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Potamogalinae (mammal)
any of three species of amphibious and carnivorous tropical African insectivores that are not “true” shrews (family Soricidae). All are nocturnal and den in cavities and burrows in stream banks; tunnel entrances are underwater. Otter shrews have small eyes and ears and a fleshy broad, flat muzzle that ends in a leathery pad. The muzzle is covered...
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Potamogetonaceae (plant family)
any of three species of amphibious and carnivorous tropical African insectivores that are not “true” shrews (family Soricidae). All are nocturnal and den in cavities and burrows in stream banks; tunnel entrances are underwater. Otter shrews have small eyes and ears and a fleshy broad, flat muzzle that ends in a leathery pad. The muzzle is covered...
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Potamon fluviatile (crustacean)
...land crabs, which are abundant in tropical countries, usually visit the sea occasionally and pass through their early stages in it. The river crab of southern Europe (the Lenten crab, Potamon fluviatile) is an example of the freshwater crabs abundant in most of the warmer regions of the world. As a rule,......
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Potaro River (river, Guyana)
...Courantyne, Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo—all flow from the south and empty into the Atlantic along the eastern section of the coast. Among the tributaries of the Essequibo, the Potaro, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni drain the northwest, and the Rupununi drains the southern savanna. The coast is cut by shorter rivers, including the Pomeroon, Mahaica, Mahaicony, and Abary....
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potash (chemical compound)
various potassium compounds, chiefly crude potassium carbonate. The names caustic potash, potassa, and lye are frequently used for potassium hydroxide (see potassium). In fertilizer terminology, potassium oxide...
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potash alum (chemical compound)
...may take the place of aluminum sulfate. The most important alums are potassium aluminum sulfate, ammonium aluminum sulfate, and sodium aluminum sulfate. Potassium aluminum sulfate, also known as potassium alum or potash alum, has a molecular formula of......
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potash clay (mineral)
any of the illite group of clay minerals, including illite, bramallite (a sodium illite), and glauconite. They are structurally related to the micas; glauconite is also a member of the common-mica group. The hydrous micas predominate in shales and muds...
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potash lye (chemical compound)
...for both plant and animal life. Potassium was the first metal to be isolated by electrolysis, by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, when he obtained the element (1807) by decomposing molten potassium hydroxide (KOH) with a voltaic battery....
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potash mica (mineral)
an abundant silicate mineral that contains potassium and aluminum. Muscovite is the most common member of the mica group. Because it occurs in thin, transparent sheets, it was used in Russia for window panes and became known as Muscovy glass (isinglass), hence its name. Muscovite typically occurs in ...
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potash muriate (chemical compound)
...wire is placed in a solution of copper sulfate and a zinc wire in a solution of zinc sulfate; the two solutions are connected electrically by a potassium chloride salt bridge. (A salt bridge is a conductor with ions as charge carriers.) In both kinds of batteries, the energy comes from the difference in the degree of binding between the......
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Potash, Richard (American magician, actor, author, and historian)
American magician, actor, author, and historian, widely regarded as the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist of his generation....
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Potash, Rikudah (Israeli author)
Rikudah Potash was born in Poland and moved to Palestine in 1934. She published poetry in Poland and in Israel, including the volume Moyled iber Timna (1959; “New Moon over Timna”). Both her sense of fantasy and her knowledge of art history enrich this collection of poems. For example, ......
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potassic series (geology)
...continental rifts (extensive fractures). Based on the relative proportions of soda and potash, the calc-alkalic series is subdivided into the sodic and potassic series....
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potassium (chemical element)
chemical element of Group 1 (Ia) of the periodic table, the alkali metal group, indispensable for both plant and animal life. Potassium was the first metal to be isolated by electrolysis, by the English chemist ...
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potassium alum (chemical compound)
...may take the place of aluminum sulfate. The most important alums are potassium aluminum sulfate, ammonium aluminum sulfate, and sodium aluminum sulfate. Potassium aluminum sulfate, also known as potassium alum or potash alum, has a molecular formula of......
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potassium aluminosilicate (chemical compound)
...(particularly syenites, granites, and granodiorites), in pegmatites, and in gneisses. The alkali feldspars may be regarded as mixtures of sodium aluminosilicate (NaAlSi3O8) and potassium aluminosilicate (KAlSi3O8). Both the sodium and potassium aluminosilicates have several distinct forms, each form with a different structure. The form stable at high....
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potassium borate (chemical compound)
...for a description of molecular shapes.) For example, calcium metaborate, CaB2O4, consists of infinite chains of B2O42− units, whereas potassium borate, K[B5O6(OH)4] · 2H2O (commonly written as KB5O8 · 4H2O), consists of two......
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potassium bromate (chemical compound)
...of photographic film, is, like silver chloride and iodide, light sensitive. Traces of potassium bromate (KBrO3) are added to wheat flour to improve baking. Other bromine compounds of significance include hydrogen......
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potassium bromide (chemical compound)
...silicon deposited on a quartz plate is used. In the mid-infrared region a variety of optical-grade crystals, such as calcium flouride (CaF2), zinc selenide (ZnSe), cesium iodide (CsI), or potassium bromide (KBr), coated with silicon or germanium are employed. Below 200 cm−1 Mylar films of varying thickness are used to cover narrow portions of the region. Thermal......
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potassium channel (biology)
There are several types of voltage-dependent potassium channels, each having its own physiological and pharmacological properties. A single neuron may contain more than one type of potassium channel....
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potassium chloride (chemical compound)
...wire is placed in a solution of copper sulfate and a zinc wire in a solution of zinc sulfate; the two solutions are connected electrically by a potassium chloride salt bridge. (A salt bridge is a conductor with ions as charge carriers.) In both kinds of batteries, the energy comes from the difference in the degree of binding between the......
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potassium chromate (chemical compound)
...The presence of the first slight excess of silver ion (i.e., the end point) can be marked by the appearance of a coloured precipitate. One way in which this can be done is by employing potassium chromate as indicator. Potassium chromate reacts with the first slight excess silver ion to form a red precipitate of silver chromate. Another method involves the use of an adsorption......
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potassium cyanide (chemical compound)
...It was then developed by pouring a solution of pyrogallic acid over it and was fixed with a strong solution of sodium thiosulfate, for which potassium cyanide was later substituted. Immediate developing and fixing were necessary because, after the collodion film had dried, it became waterproof and the reagent solutions could not penetrate.....
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potassium cyanoaurate (chemical compound)
...state, and in the latter two, the +3 state. All three compounds are involved in the electrolytic refining of gold. Potassium cyanoaurate, K[Au(CN)2], is the basis for most gold-plating baths (the solution employed when gold is plated). Several organic......
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potassium deficiency (pathology)
condition in which potassium is insufficient or is not utilized properly. Potassium is a mineral that forms positive ions (electrically charged particles) in solution and is an essential constituent of cellular fluids. The relationship between potassium and the metabolism of nitrogen comp...
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potassium dihydrogen phosphate (chemical compound)
...to a medium will modulate its index of refraction. This change in the index of refraction can be used to modulate light and make it carry information. A crystal widely used for its Pockels effect is potassium dihydrogen phosphate, which has good optical properties and low dielectric losses even at microwave frequencies....
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potassium ethyl xanthate (chemical compound)
...carbon disulfide in the presence of an alkali. The term is derived from the Greek word xanthos, for “yellow,” in reference to the compound potassium ethyl xanthate (C2H5OCS2K), which gives a yellow precipitate when combined with copper sulfate. The......
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potassium feldspar (mineral)
...in which A = potassium, sodium, or calcium (Ca); and T = silicon (Si) and aluminum (Al), with a Si:Al ratio ranging from 3:1 to 1:1. Microcline and orthoclase are potassium feldspars (KAlSi3O8), usually designated Or in discussions involving their end-member composition. Albite (NaAlSi3O8—usually designated Ab)......
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potassium ferricyanide (chemical compound)
...In blueprinting, the older method, the drawing to be copied, made on translucent tracing cloth or paper, is placed in contact with paper sensitized with a mixture of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, which is then exposed to light. In the areas of the sensitized paper not obscured by the lines of the drawing, the light reduces the ferric salt to the ferrous state, in which......
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potassium hexachloroplatinate (chemical compound)
...has been used as an artist’s pigment since the beginning of the 18th century. Another early example of the preparation of a coordination compound is the use in 1760 of a sparingly soluble compound, potassium hexachloroplatinate(2−), K2[PtCl6], to refine the element platinum....
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potassium hydroxide (chemical compound)
...for both plant and animal life. Potassium was the first metal to be isolated by electrolysis, by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, when he obtained the element (1807) by decomposing molten potassium hydroxide (KOH) with a voltaic battery....
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potassium intoxication (pathology)
Potassium intoxication, which may follow upon kidney failure, causes reduction in the volume of urine excreted, producing symptoms much like those of potassium depletion. Treatment is by elimination of potassium-rich foods (especially fruits) and protein from the diet....
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potassium iodide (chemical compound)
...Cl−sodium chlorideKIK+, I−potassium iodideCaSCa2+, S2−calcium sulfideCsBrCs+,......
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potassium nitrate (chemical compound)
Potassium nitrate occurs as crusts on the surface of the Earth, on walls and rocks, and in caves; and it forms in certain soils in Spain, Italy, Egypt, Iran, and India. The deposits in the great limestone caves of Kentucky, Virginia, and Indiana have probably been derived from the overlying soil and accumulated by percolating water. In former times, the demand for saltpetre as an ingredient of......
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potassium nitrite (chemical compound)
...sugar to the curing mixture, which also improves the flavour and texture of the meat; the result is called a sugar-cured ham, which most consumers prefer to the plain salt-cured product. Sodium or potassium nitrite, which inhibits the growth of the botulism-causing bacterium Clostridium botulinum and fixes the colour of the meat, is....
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potassium ozonide (chemical compound)
...or reducing agents. A few inorganic ozonides are known, containing the negatively charged ion O-3; an example is potassium ozonide (KO3), an unstable, orange-red solid formed from potassium hydroxide and ozone that, upon heating, decomposes into......
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potassium permanganate (chemical compound)
...RCH2OH → RCOOH. This requires a strong oxidizing agent, the most common being chromic acid (H2CrO4), potassium permanganate (KMnO4), and nitric acid (HNO3). Aldehydes are oxidized to carboxylic acids more easily (by many oxidizing agents), but this is not often useful, because......
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potassium sulfate (chemical compound)
...a fertilizer and in fireworks and explosives and has been used as a food preservative; potassium chromate, K2CrO4, which is employed in tanning leather and dyeing textiles; and potassium sulfate, K2SO4, which is used in the production of fertilizers and potassium alums....
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potassium superoxide (chemical compound)
There is little commercial demand for potassium metal itself, and most of it is converted by direct combustion in dry air to potassium superoxide, KO2, which is used in respiratory equipment because it liberates oxygen and removes carbon dioxide and water vapour. (The superoxide of potassium is a yellow solid consisting of......
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potassium wasting syndrome (pathology)
Another cause of hyperaldosteronism is Bartter syndrome (potassium wasting syndrome), named after American endocrinologist Frederic Bartter, who initially described the primary characteristics of the disorder, including hyperplasia of the juxtaglomerular apparatus of the kidneys, hypokalemia, and high serum renin concentrations, with resultant increases in angiotensin and aldosterone......
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potassium-40 (physics)
...of the masses of atoms involved in radioactive decay is equivalent to direct measurement of the energy release in the decay process. The atomic mass of naturally occurring but radioactive potassium-40 is measured to be 39.964008 amu. Potassium-40 decays predominantly by β-emission to calcium-40, having a measured mass 39.962589. Through Einstein’s equation, energy is equal to......
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potassium-argon dating
method of determining the time of origin of rocks by measuring the ratio of radioactive argon to radioactive potassium in the rock. This dating method is based upon the decay of radioactive potassium-40 to radioactive argon-40 in minerals and rocks; potassium-40 also decays to calcium-40. Thus, the ratio of argon-40 and potassium-40 and radiogenic calcium-40 ...
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potassium-cesium binary system (chemistry)
...of potassium with lithium and sodium, alloys with other alkali metals are known. Complete miscibility exists in the potassium-rubidium and potassium-cesium binary systems. The latter system forms an alloy melting at approximately −38 °C (−36 °F). Modification of the system by the addition of sodium results in a......
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potassium–sparing diuretic (drug)
...serious if the loss exceeds the capacity of the diet to restore it. Potassium depletion leads to failure of neuromuscular function and to abnormalities of the heart, among other serious effects. The potassium-sparing diuretics block the exchange processes in the distal tubule and thus prevent potassium loss. Sometimes a mixture of diuretics is used in which a thiazide is taken together with a.....
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Potatau I (king of Maori)
The so-called King Movement was a response to the increasing threat to the Maori land. In 1857 several tribes of the Waikato area of North Island elected as king Te Wherowhero, who reigned as Potatau I. In addition to electing a king, they established a council of state, a judicial system, and a police organization, all of which were......
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potato (plant)
(Solanum tuberosum), one of some 150 tuber-bearing species of the genus Solanum (family Solanaceae). The potato (common potato, white potato, or Irish potato), considered by most botanists a native of the Peruvian-Bolivian Andes, is one of the world’s main food crops, differing from others in that the ed...
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potato aphid (insect)
The potato aphid (Macrosiphum euphorbiae) begins as black eggs on rose plants, which hatch into pink and green young that feed on rosebuds and leaves. In early spring they migrate to potatoes, which are the summer host. One generation occurs every two to three weeks. It is the carrier of tomato and potato mosaic virus diseases that......
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potato bean (plant)
...the peanut (q.v.), the fruit of which is a legume or pod rather than a true nut; Apois americana, also called wild bean and potato bean, the tubers of which are edible; and Lathyrus tuberosa, also called earth-nut pea. ......
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potato beetle (insect)
(Lema trilineata), one of the most destructive potato beetles until the advent of the Colorado potato beetle in the 1850s. The potato beetle belongs to the subfamily Criocerinae of the leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae (order ...
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potato blight (fungus)
...years. The crop failures were caused by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant. The causative agent of late blight is the fungus Phytophthora infestans. The Irish Potato Famine was the worst famine to occur in Europe in the 19th century....
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potato bread (food)
Potato bread, another variety that can be leavened with a primary ferment, was formerly made with a sourdough utilizing the action of wild yeasts on a potato mash and producing the typical potato-bread flavour. It is now commonly prepared from a white bread formula to which potato flour is added....
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potato bug (insect)
insect pest that attacks the leaves of potato plants. This leaf beetle belongs to the subfamily Chrysomelinae of the family Chrysomelidae (order Coleoptera). It is native to western North America and originally fed on buffal...
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Potato Eaters, The (painting by Gogh)
...region of France, greatly impressed van Gogh, and sociological criticism is implicit in many of his pictures from this period—e.g., Weavers and The Potato Eaters. Eventually, however, he felt too isolated in Nuenen....
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potato family (plant family)
the nightshade, or potato, family of flowering plants (order Solanales), with 102 genera and nearly 2,500 species, many of considerable economic importance as food and drug plants. Among the most important of these are the potato (Solanum tuberosum...
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potato famine (European history)
...first major wave of which began in the late 1840s with mass movements from Ireland and Germany. These were caused by the failure of the potato crop in Ireland and in the lower Rhineland, where millions had become dependent upon this single source of nutrition. These flows eventually subsided, but in the 1880s a second and even larger wave.....
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potato flour
Potato flour is also produced in Germany and other countries, slices of cleaned potatoes being dried, ground, and sieved. In Germany a “potato sago” is produced. The starch cake obtained from the potatoes is crumbled to produce reasonably uniform-size particles that are rounded by tumbling or similar operations, heated to gelatinize......
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potato leafhopper (insect)
The potato leafhopper (Empoasca fabae) is a destructive potato pest that causes that plant’s leaves to turn brown and curl; the insect plugs the plant’s xylem and phloem vessels, thus interfering with the transportation of food products. Adult potato leafhoppers are green with white spots on the head and thorax and are abo...
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potato tuberworm (insect)
The potato tuberworm (Phthorimaea operculella) attacks potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, and related plants, boring into tubers, burrowing in stems, and mining leaves. Pupation occurs in silken, dirt-covered cocoons, often found in plant litter. The adults are a dark mottled grayish brown....
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Potato War (European history)
(1778–79), conflict in which Frederick II the Great of Prussia blocked an attempt by Joseph II of Austria to acquire Bavaria....
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potato-root eelworm (species of nematode)
The golden nematode of potatoes (Heterodera rostochiensis) is a menace of the European potato industry. Great efforts have been made to control it. The speck-sized golden cysts that dot infested plant roots are the remains of female bodies. Each cyst may contain up to 500 eggs, which hatch in the soil over a period of up to 17 years.......
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Potawatomi (people)
Algonquian-speaking tribe of North American Indians who were living in what is now northeastern Wisconsin, U.S., when first observed by Europeans in the 17th century. Their name means “people of the place of the fire.” Like many other Native peoples, the Potawatomi had slowly moved west as the French, British, ...
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potbellied stove
...it to a flue. The Franklin stove warmed farmhouses, city dwellings, and frontier cabins throughout North America. Its design influenced the potbellied stove, which was a familiar feature in some homes well into the 20th century. The first round cast-iron stoves with grates for cooking food on them were manufactured by Isaac Orr at......
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Potchefstroom (South Africa)
town, North-West province, South Africa, on the Mooi River, southwest of Johannesburg. It was founded in 1838 as the first capital of the Transvaal and remained the capital until Pretoria displaced it in 1855. British troops held the town in the First Bo...
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Potemkin (film by Eisenstein)
...Originally intended to provide a panorama of the entire event, the project eventually came to focus on a single representative episode—the mutiny of the battleship Potemkin and the massacre of the citizens of the port of Odessa by tsarist troops. Bronenosets Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin, 1925) emerged......
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Potemkin (Russian warship)
...Jews. But the armed forces joined in on the side of the revolt as well: army units situated along the Trans-Siberian Railroad line rioted, and in June the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied in the harbour at Odessa....
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Potemkin, Grigory Aleksandrovich, Prince Tavrichesky, Imperial Prince (Russian statesman)
Russian army officer and statesman, for two years Empress Catherine II’s lover and for 17 years the most powerful man in the empire. An able administrator, licentious, extravagant, loyal, generous, and magnanimous, he was the subject of many anecdotes....
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potential (mathematics)
...(4) is inefficient, though theoretically it could be used for finding the resulting gravitational field. The main progress in classical gravitational theory after Newton was the development of potential theory, which provides the mathematical representation of gravitational fields. It allows practical as well as theoretical......
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potential (mathematics)
A potential function ϕ(r) defined by ϕ = A/r, where A is a constant, takes a constant value on every sphere centred at the origin. The set of nesting spheres is the analogue in three dimensions of the contours of height on a map, and grad ϕ at a point r is a vector pointing normal to the sphere that passes through ......
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potential difference (electronics)
Most present-day electronic analog computers operate by manipulating potential differences (voltages). Their basic component is an operational amplifier, a device whose output current is proportional to its input potential difference. By causing this output current to flow through appropriate components, further potential differences are......
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potential, electric (physics)
the amount of work needed to move a unit charge from a reference point to a specific point against an electric field. Typically, the reference point is the Earth, although any point beyond the influence of the electric field charge can be used....
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potential energy (physics)
stored energy that depends upon the relative position of various parts of a system. A spring has more potential energy when it is compressed or stretched. A steel ball has more potential energy raised above the ground than it has after falling to the Earth. In the raised position it is capable of doing more work. Potential energy is a property of a system and not of an individual body or particle;...
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potential energy curve
The data obtained from such a procedure can be used to construct a molecular potential energy curve, a graph that shows how the energy of the molecule varies as bond lengths and bond angles are changed. A typical curve for a diatomic molecule, in which only the internuclear distance is variable, is shown in Figure 10. The energy minimum of......
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potential evapotranspiration (hydrology)
...the prevailing meteorologic conditions). Estimation of evapotranspiration rates is important in determining expected rates of stream discharge and in controlling irrigation schemes. The concept of potential evapotranspiration—the possible rate of loss without any limits imposed by the supply of water—has been an important one in the development of hydrology. Most direct......
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potential flow (fluid mechanics)
This section is concerned with an important class of flow problems in which the vorticity is everywhere zero, and for such problems the Navier-Stokes equation may be greatly simplified. For one thing, the viscosity term drops out of it. For another, the nonlinear term, (v · ∇)v, may be transformed into ∇(v2/2).......
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potential function (mathematics)
A potential function ϕ(r) defined by ϕ = A/r, where A is a constant, takes a constant value on every sphere centred at the origin. The set of nesting spheres is the analogue in three dimensions of the contours of height on a map, and grad ϕ at a point r is a vector pointing normal to the sphere that passes through ......
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potential sweep method (electrochemistry)
...the rate of an electrochemical reaction. Applying a potential pulse while observing the variation of the rate as a function of time constitutes the potentiostatic method. A third method, called the potentiodynamic, or potential sweep, method involves observations of the current as a function of the potential, while the latter is varied at a constant, known rate....
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potential temperature (Earth science)
meteorological map that shows the moisture distribution and flow of air along a surface of constant entropy, which is also a surface of constant potential temperature (the temperature a parcel of dry air would have if brought from its initial state to a standard pressure [1,000 millibars] without exchange of heat with its environment). The isentropic surface varies in height from place to......
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potential theory (mathematics)
...(4) is inefficient, though theoretically it could be used for finding the resulting gravitational field. The main progress in classical gravitational theory after Newton was the development of potential theory, which provides the mathematical representation of gravitational fields. It allows practical as well as theoretical......
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potential well (physics)
...of tunneling, which has no counterpart in classical physics, is an important consequence of quantum mechanics. Consider a particle with energy E in the inner region of a one-dimensional potential well V(x), as shown in Figure 1. (A potential well is a potential that has a lower value in a certain region of space than in the neighbouring regions.) In classical......
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potentiality (philosophy)
...the killing of nonhuman animals for food and clothing. From this perspective also came a view of human nature and an ethical theory derived from it. All living things, Aristotle held, have inherent potentialities, which it is their nature to develop. This is the form of life properly suited to them and constitutes their goal. What, however, is the potentiality of human beings? For Aristotle......
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potentially hazardous asteroid (astronomy)
When computations indicate that a NEO estimated to be larger than about 200 metres (650 feet) could strike Earth during the next century or two, the object is called a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA). As of mid-2004 there were more than 570 identified PHAs. Observations of PHAs are continued until their orbits are refined to the point where their future positions can be reliably......
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Potentilla (plant)
(genus Potentilla), any of many flowering plants of the rose family (Rosaceae), comprising about 500 species of herbs and shrubs. The common name, which means “five-leaved,” refers to the number of leaflets in the compound leaf; some species, however...
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potentiodynamic method (electrochemistry)
...the rate of an electrochemical reaction. Applying a potential pulse while observing the variation of the rate as a function of time constitutes the potentiostatic method. A third method, called the potentiodynamic, or potential sweep, method involves observations of the current as a function of the potential, while the latter is varied at a constant, known rate....
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potentiometer (electrical instrument)
...electrical designer’s requirements. Resistors can have a fixed value of resistance, or they can be made variable or adjustable within a certain range, in which case they may be called rheostats, or potentiometers....
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potentiometric analysis (chemistry)
This is the method in which the potential between two electrodes is measured while the electric current (usually nearly zero) between the electrodes is controlled. In the most common forms of potentiometry, two different types of electrodes are used. The potential of the indicator electrode varies, depending on the concentration of the analyte, while the potential of the reference electrode is......
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potentiometric titration (chemical process)
Alternatively, for many titrations the end point can be detected by electrical measurements. These titrations may be classified according to the electrical quantity that is measured. Potentiometric titrations involve the measurement of the potential difference between two electrodes of a cell; conductometric titrations, the ......
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potentiometry (chemistry)
This is the method in which the potential between two electrodes is measured while the electric current (usually nearly zero) between the electrodes is controlled. In the most common forms of potentiometry, two different types of electrodes are used. The potential of the indicator electrode varies, depending on the concentration of the analyte, while the potential of the reference electrode is......
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potentiostatic method (chemistry)
...is called the galvanostatic method for measuring the rate of an electrochemical reaction. Applying a potential pulse while observing the variation of the rate as a function of time constitutes the potentiostatic method. A third method, called the potentiodynamic, or potential sweep, method involves observations of the current as a function of the potential, while the latter is varied at a......
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Potenza (Italy)
city, capital of Basilicata region, southern Italy, 2,684 ft (819 m) above sea level in the Apennines near the upper Basento River, east of Salerno. The Roman Potentia (founded 2nd century bc), which stood on a lower site than the modern city, was an important road junction and became a flour...
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Poterat, Edme (French potter)
A new factory, established at Rouen about 1656 by Edme Poterat, introduced a decoration of lambrequins, ornament with a jagged or scalloped outline based on drapery, scrollwork, lacework ornament, and the like. Lambrequins were extremely popular and were copied at other porcelain and faience factories. The faience of Nevers, too, is extremely important and shows the Baroque style......
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Poterium (plant)
any hardy, perennial, herbaceous (i.e., nonwoody) plant of the genus Sanguisorba (also called Poterium), within the rose family (Rosaceae). About 35 species are known, all occurring in the North Temperate Zone. Sanguisorba species are not widely cultivated. The alternate, pinnately compound (feat...
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potestà (Italian official)
(“power”), in medieval Italian communes, the highest judicial and military magistrate. The office was instituted by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in an attempt to govern rebellious Lombard cities. From the end of the 12th century the communes became somewhat more independent of the emperor, and they began to elect their own podes...
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Potgieter, Andries Hendrik (Boer leader)
Boer leader in the Great Trek; he took his party from the Cape Colony to settle the Transvaal and became a prominent figure in the early history of that state....
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Potgieter, Everhardus Johannes (Dutch author)
Dutch prose writer and poet who tried to set new standards and encourage national consciousness in his journal De gids (“The Guide”), which was founded in 1837, and who anticipated the literary revival of the 1880s....
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pothead (mammal)
either of two species of small, slender toothed whales with a round, bulging forehead, a short beaklike snout, and slender, pointed flippers. Pilot whales are about 4–6 metres (13–20 feet) long and are found in all the oceans of the world except the Arctic. Males are larger than females, but both are black and some have a pale, elongated, anchor-shaped mark adornin...
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potherb (culinary and medicinal plant)
parts of various plants cultivated for their aromatic, pungent, or otherwise desirable substances. Spices and herbs consist of rhizomes, bulbs, barks, flower buds, stigmas, fruits, seeds, and leaves. They are commonly divided into the categories of spices, spice seeds, and herbs....
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Pothia (Greece)
...island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Dodecanese (Modern Greek: Dodekánisa) group, 42 square miles (111 square km) in area. The capital, Kálymnos, located at the head of an inlet in the southeast, is the chief port and a prominent Aegean commercial centre with the bulk of the island’s population. As in Classical times, sp...
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Pothier, Dom Joseph (French composer)
French monk and scholar who, together with his contemporaries, reconstituted the Gregorian chant....
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Pothier, Robert Joseph (French judge)
...Even university law teaching in Europe often involved interchange between practitioner and teacher, exemplified in such great figures as the French 18th-century teacher, advocate, and judge Robert Joseph Pothier, whose commentaries provided the foundation for the Napoleonic Code of civil law. Much law teaching in the new university law schools that sprang up in the United States, the......
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pothos (species)
(Scindapsus aureus or Epipremnum aureum), hardy indoor climbing foliage plant of the arum family (Araceae), native to southeastern Asia. It resembles, and thus is often confused with, the common philodendron....
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