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wādī (dry channel)
a dry channel lying in a semiarid or desert area and subject to flash flooding during seasonal or irregular rainstorms. Such transitory streams, rivers, or creeks are noted for their gullying effects and especially for their rapid rates of erosion, transportation, and deposition. There have been reports of up to 8 feet (2 m) of deposition in 60 years and like amounts of erosion during a single flo...
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Wādī al-Bībān al-Harīm (archaeological site, Egypt)
gorge in the hills along the western bank of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. It was part of ancient Thebes and served as the burial site of the queens and some royal children of the 19th and 20th dynasties (1292–1075 bc). The queens’ necropolis is located about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the mortuary temple of ...
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Wādī al-Bībān al-Mulūk (archaeological site, Egypt)
long, narrow defile just west of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. It was part of the ancient city of Thebes and was the burial site of almost all the kings (pharaohs) of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties (1539–1075 bce), from Thutmose I...
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Wādī al-Harīm (archaeological site, Egypt)
gorge in the hills along the western bank of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. It was part of ancient Thebes and served as the burial site of the queens and some royal children of the 19th and 20th dynasties (1292–1075 bc). The queens’ necropolis is located about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the mortuary temple of ...
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Wādī al-Jadīd, al- (governorate, Egypt)
desert muḥāfaẓah (governorate), southwestern Egypt. It includes the entire southwestern quadrant of the country, from the Nile River valley (east) to the frontiers with The Sudan (south) and Libya (west). Its total area covers approximately two-fifths of Egypt. Until 1958 the governorate was known as Al-Ṣaḥrāʾ ...
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Wādī al-Makhāzin, Battle of the (Moroccan history)
(Aug. 4, 1578), defeat dealt the invading Portuguese armies of King Sebastian by the Saʿdī sultan of Morocco, ʿAbd al-Malik....
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Wādī al-Mulūk (archaeological site, Egypt)
long, narrow defile just west of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. It was part of the ancient city of Thebes and was the burial site of almost all the kings (pharaohs) of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties (1539–1075 bce), from Thutmose I...
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Wadi Al-Murabbaʿāt (ancient site, Middle East)
The documents were recovered in the Judaean wilderness from five principal sites: Khirbat Qumrān, Wadi Al-Murabbaʿāt, Naḥal Ḥever (Wadi Khabrah) and Naḥal Ẓeʾelim (Wadi Seiyal), Wadi Daliyeh, and Masada. The first manuscripts, accidentally discovered in 1947 by a shepherd boy in a cave at Khirbat Qumrān on the northwestern shore of......
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Wādī Ana (river, Europe)
one of the longest streams of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing generally westward through south-central Spain and southeastern Portugal to the Gulf of Cádiz in the Atlantic Ocean. The river has a drainage area of 23,455 square miles (60,748 square km), a length of 483 miles (778 km), and about 30 major tributaries. Its flow is relatively meagre—only about half that of the Tagus or the...
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Wādī Ath-Tharthār (river, Iraq)
intermittent stream of north-central Iraq, rising from several headstreams in the Sinjār Mountains (west of Mosul) and flowing southward to Lake Tharthār, which is a reservoir 60 miles (100 km) long. The reservoir, formerly a playa lake that varied in size with the amount of rainfall, has been connected by regulators and channels to the Sāmarrāʾ Barrage on the Ti...
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Wādī Ḥalfā (The Sudan)
town, extreme northern Sudan. It lies on the east bank of the Nile River 6 miles (10 km) below the Second Cataract, just south of the Egyptian border. Located within ancient Nubia, the town and its environs are rich in antiquities; the ruins of Buhen—an Egyptian colony of the Middle Kingdom period that existed until Roman times—lie across the river. A terminus of both railway and ste...
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Wādī-Ash (Spain)
town, Granada provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Andalusia, southern Spain, northeast of Granada city. The town originated as the Acci of the Romans; its present name was corrupted from the Arabic Wādī-A...
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wading bird
any member of the suborder Charadrii (order Charadriiformes) that is commonly found on sea beaches or inland mudflats; in Britain they are called waders, or wading birds. Shorebirds include the avocet, courser, lapwing, oystercatcher, phalarope, plover, pratincole, ...
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wadiyar (Mysore rulers)
...In the latter part of the 16th century the Vijayanagar empire faded, giving place to Mughal power north of the Tungabhadra River and to the rajas of Mysore in the south. In the 17th century the wadiyars (“rulers”) of Mysore profited from the conflict between the Mughal Empire and the Marāṭhās in western India, as well as from the internal power struggle...
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Wadjet (Egyptian goddess)
cobra goddess of ancient Egypt. Depicted as a cobra twined around a papyrus stem, she was the tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt. Wadjet and Nekhbet, the vulture-goddess of Upper Egypt, were the protective goddesses of the king and were sometimes represented together on the king’s diadem, symbolizing his reign over all of Egypt. The form...
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Wadjit (Egyptian goddess)
cobra goddess of ancient Egypt. Depicted as a cobra twined around a papyrus stem, she was the tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt. Wadjet and Nekhbet, the vulture-goddess of Upper Egypt, were the protective goddesses of the king and were sometimes represented together on the king’s diadem, symbolizing his reign over all of Egypt. The form...
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Wadsworth (Wyoming, United States)
city, Fremont county, west-central Wyoming, U.S. It lies along the Bighorn River at the mouth of the Wind River. Founded as Wadsworth in 1906, it was renamed Riverton because of its location near the convergence of four rivers....
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Wadsworth Atheneum (art museum, Hartford, Connecticut, United States)
...interest, including the tombstone of the American Revolutionary War hero Israel Putnam. A gem of colonial architecture is the old three-story brick statehouse (1796) designed by Charles Bulfinch. Wadsworth Atheneum, the oldest free public art museum in the United States, was opened in Hartford in 1844. The city’s nationally famous urban renewal project, Constitution Plaza, was dedicated ...
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Wadsworth, Charles (American clergyman)
...her sister and father, who was then ending his term as U.S. representative. On the return trip the sisters made an extended stay in Philadelphia, where it is thought the poet heard the preaching of Charles Wadsworth, a fascinating Presbyterian minister whose pulpit oratory suggested (as a colleague put it) “years of conflict and agony.” Seventy years later, Martha Dickinson Bianch...
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Wadsworth, Edward (British artist)
...whose work was strongly influenced by Cubist and Futurist geometry and colour, also joined the London Group. These included the abstract sculptor Jacob Epstein, the Vorticists Wyndham Lewis and Edward Wadsworth, and the Cubist painter David Bomberg....
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Waelhens, Alphonse de (Belgian philosopher)
...Thus, mainly through Van Breda’s efforts, Louvain has become the most important centre for Phenomenology. Van Breda also organized international colloquia on Phenomenology. The influence of Alphonse de Waelhens, a Belgian philosopher of fresh experience and author of Phénoménologie et vérité (1953) and Existence et signification (1958),....
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Wafangdian (China)
city, southern Liaoning sheng (province), northeastern China. It is situated in the south-central part of the Liaodong Peninsula and is an important market centre for an agricultural and fruit-growing area that specializes in apples, pears, and grapes. It has developed industries producing various industrial chemicals as...
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“Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ az-zamān” (work by Ibn Khallikān)
...al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ az-zamān (“Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch”; trans. by Baron de Slane, Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary, 1842–74). He began arranging material for it in 1256 and worked on it until 1274, continuing to improve it with marginal notes. He excluded the...
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Wafd (political party, Egypt)
(Arabic: “Egyptian Delegation”), nationalist political party that was instrumental in gaining Egyptian independence from Britain. Organized by Saʿd Zaghlūl on Nov. 13, 1918, as a permanent delegation of the Egyptian people, it demanded a voice in London and at the peace conferences following World War I. In March 1919 the British temporarily exiled i...
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Wafd al-Misri, al- (political party, Egypt)
(Arabic: “Egyptian Delegation”), nationalist political party that was instrumental in gaining Egyptian independence from Britain. Organized by Saʿd Zaghlūl on Nov. 13, 1918, as a permanent delegation of the Egyptian people, it demanded a voice in London and at the peace conferences following World War I. In March 1919 the British temporarily exiled i...
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Wafdist Youth, League of (Egyptian politics)
About 1937 the Wafd organized the League of Wafdist Youth (Rabitat ash-Shubbān al-Wafdiyyīn) in order to train future members. The league became a source for the Wafd’s paramilitary organization, the Blueshirts, which had its fascist counterpart in the Greenshirts. Until the dissolution of all political parties by the Revolution Command Council in 1953, the party controlled fo...
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wafer (food)
Rye wafers made of whipped batters are modern versions of an ancient Scandinavian food. High-moisture dough or batter, containing a substantial amount of rye flour and some wheat flour, is whipped, extruded onto an oven belt, scored and docked, then baked slowly until almost dry. Alternatively, the strips of dough may be cut after they are baked....
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wafer ash (tree)
(species Ptelea trifoliata), tree, of the rue family (Rutaceae), native to eastern North America. It has small, greenish white flowers; strong-smelling leaves in groups of three leaflets; and buff-coloured, wafer-shaped, winged fruits. The hop tree is cultivated as an ornamental....
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wafer-box (writing accessory)
...Later inkstands contain a wide variety of accessories, such as a taper stick (a candlestick to hold small tapers), pounce box (for sprinkling pounce, a powdered gum that fixed ink to paper), wafer-box (to hold wafers used to seal letters), a penknife, and quills. The use of inkstands gradually disappeared after fountain pens were perfected early in the 20th century....
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Waffen-SS (German military organization)
...units proved only partially successful. In all three countries several armed police battalions composed of volunteers were organized to provide military support away from their homelands. Waffen-SS—that is, frontline divisions serving on the Eastern Front—were also organized. Estonia contributed one such unit and Latvia two. In 1944 a Lithuanian home defense unit was......
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waffle (food)
crisp raised cake baked in a waffle iron, a hinged metal griddle with a honeycombed or fancifully engraved surface that allows a thin layer of batter to cook evenly and crisply. Baking powder is the typical leavening in American waffles, and yeast waffles are eaten in Belgium and France. In the United States and Canada waffles are a popular breakfast food, topped with butter and maple syrup or fr...
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waffle slab (construction)
...systems are employed. One is the pan joist system, a standardized beam and girder system of constant depth formed with prefabricated sheet-metal forms. A two-way version of pan joists, called the waffle slab, uses prefabricated hollow sheet-metal domes to create a grid pattern of voids in a solid floor slab, saving material without reducing the slab’s strength. The simplest and most......
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Wafipa (people)
a Bantu-speaking people linguistically related to Lungu, Pimbwe, and Mambwe who inhabit the Ufipa plateau between lakes Tanganyika and Rukwa in southwestern Tanzania. From prehistoric times the plateau has been a corridor between northeastern and south central Africa. The Fipa are an amalgam of commoners whose ancestors came from south or southwest of Lake Tanganyika (e.g., the Tabwa and related p...
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Wag the Dog (film by Levinson [1997])
...the actor returned to form as a sleazy, fame-hungry Hollywood producer who coconspires to fool the entire world into believing that the United States is at war with Albania in Wag the Dog (1997), a biting political satire that gave Hoffman his seventh Academy Award nomination. He later portrayed the grand inquisitor in the French production of ......
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waga (statue)
The Konso are notable for the erection of wagas, memorial statues to a dead man who has killed an enemy or an animal such as a lion or a leopard. These stylized wooden carvings are arranged in groups, representing the man, his wives, and his vanquished adversaries....
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“Waga haha no ki” (work by Inoue)
Inoue is also known for his autobiographical narratives. Waga haha no ki (1975; Chronicle of My Mother), his moving and humorous account of his mother’s decline, exemplifies the characteristics of a Japanese poetic diary as well as the classical zuihitsu, a highly personal mode of recording experience...
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“Waga seishun ni kuinashi” (film by Kurosawa)
Kurosawa’s Waga seishun ni kuinashi (1946; No Regrets for Our Youth) portrays the history of Japanese militarism from 1933 through the end of the war in terms of a person executed on suspicion of espionage during the war. Of the many postwar films criticizing Japanese militarism, this was the most successful, both artistically and commercial...
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Wagadu (historical West African empire)
first of the great medieval trading empires of western Africa (fl. 7th–13th century). It was situated between the Sahara (Desert) and the headwaters of the Sénégal and Niger rivers, in an area that now comprises southeastern Mauritania and part of Mali. Ghana was populated by Soninke clans of Mande-speaking people who acted as intermediaries between the Ara...
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Wagadugu (Burkina Faso)
capital and largest town of Burkina Faso, West Africa. It was the capital of the historic Mossi kingdom of Wagadugu (founded in the 15th century) and the seat of the morho naba (“great king”) of the Mossi people. Islam became the religion of the kings under Naba Dulugu (ruled 1796?–1825?). The ...
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Wagadugu kingdom (historical kingdom, Africa)
...south of Hausaland and of Bornu. However, it has already been suggested that Dagomba (and a number of similar kingdoms in the Volta basin, including Mamprusi) and the Mossi kingdoms—such as Wagadugu (Ouagadougou) and Yatenga (or Wahiguya), north of Dagomba and closer to the Niger Bend—were founded by conquerors coming from the east. The structures of these kingdoms, which were......
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Wagagai (mountain, Uganda)
extinct volcano on the Kenya-Uganda boundary. Its crater, about 5 miles (8 km) in diameter, contains several peaks, of which Wagagai (14,178 feet [4,321 m]) is the highest. Its extrusions cover about 1,250 square miles (3,200 square km) and consist largely of fragmental rocks and only a smattering of lavas. The mountain slope is gentle and the outline unimpressive. On the east and southeast at......
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Waganda (people)
people inhabiting the area north and northwest of Lake Victoria in south-central Uganda. They speak a Bantu language—called Ganda, or Luganda—of the Benue-Congo group. The Ganda are the most numerous people in Uganda and their territory the most productive and fertile. Once the core of the Uganda Protectorate, they have a higher standard of living and are more literate and modernized...
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wage (economics)
income derived from human labour. Technically, wages and salaries cover all compensation made to employees for either physical or mental work, but they do not represent the income of the self-employed. Labour costs are not identical to wage and salary costs, because total labour costs may include such items as cafeterias or meeting rooms mai...
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wage theory (economics)
portion of economic theory that attempts to explain the determination of the payment of labour....
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wage-earner investment fund (finance)
Unemployment became a central issue of the 1982 parliamentary elections, along with the deficit and a proposal by the Social Democrats to establish a wage-earner investment fund. The Social Democrats won a resounding victory in the elections, and a new government was formed by Palme. The elections signaled a new polarization of Swedish politics, with the Moderate Party (as the Conservative......
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wage-fund theory (economics)
Smith said that the demand for labour could not increase except in proportion to the increase of the funds destined for the payment of wages. Ricardo maintained that an increase in capital would result in an increase in the demand for labour. Statements such as these foreshadowed the wages-fund theory, which held that a predetermined “fund” of wealth existed for the payment of......
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wage-price control (economics)
setting of government guidelines for limiting increases in wages and prices. It is a principal tool in incomes policy....
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Wagener, Isabella Van (American evangelist and social reformer)
African American evangelist and reformer who applied her religious fervour to the abolitionist and women’s rights movements....
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Wagenia (people)
Almost all the river peoples engage in fishing. Along the narrow sections, where rapids often occur, fishing is only of interest to a small number of villages. The Enya (Wagenia) of Boyoma Falls and the Manyanga living downstream from Malebo Pool attach fish traps to stakes or to dams built in the rapids themselves. Fishing of a very different nature, notably by poison, is conducted in the......
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Wagenseil, Georg Christoph (Austrian composer)
In the development of sonata form in orchestral music, particular value attaches to the work of the Austrians Georg Matthias Monn (1717–50) and Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715–77) and of the Italian Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1701–75). All three played vital roles in shaping the symphony, which assumed an importance equal to that of the solo or small-ensemble sonata. Their....
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Wagenseil, Johann Christoph (German encyclopaedist)
Before the 19th century, only Johann Wagenseil had produced an encyclopaedia for children—the Pera Librorum Juvenilium (1695; “Collection of Juvenile Books”). Larousse issued Petite Encyclopédie du jeune âge (“Small Children’s Encyclopaedia”) in 1853, but the next, Encyclopédie Larousse des enfants...
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wager
the betting or staking of something of value, with consciousness of risk and hope of gain, on the outcome of a game, a contest, or an uncertain event whose result may be determined by chance or accident or have an unexpected result by reason of the bettor’s miscalculation....
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Wages and Hours Act (United States [1938])
the first act in the United States prescribing nationwide compulsory federal regulation of wages and hours, sponsored by Sen. Robert F. Wagner of New York and signed on June 14, 1938, effective October 24. The law, applying to all industries engaged in interstate commerce, established a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour for the first year, to be increased to 40 cents within seven years. No worker ...
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wages, bargaining theory of
The bargaining theory of wages holds that wages, hours, and working conditions are determined by the relative bargaining strength of the parties to the agreement. Smith hinted at such a theory when he noted that employers had greater bargaining strength than employees. Employers were in a better position to unify their opposition to employee demands, and employers were also able to withstand......
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Wages of Fear, The (novel by Arnaud)
Arnaud, who later returned to France, wrote several novels and travel stories, many of which reflected his own adventurous life. His most popular novel was Le salaire de la peur (1950; The Wages of Fear), a story about truck drivers who carried loads of nitroglycerine across treacherous mountain terrain in South America. The novel sold an estimated two million copies worldwide and......
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wages, subsistence theory of (economics)
The subsistence theory of wages, advanced by David Ricardo and other classical economists, was based on the population theory of Thomas Malthus. It held that the market price of labour would always tend toward the minimum required for subsistence. If the supply of labour increased, wages would fall, eventually causing a decrease in the labour supply. If the wage rose above the subsistence......
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wages-fund theory (economics)
Smith said that the demand for labour could not increase except in proportion to the increase of the funds destined for the payment of wages. Ricardo maintained that an increase in capital would result in an increase in the demand for labour. Statements such as these foreshadowed the wages-fund theory, which held that a predetermined “fund” of wealth existed for the payment of......
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Wagga Wagga (New South Wales, Australia)
city, southeastern New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Murrumbidgee River. A service centre for the fertile Riverina district (chiefly wheat and sheep), it is also the site of an agricultural college and research institute, a college of advanced education, a soil-conservation research station, and a Royal Australian Air Force base. Secondary industries include a rubber-g...
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Wagnalls, Adam Willis (American publisher)
In 1877, with a former classmate, Adam Willis Wagnalls, he founded I.K. Funk & Company, afterward (from 1891) Funk & Wagnalls Company, in New York City. The firm became best known for A Standard Dictionary of the English Language (1st ed., 1893; subsequent editions entitled A New Standard Dictionary of the English Language)....
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Wagner Act (United States [1935])
the single most important piece of labour legislation enacted in the United States in the 20th century. It was enacted to eliminate employers’ interference with the autonomous organization of workers into unions....
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Wagner, Carl (German chemist and metallurgist)
German physical chemist and metallurgist who helped advance the understanding of the chemistry of solid-state materials, especially the effects of imperfections at the atomic level on the properties of compounds such as oxides and sulfides, and of metals and alloys....
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Wagner, Cosima (German art director)
wife of the composer Richard Wagner and director of the Bayreuth Festivals from his death in 1883 to 1908....
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Wägner, Elin (Swedish author)
The development of the novel was associated with Gustaf Hellström, Sigfrid Siwertz, Ludvig Nordström, and Elin Wägner. Hellström’s work as a journalist in Europe, the United States, and England greatly influenced him. Irony and careful detail emerged in his best-known novel, Snörmakare Lekholm får en idé (1927; Lacemaker Le...
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Wagner, Herbert (German engineer)
...which linked a compressor, combustion chamber, and turbine in the same duct. In ignorance of Whittle’s work, three German engineers independently arrived at the same concept: Hans von Ohain in 1933; Herbert Wagner, chief structural engineer for Junkers, in 1934; and government aerodynamicist Helmut Schelp in 1937. Whittle had a running bench model by the spring of 1937, but backing from....
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Wagner, Honus (American athlete)
American professional baseball player, one of the first five men elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (1936). He was generally considered the greatest shortstop in baseball history and by some was regarded as the finest all-around player in the history of the National League....
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Wagner, J. (artist)
...
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Wagner, John Peter (American athlete)
American professional baseball player, one of the first five men elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (1936). He was generally considered the greatest shortstop in baseball history and by some was regarded as the finest all-around player in the history of the National League....
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Wagner, Julius, Ritter von Jauregg (Austrian psychiatrist)
Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist whose treatment of syphilitic meningoencephalitis, or general paresis, by the artificial induction of malaria brought a previously incurable fatal disease under partial medical control. His discovery earned him the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1927....
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Wagner, Martin von (German sculptor)
...Subsequent Neoclassicists included Johann Gottfried Schadow, who was also a painter but is better known as a sculptor; his pupil, the sculptor Christian Friedrich Tieck; the painter and sculptor Martin von Wagner; and the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch....
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Wagner, Mary Kathlyn (American businesswoman)
American entrepreneur (b. May 12, 1918, Hot Wells, Texas—d. Nov. 22, 2001, Dallas, Texas), was the founder of cosmetics giant Mary Kay Inc. and one of the most famous businesswomen in the world. Ash had held relatively modest jobs in direct sales before establishing her own business in 1963. Mary Kay Cosmetics (as the company was originally known) was an almost instant success, recording ne...
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Wagner, Otto (Austrian architect)
Austrian architect and teacher, generally held to be a founder and leader of the modern movement in European architecture....
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Wagner, Richard (German composer)
German dramatic composer and theorist whose operas and music had a revolutionary influence on the course of Western music, either by extension of his discoveries or reaction against them. Among his major works are The Flying Dutchman (1843), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1850), ...
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Wagner, Robert F. (United States senator)
U.S. senator and leading architect of the modern welfare state....
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Wagner, Robert F. (mayor of New York City)
American Democratic Party politician and mayor of New York City (1954–65)....
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Wagner, Robert Ferdinand (United States senator)
U.S. senator and leading architect of the modern welfare state....
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Wagner, Robert Ferdinand, Jr. (mayor of New York City)
American Democratic Party politician and mayor of New York City (1954–65)....
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Wagner tuba (musical instrument)
Wagner tubas are four-valved, small-bored tubas designed in the 19th century for the German composer Richard Wagner for special effects in his four-part music-drama cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Basically derived from the French horn, they are played by horn players with horn mouthpieces and have a quieter tone colour. The bass and contrabass saxhorns in E♭ and BB♭ are also....
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Wagner, Wieland (German opera director)
...of new projection equipment provided a powerful instrument to produce effects not previously possible. After World War II, at the music festivals at Bayreuth, Ger., Richard Wagner’s grandson Wieland reduced three-dimensional scenic elements to the barest essentials and then flooded the stage with multiple overlapping projected patterns. In subsequent years additional scenic elements were...
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Wagner, Wilhelm Richard (German composer)
German dramatic composer and theorist whose operas and music had a revolutionary influence on the course of Western music, either by extension of his discoveries or reaction against them. Among his major works are The Flying Dutchman (1843), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1850), ...
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Wagner-Jauregg, Julius (Austrian psychiatrist)
Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist whose treatment of syphilitic meningoencephalitis, or general paresis, by the artificial induction of malaria brought a previously incurable fatal disease under partial medical control. His discovery earned him the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1927....
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Wagner’s mustached bat (mammal)
...duration varies with the species and the situation. During cruising flight the pulses of the greater false vampire bat (Megaderma lyra) are 1.5 milliseconds (0.0015 second), those of Wagner’s mustached bat (Pteronotus personatus) 4 milliseconds, and those of the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) 55–65 milliseconds. In......
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Wagner’s salvia (plant)
Montane tropical America has many Salvia species, perhaps the most spectacular of which is Wagner’s salvia (S. wagneri), or chupamiel, a treelike shrub, native near the mountain lakes of Guatemala. It attains more than 4 metres (13 feet) in height and has triangular, 30-cm (12-inch) spikes of woolly, scarlet corollas opening from magenta calyxes. Blue sage (S.......
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Wagogo (people)
a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting central Tanzania. They live in a portion of the East African Rift System. The land is bounded by hills to the east and south, the Bahi Swamp to the west, and the Masai Steppe to the north....
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wagon (vehicle)
four-wheeled vehicle designed to be drawn by draft animals and known to have been used as early as the 1st century bc, incorporating such earlier innovations as the spoked wheel and metal wheel rim. Early examples also had such features as pivoted front axles and linchpins to secure the wheels. In its essential form, therefore, the wagon has been in common use for about 2,000 years....
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wagon (musical instrument)
musical instrument, Japanese six-stringed board zither with movable bridges. The wooden body of the wagon is about 190 cm (75 inches) in length. The musician plays the wagon while seated behind the instrument, which rests on the floor. The strings may be strummed with a plectrum (which is held in the right hand), the fingers of the left hand, or a combination of th...
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wagon (horizontal drive)
...props from offstage to onstage. Although the articulation of horizontal motion on the stage is unlimited, there are several established configurations that are easily identifiable. These include the wagon, in which scenery is built on a low platform mounted on casters so that it can be quickly rolled onstage and offstage; the jackknife stage, similar to the wagon except that it is anchored at.....
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Wagon, The (constellation)
in astronomy, a constellation of the Northern Hemisphere, at about 10 hours 40 minutes right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the Earth) and 56° north declination (angular distance north of the celestial equator). It was referred to in the Old Testament (Job 9:9; 38:32) and mentioned by Homer in the Iliad (xviii, 487). The Greeks identified this co...
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wagon train (North American history)
caravan of wagons organized by settlers in the United States for emigration to the West during the late 18th and most of the 19th centuries. Composed of up to 100 Conestoga wagons (sometimes called prairie schooners), wagon trains soon became the prevailing mode of long-distance overland transportation for both people and goods. Wagon-train transportation moved westward with the...
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wagon vault (architecture)
ceiling or roof consisting of a series of semicylindrical arches. See vault....
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wagon-lit (railroad vehicle)
railroad coach designed for overnight passenger travel. The first sleeping cars were put in service on American railroads as early as the 1830s, but these were makeshift; the first car designed for comfortable nighttime travel was the Pullman sleeper, which was commercially introduced by George M. Pullman and Ben Field in 1865. The sleeping car made its appearance in Britain and Europe somewhat la...
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Wagoner, Porter (American singer)
American singer who was noted for his flashy rhinestone suits and showy white hairdo as a star of the Grand Ole Opry and was credited with helping to launch the career of Dolly Parton, with whom he recorded 14 songs that reached the top 10. Wagoner, who placed 81 singles on the country music charts, had his first hit in 1954 with “Company’s Comin’.” The following year ...
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wagonette (vehicle)
horse-drawn carriage designed to carry a large number of passengers who sat on long bench-style seats facing each other. The driver’s seat was separate and mounted from the front, while passengers boarded the vehicle from a door in the rear. The first wagonette was built in England about 1843 and became a popular vehicle, partially because of the implied endorsement of Prince Albert, the h...
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wagonseel (vehicle)
wheeled vehicle used in the processional staging of medieval vernacular cycle plays. Processional staging is most closely associated with the English cycle plays performed from about 1375 until the mid-16th century in such cities as York and Chester as part of the Corpus Christi festival, but it was also common in Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Each play in the cycle may have been mounted o...
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wagoto (kabuki drama)
...warrior class. By Genroku times, new kabuki dramatic styles had emerged. The actor Sakata Tōjūİō (1647–1709) developed a relatively realistic, gentle style of acting (wagoto) for erotic love stories in Kyōto, while in Edo, a stylized, bravura style of acting (aragoto) was created at almost the same time by the actor Ichikawa Danjūr...
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Wagram, Battle of (European history)
(July 5–6, 1809), victory for Napoleon, which forced Austria to sign an armistice and led eventually to the Treaty of Schönbrunn in October, ending Austria’s 1809 war against the French control of Germany. The battle was fought on the Marchfeld (a plain northeast of Vienna) between 154,000 French and other troops under N...
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Wagram, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de (marshal of France)
French soldier and the first of Napoleon’s marshals. Though Berthier was not a distinguished commander, Napoleon esteemed him highly as chief of staff of the Grande Armée from 1805. Responsible for the operation of Napoleon’s armies, he was called by the Emperor “the man who has served me longest and has never failed me.”...
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Wagstaff, Harold (English rugby player)
English rugby player who was a member of the noted Huddersfield team of 1914–15....
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wagtail (bird)
any of the 7 to 10 species of the bird genus Motacilla, of the family Motacillidae, together with the forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus) of Asia. Wagtails are strongly patterned birds of beaches, meadows, and streamsides; they usually nest on the ground but roost in trees. The birds are so named because they incessantly wag their long tails up and down. The forest wagtail wags i...
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Wāh (Pakistan)
town, Punjab province, northern Pakistan. It is connected by road with Peshāwar and Rāwalpindi and is a growing industrial centre. Wāh’s industries include one of the largest cement factories in the Indian subcontinent, ordnance and tractor plants, and agricultural implements and spare-parts manufacturing. Amenities include a garden said to have been ...
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Wah, Fred (Canadian poet)
...Won’t Let Go, 1999). Also from Saskatchewan, Karen Solie (Short Haul Engine, 2001; Modern and Normal, 2005) is intrigued by physics, fractals, and the landscape. Fred Wah, one of the founders (along with Bowering and Frank Davey) of the Vancouver poetry magazine Tish, explored his roots in the Kootenays in Pictograms from the Inte...
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