Proselyte
a new convert to some religion, sect, opinion, party, or system.
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Single-source entries: P (112)
These 14 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Proselyte, Proserpina, Proserpine.
Proserpina
Known to the Greeks as Persephone . A daughter of Ceres and Jupiter , called by the Greeks Persephone. As she was gathering flowers Pluto carried her off to the infernal regions, where he married her. Ceres, having learnt that her daughter had been carried away by Pluto, demanded of Jupiter that Pluto should be punished. As queen of hell, Proserpine presided over the death of mankind. She was known by the names of Hecate, Juno Inferna, Libitina , and several others.
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Proserpine
in mythology, a daughter of Ceres and Jupiter, of extreme innocence and beauty, and who, while gathering flowers in the lovely vale of Tempe, was carried off by the god of the infernal regions, Pluto. The prayers and intercessions of her mother ultimately prevailed on Pluto to permit her to spend half of each year on earth.
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Proskurov
a town in Podolia, Russia, near the confluence of Ploskaya and the Bug, on the railway from Odessa to Lemberg. Its manufactures include sugar, flour, tobacco, oil and pottery, while market gardening is extensive in district. Buildings are mostly of wood, with Orthodox Cathedral. Jews, who number half of the population, carry on export trade. Pop. about 45,000.
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Prosody
that part of grammar which treats of the quantities of syllables, of accent, and of the laws of versification.
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Prosopopeia
or PROSOPOPEIA, in rhetoric, a figure by which things are represented as persons, or inanimate objects as animate beings, or by which an absent person is represented as speaking, or a deceased person as alive and present. It is more extensive than personification. town in Moravia,
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Prossnitz
a Czecho-Slovakia, on the Rumza, 12 miles S. W. of Olmütz. Buildings include town hall, large grain market, fine church and schools. Is center of prosperous and fruitful region. Its industries include wool, cotton, linen, liquors, tools, and geese breeding. Pop. about 35,000.
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Prostate Gland
the largest of all the organs connected with the male generative system. PROSTITUTION. In law, the common lewdness of a woman for gain. The act of permitting a common and indiscriminate sexual intercourse for hire.
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Prostyle
in architecture, a temple which has a portico in one front, sisting of insulated columns with their entablatures and fastigium. Also a portico in which the columns stand out quite free from the walls of the building to which it is attached.
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Protective Association
AMERICAN, a league composed of over 25,000 American volunteers, formed in March, 1917, to aid the Government in putting down sedition and espionage. Mr. A. Briggs was made chairman of the volunteer auxiliary. The first working unit of the league was organized in Chicago, with Mr. Frey as its head. The association was built on military lines; every large city forming a division; each division made up of several districts, with a captain over each unit. The executive control was centralized in a Board of National Directors, whose headquarters were at Washington, D. C. The league co - operated with the Department of Justice, Red Cross, Y. W. C. A., Army Intelligence, Navy Intelligence, Alien Property Custodian, Shipping Board, Food Administration, Jewish Welfare Board, and various other organizations.
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Protector
in English history, one who had the care of the kingdom during the minority of the king; a regent; specifically applied to Oliver Cromwell, who took the title of Lord Protector in 1653. In ecclesiology, a cardinal belonging to one of the more important Catholic nations, who, in Rome, watches over questions affecting his country. There are also cardinal protectors of religious orders, colleges, etc.
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Protesilaus
A king of part of Thessaly who married Laodamia, and shortly afterward went to the Trojan war. He was the first of the Greeks who entered the Trojan domain, and on that account, in accordance with the prediction of the oracle, was killed by his countrymen. 2026 Editor's Note: Protesilaus 's name literally means 'first to leap' (from Greek protos, 'first'), derived from his distinction as the first Greek warrior to leap ashore at Troy. This act of being first to land directly fulfilled the oracle's prediction of his death, making his name and fate inseparable. (Ed: BR 2026-06-07)
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Protest
ordinarily, a solemn affirmation or declaration of opinion (frequently in writing), generally in opposition to some act or proposition; a solemn affirmation by which a person declares either that he entirely dissents from and disapproves of any act or proposition, or else only conditionally gives his assent or consent to an act or proposition, to which he might otherwise be considered to have assented unconditionally. In commerce, a formal declaration by the holder of a bill of exchange or promissory note, or by a notary public at his direction, that acceptance or payment of such bill or note has been refused, and that the holder intends to recover all expenses to which he may be put in consequence of such non-acceptance or non-payment. In marine insurance, a declaration made on oath by the captain of a vessel which has met with any disaster at sea, or has been compelled to run into a foreign or intermediate port for safety. The protest should be made as soon as he enters the port, the limit usually assigned being within 24 hours of his arrival. The word is also applied to a declaration made by a party before or while paying a tax, duty, or the like demanded of him which he deems illegal, denying the justice of the demand, and asserting his own rights and claims in order to show that the payment was not voluntary.
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Prothero
ROWLAND EDMUND, an English ish historian born in 1852 at Clifton-on-Teme in Hampshire. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, he graduated with high honors in modern history and obtained a fellowship in All Souls' College in 1875. From 1894 to 1899 he was editor of the "Quarterly Review." He became one of the principal editors of the "Cambridge Modern History," the most authoritative and scholarly of all the general modern histories in English. Among his other his- "Letters of Edward torical works are: Gibbon" (1896); "Life of Queen Victoria" (1897); "Letters and Journals of Lord Byron" (1900).
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