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referendum
referendum referral of proposed laws or constitutional amendments to the electorate for final approval. This direct form of legislation, along with the initiative , was known in Greece and other early democracies. Today, these legislative devices are widely used in certain countries, most notably ...
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Edward Bruce
Edward Bruce d. 1318, Scottish king of Ireland, brother of Robert I of Scotland. He aided his brother in the war for independence from England and in 1315 was declared heir to Robert's throne. With Robert's approval he then invaded Ulster, to which he had some hereditary claim. He was crowned kin...
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Saint Joseph of Arimathea
Saint Joseph of Arimathea , in the New Testament, wealthy man, probably a member of the Sanhedrin, who gave the body of Jesus a decent burial. The Christian Church has always honored him. The stories connecting him with the Holy Grail and with the founding of Glastonbury are probably literary fi...
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Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie (Lady Peel), 1898-1989, British comedienne, b. Toronto, Ont. as Constance Munston. Lillie first performed in London in 1914 and in New York in 1924. She won an international reputation for her sophisticated wit, use of parody, and vivacity. She appeared in revues, on radio, and in t...
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metropolitan area network
metropolitan area network A metropolitan area network, often abbreviated to MAN, is an IEEE-approved network that serves a metropolitan area such as a city or a town, although it is not restricted to such uses. For example, the term has been used to describe a network connecting a number of local u...
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Roberto de Nobili
Roberto de Nobili , 1577-1656, Italian Jesuit missionary. He was ordained in Rome in 1603 after seven years of training in Naples and sailed the following year for India with a group of Portuguese missionaries. For his unconventional adoption of Hindu customs, he was censured by the authorities in 1...
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norm
norm authoritative rule or standard by which something is judged and on that basis approved or disapproved. Examples of norms include standards of right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, and truth and falsehood. Several fields of philosophy, especially ethics , aesthetics , and logic , evaluate su...
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Pinyin
Pinyin [Chin. pinyin zimu = phonetic alphabet], system of romanization of Chinese written characters, approved in 1958 by the government of the People's Republic of China and officially adopted by it in 1979. Its use replaces that of the more complex Wade-Giles system (1859; modifie...
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protease inhibitor
protease inhibitor , any of a class of drugs that interfere with replication of the AIDS virus ( HIV ), by blocking an enzyme (protease) necessary in the late stages of its reproduction. Clinical trials of the protease inhibitor indinavir have shown it to be especially beneficial in combination wi...
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Bank of the United States
Bank of the United States name for two national banks established by the U.S. Congress to serve as government fiscal agents and as depositories for federal funds; the first bank was in existence from 1791 to 1811 and the second from 1816 to 1836.
The First Bank
The first bank was establis...
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