥamās (Palestinian Islamic movement)
    militant Palestinian Islamic movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine. Founded in 1987, Ḥamās opposed the 1993 peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberati...
  • Ḥamāsah (Arabic literature)
    an Arabic anthology compiled by the poet Abū Tammām in the 9th century. It is so called from the title of its first book, which contains poems descriptive of fortitude in battle, patient endurance of calamity, steadfastness in seeking vengeance, and constancy under reproach and in temptation—in a word, the attribute of ḥamāsah....
  • Hamaspathmaēdaya (Zoroastrianism)
    ...Time of Prosperity), in the month of Mitrā; 80 days later, Maidhyāirya (Midwinter), in the month of Dīn; and 75 days later, in the last five intercalary or Gatha days of the year, Hamaspathmaēdaya (Vernal Equinox)....
  • Hamath, Battle of (Egypt-Babylonnia)
    ...Babylon. After a Babylonian reverse at the hands of Egypt in 606/605, he served as commander in chief in his father’s place and by brilliant generalship shattered the Egyptian army at Carchemish and Hamath, thereby securing control of all Syria. After his father’s death on Aug. 16, 605, Nebuchadrezzar returned to Babylon and ascended the throne within three weeks. This rapid conso...
  • Hamazasp Mamikonian (Armenian governor)
    Theodor’s successor, Hamazasp Mamikonian, sided with Byzantium, but after 661 Arab suzerainty was reestablished, although Byzantine-Arab rivalry, Armenian resistance, and reluctance to pay the tribute made the region difficult to govern. An unsuccessful revolt led by Mushegh Mamikonian (771–772) resulted in the virtual extinction of the Mamikonians as a political force in Armenia and...
  • hamāzor (Parsiism)
    ...haoma; the Fravartigan, or Farokhshi, prayers commemorating the dead; and the Satum, prayers recited at funeral feasts. Throughout the day, Parsis greet one another with the rite of hamāzor, in which one’s right hand is passed between the palms of another. Words of greeting and good wishes are then exchanged. ...
  • Hambledon Club (British sports organization)
    The aforementioned Hambledon Club, playing in Hampshire on Broadhalfpenny Down, was the predominant cricket force in the second half of the 18th century before the rise of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. Formed from a cricket club that played at White Conduit Fields, the club moved to Lord’s Cricket Ground in St. Marylebone borough in 1787 and became......
  • Hambleton (district, England, United Kingdom)
    district, administrative county of North Yorkshire, northern England, historic county of Yorkshire, England. It includes part of the Cleveland Hills, whose southern extension is known as the Hambleton Hills, from which the district takes its name. The hills form the west-facing escarpment of the North York Moors, which rise to more than 1,000 feet (305 metres)...
  • Hambletonian (American racehorse)
    (foaled 1849), American harness racehorse (Standardbred) that was the ancestor of most present-day harness racers. The thrice inbred great-grandson of Messenger (foundation sire of the breed of Standardbreds), he was the son of Abdallah out of a crippled mare. His original owner sold him with his dam for $125 to a hired man, William Rysdyk, who eventually became wealthy from Ha...
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