Chop-Sticks
the Chinese substitute for a knife, fork, and spoon at meals, consisting of two smooth sticks of bamboo, wood, or ivory, which are used for conveying food to the mouth with wonderful dexterity.
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Single-source entries: C (81)
These 12 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Chops, Chorazin, Chord.
Chopin, Frederic
sho-pan', Frederic (1809-1849), a noted Polish pianist. A native of Warsaw. His later years were spent in Paris. He was a brilliant player and the composer of a large number of instrumental pieces for the piano. A list of about eighty of his compositions, including a famous funeral march and many polonaises or Polish dance tunes, is well known to pianists. The peasant music of Poland proved a rich field for Chopin to whom the musical world is as truly indebted for finding, arranging, and recording Polish dancing music as the literary world is to the compiler of the traditions of Robin Hood or of the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Chops
Two metal plates which bind the ends of the pendulum suspension spring.
Only in American Watchmaker and Jeweler
Chorazin
one of the cities in which Christ's mighty works were done, but named only in his denunciation (Matt. xi: 21; Luke x: 13).
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Chord
in music, the simultaneous and harmonious union of different sounds, at first intuitively recognized by the ear, and afterward reduced to a science by the invention of the laws or rules of HARMONY (q. v.). In geometry, a chord is the straight line which joins the two extremities of the arc of a curve. The chord of a circular arc is obtained by multiplying the radius by twice the sine of half the angle which the arc subtends at the center.
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Chordata
a term now commonly employed in place of the older term Vertebrata, to designate the zoological phylum or group of which the true vertebrates form only one subdivision. (See VERTEBRATA, Vol. X.)
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Chorea
more fully Chorea Sancti Viti, St. Vitus' dance, a disorder of the system characterized by a nervous peculiar convulsive and irregular action of the voluntary muscles, especially those of the face and extremities. The name is derived from St. Vitus, who is said to have had the power of curing persons afflicted with that disease.
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Choron
ALEXANDRE ÉTIENNE (shō-rôn'), a French musician; born in Caen, Oct. 21, 21, 1772. He labored assiduously to promote musical education in France, founding his famous "Conservatory" in 1818. He wrote many valuable text books on music. He died in Paris, June 29, 1834. CHOSEN. See KOREA. CHOSROES I., (chos'rōz), or KHOSROU THE GREAT, King of Persia, succeeded Cabades, A. D. 551. He was fierce and cruel but possessed many good qualities, and encouraged the arts and sciences. He concluded a peace with the Romans, but afterward invaded their territories, and was repulsed by Belisarius. In the reign of Justinian II., he attacked the Romans again, but was defeated by Tiberius. He died in 579. CHOSROES II., ascended the throne in 590, on the deposition of his father Hormidas, and is accused of having murdered him. His nobility conspired against him on account of his cruelties, and obliged him to flee to the Romans, who replaced him on the throne. He afterward carried his army into Judea, Syria, and Egypt, and made himself master of Carthage, but was defeated by the Emperor Heraclius, and thrown into prison by his son, where he died in 627.
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Chorus
originally a dance in a ring, or a dance within an enclosure. The word came to be applied to a band of dancers. Then, probably because the dance was accompanied with song, to a band of singers. The chorus of the Greek drama was a band of performers, represented as of age, sex, and condition appropriate to the play, who appeared as spectators of the entire action. The chorus occupied, in the theater, the position between the stage and the auditorium. Through the coryphaeus, or leader, the chorus took part in the dialogue with the actors. When no actor was on the stage, the chorus sang such sentiments as would seem to have been suggested by the events presented, or supplied necessary information that could not be given in the regular speeches. As the members of the chorus sang they danced, or moved about the altar of Bacchus. The chorus was considered indispensable. At one time as many as fifty persons were included in the Greek chorus. Later the number was limited to fifteen for tragedy, twenty-four for comedy.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Chota Nagpore
or CHUTIA NAGPUR, a division of British India, presidency of Bengal, divided into the districts of Lohardaga, Hazaribagh, Singbhum, and Manbhum; and nine feudatory states. Total area about 43,- 000 square miles. Pop. about 7,000,000.
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Chouan
shoo'an, a French word meaning screech owl. The term was applied as a nickname to the peasant leader of an insurrection in Brittany in 1792. His followers were subsequently called the Chouans. They rose partly by reason of poverty and partly out of loyalty to the royal family and to the church. They gave the young French republic much trouble by adopting guerilla tactics. They were not put down till 1800, nor wholly, in fact, till the restoration of the Bourbons in 1830 gratified their wishes. The uprising of the Chouans in favor of the Bourbon family has points of resemblance to that of the Highlanders for the Stuarts. The two peoples are of the same blood. The leading accounts in fiction are Balzac's best novel, The Chouans, and Victor Hugo's Ninety Three. See Celts ; Brittany
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Chouteau
AUGUSTE, and PIERRE, two American pioneers; born in New Orleans, La., in 1739, and in 1749. respectively. They were from their early youth fur traders and in 1763 set out to establish trading stations in the regions W. of the Mississippi. Feb. 14, 1764, Auguste founded St. Louis on site chosen by Laclède. He died in St. Louis, Feb. 24, 1829, and Pierre, July 9, 1849. CHOWCHOW. See Dog. CHRESTIEN DE TROYES (krestyen de trwä), the greatest of the early French romancers, flourished in the 12th century. Though he won high fame as a lyrist, his renown is based on his epic compositions, especially on his stories of King Arthur and the Round Table. His epic of "King Marcus and the Fair Ysault" is lost; but these remain: "Irec and Enid"; "Cligés"; "The Knight of La Charette"; "The Knight with the Lion"; "Perceval the Welshman." The last is his most considerable work, but it does not come from his hand alone, being continued and completed by Gautier de Denet and Menassier. In this piece are wrought into one story the legend of the Holy Grail and that of Arthur, which thereafter were not divorced. His language and the versification were models for troubadours and romancers for a long time; and from him the Arthurian poets to the end of the 13th cen- Keystone View Company OLD NORTH CHURCH, BOSTON, MASS. Enc. Vol. 2-p. 484 Keystone View Company OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON, MASS. Keystone View Company
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