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amnesty
amnesty , in law, exemption from prosecution for criminal action. It signifies forgiveness and the forgetting of past actions. Amnesties are usually extended to a group of persons during a period of prolonged disorder or insurrection. The criminals are offered a promise of immunity from prosecution ...
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recapitulation
recapitulation theory, stated as the biogenetic law by E. H. Haeckel , that the embryological development of the individual repeats the stages in the evolutionary development of the species. For example, the beginnings of gill clefts appear in both humans and fish, but while they are elaborated an...
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Test Act
Test Act 1673, English statute that excluded from public office (both military and civil) all those who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, who refused to receive the communion according to the rites of the Church of England, or who refused to renounce belief in the Roman Catholi...
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Burghers
Burghers , in the 18th cent., a party of the Secession Church of Scotland, resulting from one of the "breaches" in the history of Presbyterianism. To qualify as a burgess in certain burghs one was required to take an oath accepting the "true religion presently professed within this realm." O...
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cargo cult
cargo cult native religious movement found in Melanesia and New Guinea, holding that at the millennium the spirits of the dead will return and bring with them cargoes of modern goods for distribution among its adherents. The cult had its beginnings in the 19th cent. and received great impetus from ...
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Havelock Ellis
Havelock Ellis (Henry Havelock Ellis), 1859-1939, English psychologist and author. He became a qualified physician but devoted himself to scientific study and writing. Although the first volume of the Studies in the Psychology of Sex (7 vol., 1897-1928; completed ed. 4 vol., 1936) was banned on c...
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Roger Eugene Maris
Roger Eugene Maris , 1934-85, American baseball player, b. Hibbing, Minn. He played (1957-59) for Cleveland and the Kansas City Athletics before joining (1960) the New York Yankees. In 1961, Maris hit 61 home runs, breaking Babe Ruth 's record of 60 in one season. Ford C. Frick, commissioner of bas...
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Americans with Disabilities Act
Americans with Disabilities Act U.S. civil-rights law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. Its primary emphasis is on enabling these persons to enter the job market and remain employed, but it also outlaws most physical bar...
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brandy
brandy [for brandywine, from Du.,=burnt, i.e., distilled, wine], strong alcoholic spirit distilled from wine or from marc, the residue of the wine press. The most noted brandy is cognac, made from white grapes in the Charente district of France. The label Cognac, fine champagne denotes the finest...
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mandamus
mandamus [Lat.,=we order], in law, writ directing the performance of ministerial acts. A ministerial act is one that a person or body is obliged by law to perform under given circumstances; e.g., on receipt of the fee, a license clerk must grant a marriage license to persons legally qualified to ...
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