These 14 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Priest John, Prim, Prima Donna.
a name given in the Middle Ages to a supposed Christian sovereign, said to hold his empire in some central part of Asia (Tibet), though, according to the Portuguese, he was King of Abyssinia.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
prest'li, Joseph (1733-1804), one of the founders of modern chemistry. He was the son of an English cloth maker and was educated for the ministry, but got into theological difficulties and became a dissenting preacher. He was a friend and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin. He sympathized with the Americans during our Revolutionary War. At the time of the French Revolution his house at Birmingham was sacked and burned by a mob. Much of his apparatus and many valuable manuscripts were destroyed. Three years later he followed his sons to America and ended his days quietly at Northumberland, Pennsylvania. Priestly suffered the misfortune of living during the closing years of the old chemistry, rather than during the opening years of modern chemistry. His work was of vast importance to other chemists who followed him, and he is quite generally given the credit of discovering oxygen, an honor which he perhaps ought to share with another. See Chemistry
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
JUAN, a Spanish general; born in Reus, Dec. 6, 1814; rose rapidly to be a colonel, general, marshal, and marquis. Failing in an insurrectionary attempt in 1866, he fled to England and Brussels, but here he guided the movement that in 1868 overthrew Isabella. He was war minister under Serrano. He secured the election of an Italian prince, Amadeo, as king, and shot by an assassin, died Dec. 30, 1870.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
the first female singer in an opera.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
a term formerly including all the crystalline and non-fossiliferous rocks which were deposited, it was believed, anterior to the appearance of life upon the earth.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
the chief ecclesiastic in certain churches. The Archbishop of York is called the Primate of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury the Primate of All England, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore the Primate of the United States.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
the first and chief of Linnæus' orders of the class Mammalia. He included under it four genera: Homo (one species, five varieties), Simia (three species), and (21 species), Lemur Vespertilio (seven species). Cuvier ignored the order, classing Man as Bimana (Owen's Archencephala), and Apes and Lemurs as Quadrumana; the bats now constitute an order by themselves, and the lemurs rank as a sub-order. With the advance of zoological and anatomical knowledge the use of the name has revived "for the apes, not only by naturalists, who, like Huxley, retain man within its limits; but also by others (Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Gervais), who consider he should be excluded from it."
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
in the Roman Catholic Church one of the canonical hours, and also the service in the breviary which falls to be performed at that time.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
that meridian from which longitude is measured. In Great Britain and its dependencies it is the meridian of Greenwich; in the United States, the meridian of Washington.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
an officer of state, who at the summons of the sovereign has succeeded in forming an administration, of which he is the head, and which may be named after him. In England it is on his advice that van cancies occur the archbishops, bishops and deans and the highest judges are appointed, and over one hundred crown livings are filled; and on his recommendation that the most envied temporal titles and honorable distinctions-peerages, baronetcies, and the the Garter, for example-are conferred, and such high appointments as the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, the viceroyalty of India, the principal ambassadorships and colonial governorships, and lord-lieutenancies of countries, are made by the crown. He is the leader of the House of Parliament of which he is a member. In European governments the prime minister, or premier, is usually charged wit with the management of diplomatic affairs, and in this respect resembles the Secretary of State of the United States. PRIME NUMBER. A number or quality is prime when it cannot be exactly divided by any other number or quantity except 1. Two numbers or quantities are prime with respect to each other, when they do not admit of any common divisor except 1. :
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
a section of the Wesleyan community which arose in Staffordshire, England, England, under the leadership of Hugh Bourne (1792-1852). Having held camp meetings like those in the United States, he was censured for it by the English Wesleyan Conference in 1807, and, seceding, formed a new connection, the first class meeting of which was held at Standley, in Staffordshire, in 1810. In doctrine the Primitive Methodists agree with the Wesleyans.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
the state of being the eldest of children of the same parents; seniority by birth among children. Also, the right, system, or rule under which, in England, in cases of intestacy, the eldest son of a family succeeds to the real estate of his father to the absolute exclusion of the younger sons and daughters.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
a league having for its objects "the maintenance of religion, of the estates of the realm, and of the imperial ascendancy of the British empire." PRIMULACEÆ, primworts; herbs, generally with radical exstipulate leaves. Flowers on radical scapes or umbels, or in the axil of the leaves. Genera 18, species about 200. PRINCE. (1) One who holds the first, or chief place, or rank; a sovereign; the ruler of a country or state. (2) The ruler or sovereign of a state or territory which he holds of a superior. (3) The son of a sovereign, or the issue of the royal title family. In heraldic language, the title of prince belongs to dukes, marquises, and earls of Great Britain, but in ordinary use it is confined to members of the royal family. The only case in which it is a territorial title is that of the Prince of Wales. On the Continent of Europe the title of prince is borne by members of families of very high rank, though not immediately connected with any royal house.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
JOHN DYNELEY, an American university professor and philologist. Born in New York in 1868 he graduated at Columbia at the early age of twenty, studied in Berlin and received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1892. From 1892 to 1902 he was professor of Semitic languages and dean of the Graduate School of New York University. From 1902 to 1915 he occupied a similar professorship at Columbia until in 1915 the chair of Slavonic languages was created when he was appointed to that. Professor Prince in 1909 was the Republican speaker of the New Jersey Assembly and President of the New Jersey Senate in 1912, and for a short time was acting Governor of the State.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia