# General Information (Ca-Cm)

C.I.D.
The C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department) is the detective section of the British police force. It was established in 1878 by E Howard Vincent. A "Special Branch" was founded in 1883 to deal with the Fenian troubles, it now deals with the protection of high-ranking individuals and protection of the state, such as harassing members of the Communist Party.

CA-Cricket Presents
CA-Cricket Presents by Computer Associates is a desktop presentation package for the Mac that lets you conceptualise, create, and produce complete presentations including slides, transparencies, speaker's notes, and audience handouts. It includes a copy of Acta Outliner, which can be used during the conceptualization stage of a presentation. A hotlink can be created between the Acta Outliner and the presentation so edits made to the outline are reflected in the presentation. You can produce charts, overhead slides, flipcharts, illustrations, and tables complete with legends and captions. The product includes freehand painting and drawing capabilities and a graded background feature for creating the background for your shows. CA-Cricket Presents' basic business chart capabilities include a data-entry screen or importing files from spreadsheets and generating charts from the data. The tabling tool lets you create matrices to easily handle numbers and word charts.

Cab
see "Cabriolet"

Cabala
see "Qabbala"

Caballa
see "Qabbala"

Cabaret
A cabaret is a type of theatre that emphasizes skits, songs, magic and comedy acts, often performed in a somewhat intimate setting.

Cabbala
see "Qabbala"

Cable
In nautical terms, a cable is 183 metres.

Cabriolet
A cabriolet (cab) was a vehicle similar to a hackney-carriage with two or four wheels, originally drawn by a single horse but later by a motor. The original cabriolets were for a single passenger beside the driver and were a kind of hooded chaise. In the beginning of the 19th century an effort was made to introduce cabriolets into Britain, to supersede hackney carriages. It was not until 1823, however, that licences were obtained for cabriolets. At first their number was limited to twelve. These were of an improved pattern, with a folding hood, and seated two passengers, the driver being separated from them by a partition. In 1832 all restrictions were removed, and cabriolets came into popular favour. In 1836 a cabriolet on four wheels, the precursor of the brougham, was introduced, and from this the clarence evolved. In 1834 a patent was taken out for an improved, two-wheeled safety cab by Hansom, the architect of Birmingham town hall. The safety consisted in an arrangement of the framework which prevented the cab tilting backwards or forwards in case of accident. These cabriolets had a small body, hung between wheels of over seven feet diamiter. Two years later a fresh patent was obtained for an improved hansom. Motor cabs were first introduced in 1897, but failed to pay and were phased out, only to start to reappear in London around 1905.

Cachuca
The cachuca is a graceful dance marked by movements of the head and shoulders.

Cade
A cade was a British measurement for herrings equal to 500 fish.

Cadence
In music, cadence is the name given to the closing - usually last two - chords of a phrase. The varieties of cadence may be grouped as perfect, imperfect and interrupted. The perfect must have its last chord on the tonic. When the penultimate chord is on the subdominant it is called an 'authentic'; when on the dominant, a 'plagal' cadence. The harmony of the imperfect is often that of the perfect reversed. The interrupted is a progression of chords leading the ear to expect a tonic chord, but another is substituted for the latter; the effect is often as charming as it is unexpected.

Cadenza
In music, a cadenza is an ornamental passage sometimes introduced before the close of a section of a musical composition. At one time they were left to the improvisation of the performer, but since the end of the 19th century they have been written out in full by the composer.

Cadmium
Cadmium is a metal element with the symbol Cd.

Caduceus
A caduceus was originally an enchanters wand, and later a herald's staff. It is most familiar in the hands of Hermes. Its first form was three shoots, of which two were intertwined, while the third formed the handle. The fully-developed form has, besides the rod itself, a pair of wings either at the top or in the middle, and two serpents intertwined.

Caesium
Caesium is an alkaline metal discovered by Bunsen in 1860, by spectral analysis, in the mineral water of Durkheim. It also occurs in the mineral pollux. Caesium is a soft metal closely resembling potassium, and is characterized by a spectrum containing two bright blue lines, along with others in the red, yellow and green.

Caestus
A caestus was a boxing-glove weighted with metal, and used by the Greek and Roman pugilists.

Cafeine
see "Caffeine"

Caffeine
Caffeine (Theine or methyl-theobromine) is a white, bitter, crystalline alkaloid usually derived from coffee or tea and used in medicine as a nervous system stimulant. It was discovered in coffee by Runge in 1820, and in tea by Oudry in 1827.

Caftan
A Caftan (Kaftan) is a long garment with long sleeves and tied at the waist by a girdle, worn under a coat in the Middle East. The term has also come to describe a long, full, usually collarless robe with wide sleeves that is worn at home for lounging or on the beach as a cover-up.

Cahuecite
Cahuecite is an explosive which was invented by Cahue in 1875.

Cairn
In Scottish archaeology, a cairn is a mound of stones raised over a prehistoric grave, like an English barrow. Ancient cairns are of two types - chambered from the stone age and unchambered from the bronze age. Chambered cairns are again found in two forms; long cairns and horned cairns.

Caisson
A caisson is a water-tight box, usually of sheet iron, and constructed so that it may be floated or sunk at will. Caissons are used for two distinct purposes. 1) for closing the entrance to docks, the caissons being of two general types, floating and sliding. Floating caissons include those which, when the height of the water inside and outside of the dock is the same, are raised by their natural buoyancy from the bottom, and may be floated out of their position against the sill into a recess provided for the purpose, leaving the entrance open. Sliding caissons fulfil the same pupose, but instead of floating are drawn back on a plane sliding surface or on rollers which bear some portion of their weight. 2) As foundations to a dam, quay wall or bridge, the caissons being so constructed as to be capable of being floated into the required position, and there sunk.

Cajeput Oil
Cajeput Oil is a volatile oil distilled from the leaves of the cajeput tree. It is a bluish-green liquid with a strong penetrating odour. It is applied externally as a counter-irritant for chilblains, myalgia and rheumatism, and is used internally as a carminative for gastro-intestinal troubles.

Cakewalk
The cakewalk is an American dance which originated amongst the blacks.

Calabar
Calabar is a powerful narcotic poison derived from the Calabar Bean. It operates as a purgative and an emetic. These properties provided it with its use as an ordeal in Africa where persons suspected of witchcraft were administered calabar beans. If the beans caused purging the victim was guilty, and if vomiting they were innocent.

Calabresella
Calabresella (Terziglio) is an Italian card game for three players. (It can be played by four with the dealer receiving no cards for the hand.) It is closely related to the four-player game Tressette. It is a point-trick game with bidding, requiring a fair amount of skill. It is notable for the slightly unusual card order (threes high) and the fact that there are never any trumps. A 40-card pack is used, usually with the Italian suits: swords, batons, cups and coins. In each suit the cards rank as follows: 3 (highest), 2, Ace, King (Re), Knight (Cavall), Jack (Fante), 7, 6, 5, 4 (lowest). It is also possible to play with French suited cards: from a 52 card pack the 10s, 9s and 8s are removed, and the cards rank 3 2 Ace K Q J 7 6 5 4. The cards have point values and the object is to take tricks containing valuable cards. There is also a score for winning the last trick.

Calamine
Calamine is a pink powder that is made of zinc oxide with a small amount of ferric oxide. It is used in lotions, ointments, and liniments. It is a customary mixture that is soothing and healing to the skin. It is great for itchy rashes such as poison ivy. It is natural but some formulas contain phenol which can cause poisoning when applied to the skin. A blend of natural calamine and aloe vera is a good pure skin treatment for burns, rashes and insect bites.

Calciferol
see "Vitamin D"

Calcium
Calcium is a lustrous silver-white brittle alkaline metal element with the symbol Ca. Its oxide occurs widely in nature as lime.

Calcium Alginate
Calcium Alginate is used in many foods for binding and is also used as a film-former in peel-off masks. It is a stabiliser for oil-in-water emulsions.

Calcium ammonium
Calcium ammonium is a compound formed by exposing calcium to ammonia gas. It is a bronze-coloured substance which catches fire on exposure to air.

Calcium Carbide
Calcium Carbide is a substance formed by heating quicklime and carbon in an electric furnace. It is a greyish crystalline substance which decomposes immediately on coming into contact with water, generating acetylene.

Calcium Carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a natural occurring salt that is found in limestone, chalk, and marble. It is used as a pigment and for pigment prolonging.

Calcium Chloride
Calcium Chloride is customarily used in road salt and antifreeze. It is used in cosmetics as an emulsifier and texturizer. If taken internally, it can cause constipation and stomach problems. It can also cause lung difficulties if inhaled during manufacturing or processing but it's toxicity in cosmetics is unknown.

Calcium propionate
Calcium propionate is a food additive used to prevent mold growth on bread and rolls.

Calcutta and Burma Steam Navigation Company
The Calcutta and Burma Steam Navigation Company was established in 1856 as a shipping company operating between England and Arabia, Persia, India, Burma and Yokohama. It changed its name in 1862 to the British India Steam Navigation Company.

Calendar Creator Plus
Calendar Creator Plus makes it easy to maintain an up-to-the-minute, annotated calendars on a PC. It handles all calendar needs and eliminates the clutter of paper calendars. Calendar Creator Plus lets you create customised overlays that include listings such as scheduled events, projects, personal and employee vacation days. By merging multiple overlays with the basic calendar date template, an unlimited number of calendars can be created. Calendar Creator Plus supports two types of events; fixed events and floating events.

Calends
Calends was the first day of the Roman calendar month.

Calf
A calf is a young bovine animal, especially a young cow.

Caliche
Caliche is naturally occuring, crude sodium nitrate found in deposits a few feet below the surface in South America. It contains about 20 to 50 per cent sodium nitrate and traces of sodium iodate.

Calico
Calico is a cotton cloth named from Calicut, a city of India. It was first brought to England by the East India Company in 1631. The name is generally given to any plain white cotton cloth, and in America it is applied to printed cottons.

Calico-Printing
Calico-Printing is the art of applying colours to woven fabric, usually calico. It was first introduced to Britain from India in 1676, and was originally accomplished with hand-blocks made of wood.

Caliper Compass
A caliper compass is a device used to measure the bore of cannon, small-arms etc.

Calipers
Calipers are a kind of compass with curved legs used in machine shops for measurements, such as the determination of shafts, bores and centering. For example, a caliper compass is used for measuring the bore of firearms.

Calisthenics
Calisthenics are physical exercises designed and practised to give grace and strength to the body.

Callipers
Callipers are an instrument for measuring dimensions of circular solids.

Calomel
Calomel (beautiful black) is a compound of mercury, sulphuric acid and sodium chloride.

Calorie
Calorie is the metric unit of measurement of heat. It is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water from 14.5 to 15.5 degrees centigrade.

Calotype
Calotype is the process of producing photographs by the action of light upon paper impregnated with silver nitrate. The process was invented by Dr Fox Talbot around 1840.

Calumet
A calumet is a kind of pipe used by the American Indians for smoking tobacco. Its bowl is usually of soft red soapstone, and the tube a long reed ornamented with feathers. The calumet was used in the ratification of all solemn engagements, both of war and peace. To accept the calumet was to accept the proposed agreement, and to reject it was to reject the agreement.

Cam
In mechanics, a cam is a revolving disc (commonly heart-shaped) with a curved surface, or a cylinder with grooves used to give a variable or reciprocating motion to other bodies, which slide or roll in contact with it. Any desired motion may be transmitted by suitably shaping the periphery of the cam.

Camaieu
A camaieu is a monochrome drawing or painting with a single colour, varied only by graduation of the single colour in terms of light and dark.

Caman
A caman is a stick used for playing hurling. Traditionally they are made from ash, which gives the best performance.

Cambrian
The Cambrian period was the third geological period, 450,000,000 years ago.

Cambric
Cambric is a fine kind of linen originally manufactured at Cambrai in Flanders.

Camelot
Camelot was the castle of Arthur.

Cameo
A cameo is a small relief carving.

Camicia
Camicia is a card game of pure luck for two players. It is the Italian version of Beggar My Neighbour, and like that game, it is a children's game. The American game Egyptian Ratscrew is also related. The game is played with an Italian deck of 40 cards in which the suits are ignored. There are two types of cards: aces, two and threes are attack cards, the other are normal (cannon-fodder) cards.

Camlet
Camlet is a fabric made of long wool, hand spun, sometimes mixed with cotton, silk or linen. Originally it was made from camel's hair or the hair of the Angora goat.

Camog
A camog is a crooked, broad-bladed stick used for playing Camogie.

Camouflage
Camouflage is colours or structures which allow an animal to blend in with its surroundings.

Campania
The Campania was a mail steamer of the Cunard Line built in 1893. She was 610 feet long, had a displacement of 12950 tons and a speed of 21 knots.

Campanile
A campanile is a bell-tower detached from the church to which it belongs. It is a common feature in Italian architecture.

Campanology
Campanology is strictly speaking the science of bells, dealing with all aspects of bells, but the term is generally restricted to bell ringing.

Camphene
Camphene is a solid terpene occurring in the oil of ginger. It is oxidised by chromic acid to form camphor.

Camphine
Camphine is the trade name of a purified spirit of turpentine formerly used for burning in lamps, and generally prepared by distilling turpentine with quicklime.

Camphor
Camphor is a crystalline substance of the terpene group, obtained by distillation from the wood or young shoots of certain trees. It is a feeble antiseptic and insecticide and is used in the manufacture of celluloid.

Camphor of peppermint
see "Menthol"

Campos
The campos are the open grassy plains of South America.

Camwood
Camwood is a red dye-wood imported from tropical West Africa, and obtained from the Baphia nitida tree. The wood is of a very fine colour and is often turned to make knife-handles and similar articles. The dye obtained from it is brilliant, but not permanent.

Canada Balsam
Canada Balsam is a fluid oleoresin obtained from the balsam fir, common in Canada and the USA. It is used in medicine, microscopy and in making varnish and was at one time used as a cement in the manufacture of compound lenses by opticians as its refractive index is almost as good as that of glass.

Canal
A canal is an artificial open water channel.

Canasta
Canasta is a card game for four players in fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite each other, played with two 52-card standard decks plus 4 jokers shuffled together to make a 108-card deck.

Canaster
A canaster (canister) was a rush basket in which South American tobacco was packed.

Candelabrum
A candelabrum is a large candlestick.

Candellia Wax
Candellia Wax is a herbal wax used in lipsticks and in creams and as a replacement for rubber.

Candle
A candle is a solid wax cylinder enclosing a wick of loosely-twisted threads placed longitudinally in its centre. It is burnt to provide light.

Candy
The candy is an eastern measurement of weight varying from 560 lbs upwards.

Cang
A cang was a Chinese instrument for punishment for trifling offences. It was a kind of wooden cage fitting closely around the neck, with the weight proportioned to the nature of the offence, but so constructed that the culprit couldn't lie down nor feed himself. The cang was not removed during the period of punishment which lasted two or three months. Inscribed on the cang was the nature of the offence and the name of the criminal who was generally left exposed at the city gates.

Canister
see "Canaster"

Cannula
A cannula is a tube used in surgery to draw abnormal fluid from the body.

Canoe Polo
Canoe Polo is a form of water polo in which the players are in short low canoes, known as bats, which they propel with a double paddle.

Canon
In geography, a canon is a deep ravine or valley with precipitous sides made by the rapid flow of a river and the action of denudation.

Cantabile
In music, cantabile is a term applied to movements intended to be performed in a graceful, elegant and melodious style.

Cantaro
The cantaro is a measure of weight and capacity used in the past in the Mediterranean countries. In Turkey it was 125 lb, in Egypt 99 lb, in Malta 175 lb and in Spain to measure wine it was about 3.5 gallons.

Cantilever
A cantilever is a girder which projects beyond its support, and carries a load upon the projecting arm.

Canvas
Canvas is a precision drawing package for the Mac that lets you create presentation materials, desktop publishing images, or architectural renderings. Its large selection of powerful, easy-to-use tools makes it one of the more popular drawing programs. Icons and menu options provide continuous multipoint Bezier curves, instant autotrace conversion of bitmap images to unlimited drawing layers, 1/65,000th of an inch precision, and text and graphics in 16.7 million colours plus PostScript gray scales in 1% increments. For touching up clipped or scanned art, Canvas provides a number of painting tools which can be used on the same layers as the drawing tools. Canvas supports 24-bit colour on the Macintosh II, hairlines to 1/1000th of an inch, auto-dimensioning of lines and arcs, and a zoom capacity ranging from 3% to 3,200%. The program adds area and perimeter calculations, a peel-away ruler, PixelPaintcompatible colour palettes, smooth multipoint polygons, and special effects such as object rotation in one degree increments, distortion, and one or two point perspective. Canvas also features object libraries (macros) that function as extensions to the drawing toolbox. Up to 32 objects can be added to any macro library, and macro libraries can be saved as individual files. A desk accessory version of Canvas can be invoked while working with other programs and provides approximately 80%, of the program's capabilities. The program also has a bitmap conversion option for transforming scanned colour or gray scale images into one of 15 predefined halftone or dithered images (for the Macintosh II only).

Canzone
Canzone is an Italian and Provencal form of poetry, used chiefly for love themes, though religious and other subjects were not entirely excluded. the earliest Provencal specimens date from the 12th century, those in Italian from the 13th. The number of stanzas varies, five or six being the most common, and the last stanza was invariably shorter than the others.

Capacitor
A capacitor is an electrical device consisting of two conductive bodies separated by insulating material and thus possessing capacitance.

Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is punishment by death. Capital punishment is retained in 92 countries and territories, including the 37 states of the USA, China, and Islamic countries. It was abolished in the UK in 1965 for all crimes except treason. Methods of execution include electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, shooting, lethal injection, garrotting, and decapitation. In Britain, the number of capital offences was reduced from over 200 at the end of the 18th century, until capital punishment was abolished in 1866 for all crimes except murder, treason, piracy, and certain arson attacks. Its use was subject to the royal prerogative of mercy. The punishment was carried out by hanging (in public until 1866). Capital punishment for murder was abolished 1965 but still exists for treason. In 1990, Ireland abolished the death penalty for all offences. In Saudi Arabia execution is by beheading in public. Countries that have abolished the death penalty fall into three categories: those that have abolished it for all crimes (44 countries); those that retain it only for exceptional crimes such as war crimes (17 countries); and those that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but have not executed anyone since 1980 (25 countries and territories). The first country in Europe to abolish the death penalty was Portugal in 1867. In the USA, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, as a cruel and unusual punishment, but decided in 1976 that this was not so in all circumstances. It was therefore reintroduced in some states. Many countries use capital punishment for crimes other than murder, such as drug offences (in Malaysia and elsewhere). In 1977 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ruled out imposition of the death penalty on those under the age of 18. The covenant was signed by President Carter on behalf of the USA, but in 1989 the US Supreme Court decided that it could be imposed from the age of 16 for murder, and that the
retarded could also face the death penalty.

Capnomancy
Capnomancy is divination by observation of smoke from incense or a sacrifice.

Capricorn
Capricorn is a sign of the zodiac symbolised by a goat.

Caproic Acid
Caproic acid (hexoic acid) is one of the products of the butyric fermentation of sugar. It can be made bu the oxidation of hexyl alcohol, and is an oily liquid with a faint disagreeable odour.

Capsicin
Capsicin is an alkaloid and the active principle of the capsules of Capsicum annuum. It has a resinous aspect and a burning taste.

Capsicum oleoresin
Capsicum oleoresin is an oil from the pepper family that is used in hair tonics to arouse the scalp. It is said to upgrade hair growth.

Capstan
A capstan is an engine for raising weights. A ship's capstan is a revolving barrel with a vertical axis powered by people used for winding cable, raising the anchor etc.

Carat
Carat is the unit of measurement of gold purity.

Carbide
see "carbides"

Carbides
A carbide is a compound of carbon and another element.

Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is a complex chemical compound. Consisting of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. In foods it forms sugars and starch.

Carbolic Acid
Carbolic acid (phenol, phenic acid, hydroxybenzene) is a strong poison used as an antiseptic distilled from coal-tar. It was discovered by Laurent in 1846.

Carbon
Carbon is a non-metallic, chiefly trivalent element found native (as in diamond and graphite) or as a constituent of coal, petroleum, and asphalt, of limestone and other bicarbonates, and of organic compounds or obtained artificially in varying degrees of purity especially as carbon black, lampblack, activated charcoal and coke. It has the symbol C and is contained in all life forms.

Carbon Copy Plus
Carbon Copy Plus by Microrim is a menu-driven remote control program for IBM-compatible microcomputers that allows the user to control and/or monitor one PC from another over a communications link. Suitable for support purposes and typically used with standard dial-up modems, Carbon Copy Plus connects two PCs so their screens and keyboards are linked as one. Whatever the remote user sees on-screen will be seen on the local screen. Users can open up a movable chat window where they can type messages to each other. Whatever is displayed on the host screen is displayed on the guest screen. Carbon Copy Plus includes a universal graphics translator, that automatically translates CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules, and PS/2 graphics images when dissimilar graphics adapters are used in the host and guest PC. Files can be transferred between machines using commands similar to those in DOS. Carbon Copy Plus supports background file transfer, allowing the host PC to send or receive files while working in a foreground application.

Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (carbonic anhydride) is a colourless, poisonous, heavy gas composed of carbon and oxygen. It is the final product of the complete combustion of carbon. Carbon dioxide is present as about 5 percent of exhaled air.

Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Monoxide (carbonic oxide) is a colourless, tasteless, odourless, extremely poisonous gas produced when carbon is burned in a limited supply of air.

Carbon Tetrachloride
Carbon tetrachloride is a substance resembling chloroform in odour, and prepared by the action of chlorine on carbon disulphide. It is a colourless liquid with a pleasant odour used as a solvent for many organic substances. It is non-inflammable and as such is used as a substitute for benzene in degreasing woollen goods and in dry-cleaning. It attacks most metals, lead and tin being most resistant to it. Carbon tetrachloride is registered under the trade name benzinoform.

Carbonado
Carbonado is a powdered form of diamond.

Carbonate
A carbonate is a salt formed by the union of carbon dioxide with a base element.

Carbonic anhydride
see "Carbon Dioxide"

Carbonic Oxide
see "Carbon Monoxide"

Carboniferous
The Carboniferous was the seventh geological period, 250,000,000 years ago. This era marked the formation of the coal beds.

Carborundum
Carborundum is silicon carbide and is extremely hard.

Carboxyl
In chemistry, carboxyl is a form of a substance with the monovalent methyl united to the monovalent group. Carboxyl is a characteristic part of a large number of organic acids.

Carboxyl group
In chemistry, a carboxyl group is a univalent organic radical (-COOH) which is the functional group of all the carbolic acids.

Carboy
A carboy is a large globular wicker-covered glass bottle used for holding acid or other corrosive liquids.

Carburettor
A carburettor is a device for charging air with a hydrocarbon.

Carcanet
A carcanet was a necklace or collar of jewels. They were manufactured in Venice during the fifteenth century.

Card
A card is an instrument for combing, opening and breaking wool, flax etc. It is made by inserting bent teeth of wire into a thick piece of leather and nailing this to a rectangular board.

Card Dominoes
see "Sevens"

Cardan Suspension
see "Gimbal"

Cardboard
Cardboard is a kind of stiff paper or pasteboard made by sticking together several sheets of paper.

Cardbox Plus
Cardbox Plus is a file manager that works well where a card-index solution might have been used. It has unique indexing facilities including the ability to highlight and search on free-format comment text. Cardbox Plus is ideal for mailing list and simple customer record applications.

Caret
A caret (from the Latin meaning something is missing) is a writer's mark indicating that something should be inserted at this point, usually an omitted word or phrase.

Carillon
A carillon is a set of bells in a tower or belfry on which tunes may be played. The bells are fixed and are struck on the outside by hammers.

Carlton Club
The Carlton Club was a famous political club in Pall Mall, London. It was the recognised headquarters of the Conservative Party, and was founded in 1832 by the Duke of Wellington.

Carmania
The Carmania was a turbine steamer built for the Cunard Company and launched in 1905. She was 678 feet long and had a gross tonnage of 21000 and could carry 2656 passengers and had a normal speed of 21 knots.

Carmen
Carmen is an opera written by Bizet and released shortly before his death.

Carmine
Carmine is a red colouring derived from the cochineal insect. It was first prepared by a Franciscan monk at Pisa and manufacture began in 1650.

Carolina Tea
see "Appalachian Tea"

Carotene
see "vitamin a"

Carousel
Carousel is a card game variant of Rummy in which from one to three cards are drawn and jokers are wild.

Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common disorder that causes pain, and interferes with the use of the hand. It is caused by pressure on the median nerve as the nerve passes through a canal formed by the bones and ligaments in the wrist (the carpal tunnel). A wide variety of conditions can cause the carpal tunnel to narrow and put pressure on the median nerve, including injuries, such as wrist fractures; arthritis complicated by swelling of the tendons in the carpal tunnel; pregnancy, which may cause the synovium around the tendons to thicken; and glandular abnormalities, such as diabetes and thyroid disorders. Work that involves repetitive wrist motions may also cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome include pain and numbness in the thumb and in the index, middle, and ring fingers. Many people wake at night with these symptoms. Some sufferers experience weakness of hand muscles and may drop objects. Symptoms often occur when the wrist is flexed during such activities as driving a car or holding a book while reading. Doctors treat carpal tunnel syndrome by attempting to improve the underlying condition. In many cases, doctors apply a splint to the wrist and prescribe anti-inflammatory medications. In some cases, surgery is performed to relieve symptoms and to prevent permanent damage to the median nerve.

Carpel
Carpel is a botanical term referring to a simple pistil or a single member of a compound pistil.

Carpet
Carpet is a thick fabric, often made of wool, used for covering a floor. It is made by knotting short lengths of yarn to the warp threads during weaving.

Carpolite
Carpolite is a term applied to fossils of fruits.

Carron oil
Carron oil is a mixture of linseed oil and lime water which was formerly used for treating burns. It was first used at the Carron ironworks near Falkirk.

Carron-Oil
Carron-Oil is a linament composed of linseed-oil and lime-water. It was so named on account of being used to treat burns at the Carron Ironworks.

Carse
Carse is the name given in Scotland to a wide fertile valley.

Cart
A cart is a strong two or four wheeled vehicle used in farming and for carrying heavy goods.

Carte-Blanche
A Carte-Blanche is a blank piece of white paper, signed and sealed and given to a person to fill-up as he pleases, thus giving unlimited power to decide.

Cartel
A cartel is a written agreement for the exchange or ransom of prisoners.

Cartesian Diver
A Cartesian Diver is a hydrostatic toy consisting of a little hollow figure, which has a small opening some distance below the top, and is rather lighter than an equal volume of water, so it can float. The figure is placed in a bottle of water closed with a bladder of rubber so as to exclude air. On pressing the bladder the air inside the figure is compressed drawing a little water into the figure which causes it to sink. Removing the pressure on the bladder excludes the water from the figure and it rises again.

Carthamic Acid
see "Carthamin"

Carthamin
Carthamin (Carthamic Acid) is an astringent bitter principle obtained from the flowers of the arthamus tinctorius. It is a red pigment used in silk-dyeing and the preparation of rouge.

Carton
A carton is a light box or case for holding goods.

Cartouche
In architecture, a cartouche is a scroll ornament.

Cartridge-paper
Cartridge-paper is a thick paper. It is so named because it was originally used to make soldiers' cartridges.

Carucate
A carucate was formerly as much land as one team could plough in one year. The size varied according to the nature of the soil and the practice of husbandry in different districts.

Caruncle
A caruncle is a small hard outgrowth formed on the seeds of certain plants, such as the castor oil plant.

Caryatide
In architecture, caryatides are figures of women dressed in long robes, serving to support entablatures.

Caryopsis
Caryopsis is a botanical term for a one-seeded indehiscent fruit with pericarp fused to the seed-coat, as in wheat and barley.

Cascara
Cascara is an extract of the bark of the Californian buckthorn used as a laxative or cathartic.

Cascarila
Cascarila is the aromatic bitter bark of Croton Eleutheria.

Case-hardening
Case-hardening is a process whereby iron objects have their outside layer converted to steel. The object is put in a box containing carbon and is heated until red hot. Then it is immersed in cold water where upon a layer of steel forms on the object.

Casein
Casein is a protein found in milk. It can be separated by the action of acid, the enzyme rennin, or bacteria (souring); it is also the main protein in cheese. Casein is used as a protein supplement in the treatment of malnutrition and is used commercially in cosmetics, glues, and as a sizing for coating paper.

Cash flow
Cash flow is the input of cash required to cover all expenses of a business, whether revenue or capital. Alternatively, the actual or prospective balance between the various outgoing and incoming movements which are designated in total. Cash flow is positive if receipts are greater than payments; negative if payments are greater than receipts. A 'cash flow forecast' is one of the most important forms of financial planning for any business. The business needs to know if monthly outgoings are going to be greater than receipts. If it does not have finance, such as bank deposits or an overdraft facility, to cover a period of negative cash flow, the company will go bankrupt even if the business is fundamentally profitable in the long term.

Cash register
The cash register is a machine invented in 1879 by James Ritty for retail traders. Simply they consist of keys which pressed record the value of sales, a display which indicates to the customer the values, and a cash draw which cannot be opened except by registering the fact to the machine.

Casino
Casino is the only fishing card game to have become popular in English speaking countries. Although it is traditionally supposed to have originated in Italy, there is no direct evidence of it having been played there, at least under that name, though many other Italian fishing games are known. casino first appears in the card game literature at the end of the eighteenth century in London, and shortly afterwards in Germany. In the late nineteenth century it became fasionable in America and a number of new variations were developed. There is a dispute about the correct spelling of the name - the earliest sources use the spelling Casino, but a tradition has grown up among later writers to spell it with a double 's': Cassino.

Cassier's Magazine
Cassier's Magazine was a magazine founded in 1891 by Louis Cassier, and published in New York as the first monthly publication devoted to purely engineering and scientific subjects. It was particularly noted for its illustrations.

Cassina
Cassina are an Italian furniture-making company. They were established in 1923 in Meda, Italy. Cassina moved from craft to mass production after 1945 and successfully sold modern design to a sophisticated international niche market, using designers such as Franco Albini, Gio Ponti and Vico Magistretti. Ponti's 'Superleggera' chair of 1957 was among the most successful of Cassina's products.

Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia is a constellation in the northern hemisphere situated next to Cephus. It contains fifty-five stars.

Cassock
A cassock is a long close fitting tunic, buttoning up to the neck and reaching down to the feet, worn by the clergy.

Cast iron
Cast iron is a cheap but valuable constructional material, most commonly used for automobile engine blocks. Cast iron is partly refined pig iron, which is very fluid when molten and highly suitable for shaping by casting; it contains too many impurities such as carbon to be readily shaped in any other way. Solid cast iron is heavy and can absorb great shock but is very brittle.

Castanets
Castanets are small concave shells of ivory or hard wood used by the Spaniards and Moors to make a rattling sound to accompany dancing. A pair of castanets are held in the palm of the hand and struck with the middle finger.

Caste
Caste is an Indian hereditary class system with members socially equal, united in religion and usually following the same trade. A member of one caste has no social intercourse with a member of any other caste except their own. There are four main groups: Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (nobles and warriors), Vaisyas (traders and farmers), and Sudras (servants); plus a fifth group, Harijan (untouchables). No upward or downward mobility exists, as in classed societies. The system dates from ancient times, and there are more than 3,000 subdivisions. In Hindu tradition, the four main castes are said to have originated from the head, arms, thighs, and feet respectively of Brahma, the creator; the members of the fifth were probably the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, known variously as Scheduled Castes, Depressed Classes, Untouchables, or Harijan (a name coined by Gandhi meaning 'children of God'). This lowest caste handled animal products, garbage, and human wastes and so was considered to be polluting by touch, or even by sight, to others. Discrimination against them was made illegal 1947 when India became independent, but persists.

Castilian
Castilian is a member of the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family, originating in north-west Spain, in the provinces of Old and New Castile. It is the basis of present-day standard Spanish and is often seen as the same language, the terms castellano and espanol being used interchangeably in both Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas.

Casting
Casting is the process of producing solid objects by pouring molten material into a shaped mold and allowing it to cool. Casting is used to shape such materials as glass and plastics, as well as metals and alloys. The casting of metals has been practiced for more than 6,000 years, using first copper and bronze, then iron. The traditional method of casting metal is sand casting. Using a model of the object to be produced, a hollow mold is made in a damp sand and clay mix. Molten metal is then poured into the mold, taking its shape when it cools and solidifies. The sand mold is broken up to release the casting. Permanent metal molds called dies are also used for casting, in particular, small items in mass-production processes where molten metal is injected under pressure into cooled dies. Continuous casting is a method of shaping bars and slabs that involves pouring molten metal into a hollow, water-cooled mold of the desired cross section.

Castor
Castor is a reddish-brown bitter substance obtained from the anal glands of the beaver and used in perfume and medicine.
Castor is a star (Alpha Geminorum) of magnitude 1.6, the fainter star of the zodiacal constellation Gemini, or the Twins. In 1719 it was discovered to be a visual binary star, with components of magnitudes 2.8 and 2.0 separated by 6 seconds of arc and revolving around each other in about 350 years. Each of these components has been found to be a spectroscopic binary. In addition, a faint companion, separated from the other two by 72 sec of arc, has been discovered. This star is also a spectroscopic binary, the two components of which revolve around each other in about one day. Hence, the entire system of the star Castor contains at least six stars. Its distance is about 45 light-years from the earth.

Castor oil
Castor oil is a pale yellow nauseous acrid oil obtained from the seeds of the Castor oil plant and used as a purgative and lubricant.

Catacomb
Catacombs are subterranean cemeteries.

Catafalque
A catafalque is a temporary and ornamental structure, representing a tomb, placed over the coffin of a distinguished person or over a grave.

Catalase
In chemistry, a catalase is any of various enzymes capable of decomposing hydrogen peroxide.

Catalyst
A catalyst is a substance which facilitates a reaction, without being consumed by the reaction itself. It is a term generally used in chemistry, although it is equally applicable in applied Psychology, such as in the role of an antagonist or provocateur.

Catamaran
A catamaran is a boat comprised of a keel and two side arms. They were originally rafts used in the east, particularly by the natives of the Madras and Coromandel coasts.

Catboat
A catboat is a sailing boat with a single mast set well forward and rigged with one sail.

Catechism
A catechism is an elementary book containing a number of principles in any science or art, but particularly in religion, reduced to the form of questions and answers.

Catenary
A catenary is a curve taken up by a flexible cable suspended between two points, under gravity. For example, the curve of overhead suspension cables that hold the conductor wire of an electric railroad or tramway.

Caterpillar track
Caterpillar track is the trade name for an endless flexible belt of metal plates on which certain vehicles such as tanks and bulldozers run, which takes the place of ordinary tyred wheels and improves performance on wet or uneven surfaces. A track-laying vehicle has a track on each side, and its engine drives small cogwheels that run along the top of the track in contact with the ground. The advantage of such tracks over wheels is that they distribute the vehicle's weight over a wider area and are thus ideal for use on soft and waterlogged as well as rough and rocky ground.

Cathetometer
A cathetometer is a device for measuring small differences in height.

Cathode
A cathode is a negative electrical pole or terminal.

Cathode Rays
Cathode rays are a stream of electrons emitted from the cathode of an electron tube and accelerated to high velocity by an electron gun. The rays can be deflected by magnetic or electric fields.

Cathode-ray Oscilloscope
A cathode-ray oscilloscope is an instrument for examining electrical quantities, and particularly varying electrical quantities both periodic and transient, by means of a luminous trace on the screen of a cathode-ray tube. The quantities to be investigated or measured are made to deflect the electron beam in the cathode-ray tube, and thus to produce corresponding movement of the light spot on the screen. In addition to examining electrical quantities as such, the oscilloscope is widely used to examine any physical quantity the changing values of which can be converted into corresponding changes of electric potential.

Cathode-ray Tube
A cathode-ray tube is an electron tube containing a thermionic cathode and an electron gun for the production of cathode rays which are directed axially along the tube in the direction of the flattened, wide end. The internal surface of the wider end of the tube is coated with a phosphor which emits light at the point of impact of the high speed electrons.

Cation
A cation is a positively charged ion which, in an electrolyte or in a gas-filled electron tube, travels towards the negative electrode or cathode.

Cato Street Conspiracy
The Cato Street Conspiracy was a plot to murder British ministers in 1820. Arthur Thistlewood, who had already been mixed up with revolutionary projects, conceived a plan for assassinating Lord Castlereagh and his ministerial colleagues at a dinner in Grosvenor Square, London on February 23rd. Arms were collected in a hired rendezvous in the neighbouring Cato Street. The plot was discovered, and Thistlewood and his colleagues arrested, and he and four others were executed.

Catoptrics
Catoptrics is the branch of optics which explains the properties of incident and reflected light, and particularly that which is reflected from mirrors or polished surfaces.

Cattle Plague
see "Rinderpest"

Catty
The catty was a Chinese unit of weight equivalent to 1.5 lbs.

Cau Robat
Cau robat is a card game played in Catalonia, the north east part of Spain. It is a children's fishing game similar to Scopa and Scopone although simpler and with greater scope for chance.

Caul
A caul is a woman's close-fitting cap or hair net. They were originally made of gold net and worn by women between the 14th and 16th centuries.

Cauldron
A cauldron is a large boiling vessel, usually of a deep basin shape with a hoop handle and a removable lid.

Causeway
A causeway is a raised road across a low or wet piece of land.

Caustic soda
see "Sodium hydrate"

Cautery
A cautery is a heated metal instrument used for burning or searing organic tissue.

Cavalcade
A cavalcade is a procession of riders on horse-back.

Cavatina
In music, a cavatina is a melody of simpler character than the aria, and without a second part and a dacapo or return part.

Cave
A cave is a deep hollow place under ground.

Cavendish
Cavendish is softened tobacco which has been sweetened with molasses and then pressed into cakes.

Cavendish Experiment
The Cavendish Experiment was conducted by Henry Cavendish for the purpose of ascertaining the mean density of the earth by means of the torsion balance.

Caviare
Caviare is the roes of certain large fish prepared and salted. The best is made from the roes of the sterlet and sturgeon caught in the lakes and rivers of Russia.

Cavo-Rilievo
Cavo-Rilievo is a form of sculpture in which the highest surface of the relief is only level with that of the original stone.

CBI
The CBI is the British organisation of employers.

CC:Mail
CC:Mail is a network communications system which functions transparently across different networks, operating systems and hardware platforms. As such it has the ability to connect groups of users across a LAN or collecton of LANs. CC:Mail enables a central database to be maintained which is called the CC:Mail post office. This structure contains single copies of messages together with pointers to individual mailboxes. This cuts down on network traffic and also disk storage space. As the package is of a modular nature, CC:Mail may be expanded as requirements grow with ease. Anything that can be created or viewed on a workstation may be transmitted across the LAN to the central post office. When the message is received by the post office the recipient is notified. Items within the message can be multiple so that one message may contain many items. These items can be text, graphics, files and screen output. Items may be edited when they are viewed and returned the sender, forwarded, printed, archived or deleted. If the item is of special interest it may be saved in a private folder for personal use or made public by placing it on a bulletin board. If an old message is required a search can be made by name, keyword phrase, and date. Management of the system is carried out by the CC:Mail Administrator who creates the mail directory.

CCIR
The CCIR (Comite Consultatif Internationale des Radio), is a major constituent of the International Telecommunications Union, issuing both Radio Regulations and Recommendations for all uses of radio transmission.

CCITT
The CCITT (Comite Consultatif Internationale des Telephones et Telegraphes), is a major constituent of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that sets standards for the operation of telecommunications services across international boundaries. Many CCITT standards are adopted for use domestically.

CCU
A CCU (Communications Concentrator Unit) is a small computer connected between a main computer and one or more serial devices operating as an intermediary to relieve the main computer of much of the routine work connected with receiving information from the serial devices.

Cedilla
A cedilla is a mark made under the letter c, especially in French, to indicate that it is to be pronounced like the English s.

Cego
Cego is a special type of Tarok, played in south west Germany. It was developed in the early part of the nineteenth century and became the national card game of Baden and Hohenzollern, where it remains extremely popular. These are the only parts of Germany where genuine Tarok cards (here known as Cego cards) are still in general use. (A game called Tarock is played in Württemberg and Bavaria, but that game uses a normal 36-card German pack). Cego is unusual among Tarok games in that an extra hand, the Cego, sometimes known as the Tapp or Blinde, is dealt to the centre of the table. Many of the bids involve playing with this extra hand, retaining only one or two of one's original cards and discarding the remainder. The discarded cards are sometimes called the Legage. The idea of this type of bid derives from a version of L'Hombre, and survives in a few other games, such as Vira.

Ceilidh
A ceilidh is a Gaelic festival of singing and dancing held in Scotland and Ireland.

Celluloid
Celluloid is a hard, unstable synthetic substance once used for films. It is composed of gun-cotton and camphor and is moulded to the desired shape by heat.

Cellulose
Cellulose is the cellular tissue of plants. It is a member of the carbohydrate family and is allied to starch. In plants, cellulose is normally combined with woody, fatty, or gummy substances. With some exceptions among insects, true cellulose is not found in animal tissues. Microorganisms in the digestive tracts of herbivorous animals break down the cellulose into products that can then be absorbed. Cellulose is insoluble in all ordinary solvents and may be readily separated from the other constituents of plants. Depending on its concentration, sulfuric acid acts on cellulose to produce glucose, soluble starch, or amyloid; the last is a form of starch used for the coating of parchment paper. When cellulose is treated with an alkali and thenexposed to the fumes of carbon disulfide, the solution yields films and threads. Rayon and cellophane are cellulose regenerated from such solutions. Cellulose acetates are spun into fine filaments for the manufacture of some fabrics and are also used for photographic safety film, as a substitute for glass, for the manufacture of safety glass, and as a molding material. Cellulose ethers are used in paper sizings, adhesives, soaps, and synthetic resins. With mixtures of nitric and sulfuric acids, cellulose forms a series of flammable and explosive compounds known as cellulose nitrates, or nitrocelluloses. Pyroxylin, also called collodion cotton, is a nitrate used in various lacquers and plastics; another, collodion, is used in medicine, photography, and the manufacture of artificial leather and some lacquers. A third nitrate, guncotton, is a high explosive.

Celtic
The Celtic was a mail steamer of the White Star Line, launched in 1901. It was 700 feet long, with a gross tonnage of 20880 and a displacement of 37700 tons and a speed of 17 knots.

Cement
Cement is a mixture of chalk and clay used for building.

Cenotaph
A cenotaph is a monument erected in honour of a deceased person, but not containing his body. The Greeks erected cenotaphs, and a number were built in England after the Great War, the most famous is in Whitehall, London which was designed by Sir E Luytens and unveiled by the King on Armistice Day (11th November 1920).

Census
The census is a questionnaire issued every ten years in Britain which gathers detailed figures concerning the population, classified according to sex, age, occupation, size of families and geographical distribution.

Cental
The cental was a weight of 100 pounds legal in Britain since 1879 and used primarily for corn. The term was invented by Danson, a barrister, in order to meet the need for a uniform measure in the Liverpool corn trade. It was first introduced in February 1859, and legalized twenty years later.

Centaurus
Centaurus (the Centaur) is a southern constellation, which is visible chiefly south of the equator. The brightest star in this constellation, Alpha Centauri, is also the third brightest star in the sky. It is about 4.3 light-years from the earth and is the closest visible star to the earth's solar system. The star is actually a double star, with a third star, Proxima Centauri, revolving around the others.

Centiare
A centiare is a French measurement, the hundredth part of an are.

Centner
A centner is a European name for a hundred-weight.

Cento
A cento is a poem formed out of verses taken from one or more poets, so arranged as to form a distinct poem.

Central Criminal Court
The Central Criminal Court was set up in 1834 in the Old Bailey, which stands on the site of old Newgate Prison. Here serious criminal cases from London and the surrounding areas are heard.

Ceres
Ceres is a planet with a diameter of 256 km which was discovered on the 1st of January 1801 by M. Plazzi at Palermo. It was named Ceres after the goddess Ceres who was so highly esteemed by the ancient Sicilians.

Cerium
Cerium is a rare metal element with the symbol Ce.

Ceruleum
Ceruleum is a blue pigment, consisting of stannate of protoxide of cobalt mixed with stannic acid and sulphate of lime.

Cetearth-3
Cetearth-3 is used in cosmetics as an emulsifier and lotion. It dries out the skin and causes numerous allergic reactions.

Ceti
see "Menkar"

Cetyl Alcohol
Cetyl alcohol (fatty alcohol) is a moisturiser used in cosmetics to keep oil and water from separating and also as a foam booster.

CGI
CGI (The Common Gateway Interface) is a specification that allows computer Web servers execute other programs and incorporate their output into the text, graphics, and audio sent to a client Web browser. The server and the CGI program work together to enhance and customise the World Wide Web's capabilities. By providing a standard interface, the CGI specification allows developers use a wide variety of programming tools, such as C and Perl.

Chain
The chain is a unit of the imperial scale of measurement of length equivalent to 22 yards or 20.168 metres. A chain is comprised of 100 links, each 7.92 inches long. 10 chains equal one furlong, and 10 square chains equal one acre.

Chains
see "chain"

Chaldee
Chaldee is an ancient Semetic language.

Chalder
The chalder was a Scottish dry measure containing 16 bolls, equivalent to 12 imperial quarters. It was originally used in weighing grain.

Chaldron
The chaldron is an old English unit of capacity measurement equivalent to 36 bushels. It was used as a measure of coal in England, equal to 6,800 lbs.

Chalice
A chalice is a ceremonial cup.

Chalk
Chalk is a pure soft limestone, opaque white, and usually formed by the accumulation of the shells of foraminifera together with those of larger marine organisms.

Challenger Expedition
The Challenger Expedition was a voyage for the scientific purposes of investigating the conditions of life in the deep sea of the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic Oceans organised in 1872 by the British government. The corvette Challenger started from Sheerness in December 1872 and returned in May 1876 after collecting information about the ocean beds, currents, temperature and also collecting samples of fauna.

Chalybeate Water
Chalybeate Water is water holding iron in solution, either as a carbonate or as a sulphate with or without other salts.

Chamberlain's Men
The Chamberlain's Men were an Elizabethan stage troupe. It's most famous member was the young William Shakespeare.

Chambers
In legal talk, chambers are the rooms where barristers do their work before appearing in court.

Chance-Medley
Chance-Medley is a now obsolete legal term which has been replaced by the term 'manslaughter'. It described a homocide which occurred either in self-defence, on a sudden quarrel, or in the commission of an unlawful act without any deliberate intention of doing mischief.

Changeling
A changeling is a child substituted for another, usually at birth. There was formerly a belief that week or peevish children were changelings, perhaps swapped by fairies or other evil spirits.

Chap-Book
Chap-Books were a type of cheap literature sold cheaply by chapmen and peddlers who hawked them from district to district. They contained stories and biographies of a generally popular nature and were the fore runners of modern periodicals.

Chapadmalal
Chapadmalal is a world famous stud-horse farm in Argentina.

Chaplet
A chaplet is a string of beads used by Roman Catholics to count the number of their prayers. A chaplet is a third of a rosary, and usually consists of fifty-five beads.

Charcoal
Charcoal is an amorphous form of carbon formed by charring wood.

Chargeurs Reunis
The Chargeurs Reunis was a French steamship line established at Paris in 1872, running between Havre and Indo-China, east Africa and South America.

Chariot
A chariot was a two wheeled vehicle used in ancient warfare.

Charterhouse
Charterhouse is a celebrated school and charitable foundation in the city of London. It was built in 1371 as a priory for Carthusian monks by Sir Walter Manny. After the dissolution of the monasteries it passed through several hands until it came to Thomas Sutton who converted it into a hospital and school. In 1872 it was moved to Godalming and the premises in London sold to the Merchant Taylors' School. New buildings were erected at the original site in 1875.

Chase
In Norman times, a chase (or chace) was a hunting ground stocked with beasts and under private, rather than royal ownership which was called a forest.

Chasing
Chasing is the art of working decorative forms in low-relief in gold, silver or other metals.

Chasuble
A chasuble is the upper garment worn by a priest during the celebration of mass. It was originally circular, had a hole in the middle for the head, but no holes for the arms. In later times the sides were cut away to allow a freer motion.

Chatham Chest
The Chatham Chest (later Greenwich Chest) was a fund established in 1590 on the recommendation of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins for the relief of sick and wounded seamen. The deduction of money from seamen's pay to the fund ceased in 1829 by which time the fund was practically merged in the general relief funds of the Greenwich Hospital.

Chatterton's Compound
Chatterton's Compound is a mixture of Stockholm tar, resin and gutta-percha. It was once used in the construction of submarine telegraph cables.

Chausses
Chausses were a tight covering for the legs and body, reaching to the waist, and worn by almost all men of Europe at one time.

Chauvinism
Chauvinism is fanatical devotion to a cause, especially patriotism. The term comes from Nicholas Chauvin who was a soldier so enthusiastically devoted to Napoleon that his comrades ridiculed him.

Cheat
Cheat (Bullshit, I Doubt It) is a card game for two to ten players. One standard pack of 52 cards is used. All the cards are dealt out to the players; some may have more than others, but not by much. The object is to get rid of all your cards. Select at random who should go first and continue clockwise. On the table is a discard pile, which starts empty. A turn consists of discarding one or more cards face down on the pile, and calling out their rank. The first player must discard aces, the second player discards two, the next player threes, and so on. After tens come Jacks, then Queens, then Kings, then back to Aces, etc. Since the cards are discarded face down, you do not in fact have to play the rank you are calling. For example if it is your turn to discard sevens, you may actually discard any card or mixture of cards; in particular, if you don't have any sevens you will be forced to play some other card or cards. Any player who suspects that the card(s) discarded by a player do not match the rank called can challenge the play by calling "Cheat!", "Bullshit!" or "I doubt it!" (depending on what you call the game). Then the cards played by the challenged player are exposed and one of two things happens: 1. if they are all of the rank that was called, the challenge is false, and the challenger must pick up the whole discard pile; 2. if any of the played cards is different from the called rank, the challenge is correct, and the person who played the cards must pick up the whole discard pile. After the challenge is resolved, play continues in normal rotation: the player to the left of the one who was challenged plays and calls the next rank in sequence. The first player to get rid of all their cards and survive win any challenge resulting from their final play wins the game. If you play your last remaining card(s), but someone challenges you and the cards you played are not what you called, you pick up the pile and play continues.

Cheese Aerial
A cheese aerial is a type of rotatable aerial employed in Radar on the centimetric waveband. It consists of a parabolic metallic reflector, and is usually fed by a waveguide.

Chemdet
Chemdet is an anionic drilling detergent for drilling muds. It is added to water based mud systems to reduce the surface tension.

Chemical Bond
Chemical bond is the force retaining two atoms together in a molecule as, for example, the force exerted by a pair of shared electrons.

Chemical change
In chemistry, chemical change is a change in which the chemical structure of a substance is changed.

Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of the composition of substances.

Cheng
The cheng is a Chinese musical instrument. It is comprised of a series of tubes with free reeds. Its introduction into Europe led to the development of the accordion and harmonium.

Chenille
Chenille is an ornamental fabric made by weaving or twisting together warp-like threads with a weft the loose ends of which protrude all round in the form of a pile.

Chess
Chess is a game of skill played on a chequered board.

Chest
A chest was a British measurement of tea ranging from 80 to 84 lbs.

Chica
Chica is an organge-red pigment prepared from Bignnia Chica by the Indians of the upper Orinoco and Rio Negro in South America and used to adorn the person.

Chicago
Chicago is a card game for two to four players, using a standard 52-card deck without jokers. Points are scored for having the best hand according to poker ranking, but also in the final stage of the game the cards are played to tricks, and points are scored by the winner of the last trick.
Ciapano
Ciapano, also known as Rovescino, Traversone, Tressette a non Prendere, Perdivinci or Vinciperdi is a trick-taking card game and is the reverse game of Tresette. The name Ciapanò is in Milanese dialect (in English it could be translated as "Don't catch it!") - Ciapanò was very popular in Lombardy until the 1980s and still played there now. Like most Italian games it is played anticlockwise. Ciapano can be played by 3, 4 or 5 players. A 40-card deck is used. In the North East of Lombardy the Italian suits: swords, batons, cups and coins are used. In the South or North West of Lombardy the game is played with 40 cards of the Milanese pack which has French suits (spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds). In each suit the cards rank as follows: 3 (highest), 2, Asso (ace), Re (king), Cavallo (horse, or queen), Fante (jack), 7, 6, 5, 4 (lowest). The cards have point values and the object is to avoid taking tricks containing valuable cards. There is an extra penalty for winning the last trick.

Chicle
Chicle is a gum-like substance obtained from the bully tree and used for making chewing gum.

Chilli
Chilli is a spice, being either the pod or powder of capsicum.

Chintz
Originally, chintz was a painted or stained calico imported from India.

Chiton
A chiton was a simple garment extending half-way to the knee and worn in ancient Greece.

Chloral Hydrate
Chloral Hydrate is a crystalline compound of the marsh gas series, discovered by Liebig in 1831, which, when taken dissolved in water, produces deep sleep, but not insensibility to pain.

Chloralum
Chloralum is a compound of chlorine and aluminium used as an antiseptic and disinfectant invented by Gamgee in 1870.

Chlorate
A chlorate is a salt formed by the reaction of chloric acid and metal.

Chlorates
see "chlorate"

Chlordane
Chlordane is a man-made chemical that was registered for use as a pesticide in the United States from 1948 to the present. It is a tan, glassy substance (almost solid) that has a mild, irritating smell. Chlordane is not a single chemical, but is a mixture of more than 50 chemicals. Because it does not dissolve in water, before it can be used, it must be placed in water with emulsifiers (soap-like substances) to make a milky-looking mixture of liquid particles. It was used mainly to stop termites in houses and was used on corn and other crops. The presence of chlordane in the soil under a house will kill termites that come into contact with it and will repel or kill any that might try to enter the house at a later time. The production of chlordane by industries and registration of the pesticide with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for all above-ground uses had stopped by 1983, but above-ground use of any chlordane that was still on store shelves or already bought was still allowed until April 14, 1988. In the fall of 1987, use of chlordane to kill termites was allowed only on the outside of buildings, and other uses were suspended in April of 1988 until more information was gathered on the amount of chlordane in air. Use of chlordane was stopped mainly because of concern over cancer risk, evidence of human exposure and build up in body fat, persistence in the environment, and danger to wildlife. This compound stays in the environment for many years and is still found in food, air, water, and soil, and is also present in some form in the fat of almost all humans.

Chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride
Chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride (Librax, Libritabs, Librium, Mesural, Multum, Risolid, Silibrin, Sonimen, Zetran) is an orally ingested or injected limbic Central Nervous System depressant used in medicine for the management of anxiety disorders or the short-term relief of anxiety.

Chloric acid
Chloric acid is a oxyacid of chlorine. It is a powerful oxidising agent.

Chlorine
Chlorine is a gaseous element with the symbol Cl.

Chloroform
Chloroform (trichloRomethane) is a compound of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine, and was made from alcohol, water and bleaching powder. It was discovered by Soubeiran in 1831 and independently by Liebig in 1832. It was first used as an anaesthetic in 1847.

Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is the green colouring matter of plant leaves and absorbs the light necessary for photosynthesis. Chlorophyll absorbs mainly red, violet, and blue light and reflects green light. The great abundance of chlorophyll in leaves and its occasional presence in other plant tissues, such as stems, causes these plant parts to appear green. In some leaves, chlorophyll is masked by other pigments. Chlorophyll is a large molecule composed mostly of carbon and hydrogen. At the center of the molecule is a single atom of magnesium surrounded by a nitrogen-containing group of atoms called a porphyrin ring. The structure somewhat resembles that of the active constituent of hemoglobin in the blood. A long chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms proceeds from this central core and attaches the chlorophyll molecule to the inner membrane of the chloroplast, the cell organelle in which photosynthesis takes place. As a molecule of chlorophyll absorbs a photon of light, its electrons become excited and move to higher energy levels. This initiates a complex series of chemical reactions in the chloroplast that enables the energy to be stored in chemical bonds.

Chocolate
Chocolate is a confectionery made from cocoa beans and introduced to Europe from Mexico and Brazil about 1520. It was sold in the London coffee-houses in 1650.

Chorten
see "Tope"

Christie's
Christie's is a famous fine art auction house in London founded in 1766.

Chromatic Aberration
Chromatic aberration is the presence of prismatic colours at the edges of an optical image due to the refractive index of the lens material being different for light of different frequencies.

Chromium
Chromium is a metal element with the symbol Cr.

Chromosome
A chromosome is a chemical found in all cells which determines how the cell will act.

Chronoscope
The chronoscope is an apparatus invented by Wheatstone in 1840 to measure small intervals of time.

Church Ale
Church ales were important social and money-raising functions in the Tudor and Stuart periods in England. The churchwardens at this time sold, or distributed free of charge, ale and food, sometimes in the church house or in a barn or in the church itself, with the purpose of attracting local residents where they might then be induced to pay the parish rates.

Chutney
Chutney is a condiment composed of fruits, acids and spices used extensively in India, and from there introduced to the West.

Cicera
Cicera is an Italian fishing card game closely related to the popular game Scopa. It is played in the province of Brescia and the technical terms are given in the dialect of Brescia. This game is the reason why the Bresciane pack is made with 52 cards and not with 40 as other Italian packs. (Trevisane cards are also made as 52 card packs because in that zone they play Scaraboción, which is another variant of Scopa similar to Cycera). There are four players, two against two in fixed partnerships; you sit opposite your partner. As in most Italian games, play is anticlockwise. A Bresciane 52-card deck is used. The cards in each suit are Re (king), Cavallo (horse), Fante (jack), 10, 9 ,8 ,7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A. It would also be possible to play with a standard international 52 card pack, but in Brescia, the local cards are always used.

Cinematograph Films Act
The Cinematograph Films Act of 1927 was a British act of Parliament which came into force on April 1st 1928 for a ten year period until March 31st 1938. The act required that British renters of films included in their output a certain proportion of films made in the British Empire. Exhibitors of films were also required to show a proportion of British films. The proportions were on a sliding scale, gradually increasing over the ten year period.

Cinnamic Acid
Cinnamic Acid or phenylacrylic acid is a white, crystalline organic compound found naturally in combination in some balsams and prepared synthetically by heating benzaldehyde with sodium acetate in the presence of acetic anhydride.

Circuit
A circuit is a path for electrical current. Current can flow only when the circuit is closed, that is when it presents a continuous conductive path.

Citral
see "Geranial"

Citric acid
Citric acid is found in citrus fruits. It has the formulae c6h807.

City Line
The City Line was an English steampship company plying between Glasgow and Liverpool, London and Bombay and Karachi. It was founded in 1839 by George Smith and Sons and sold in 1901 to J R Ellerman.

Clan Line
The Clan Line was an English steamship line begun in 1878 conducting a fortnightly service from Liverpool and Glasgow to Karachi and Bombay. In 1881 and 1882 the business was expanded and started calling also at south and east African ports, Colombo, Madras and Calcutta. In 1893 the service was further extended with a service from New York to south and east African ports.

Claque
A claque was a body of men hired to applaud, laugh and weep as appropriate in theatres with the intention of making the show a success. It originated in France around 1760 and ceased around 1878.

Clarendon Press
The Clarendon Press was the name formerly given to the press at the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1672 and the printing house erected in 1711 to 1713 with profits from the sale of Lord Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion', the copyright of which was given to the university by his son. Since 1830 the press has been known as the Oxford University Press.

Clarinet
A clarinet (clarionet) is a woodwind musical instrument of the reed kind invented by Johann Denner in Nuremberg around 1690.

Clarion
A clarion is a musical instrument of the trumpet family.

Clarionet
see "Clarinet"

Claris CAD
Claris CAD is a drawing and drafting program that provides most of the features required by professional artists, draftspeople, and engineers creating two-dimensional drawings. It is one of the most comprehensive design programs available on the Macintosh. There are many tools available for geometric construction including double line drawing, spline and freehand curves, the ability to join lines into polygons, and the ability to unjoin the lines in an object. Rotating objects around a point and mirroring objects around a line is easy. Claris CAD includes many tools that aid in precise placement of objects and text. You can create an unlimited number of layers that can be viewed in any combination. Each layer can use multiple scales of measurement. Dimensioning can be automatic and is easily edited. You have a choice of linear, radial, diametral, and angular dimensioning, and all can be preset or custom-made. Claris CAD offers a wide variety of features, including 25 drawing tools and tool modifiers; up to four different ways of drawing objects; the ability to have precise specifications for the size, location, and angles of objects in a drawing; automatic updating of drawings to meet new specifications; support of the five drawing standards used in professional drawing environments; precise zoom controls; and the ability to manage several windows on the screen at one time. Fonts can range in size from one point to 127 points. Style sizes and justifications can be combined. Text can be coloured and rotated. Claris CAD allows you to create libraries of objects that can be recalled by sight or name. Claris CAD includes MacPlot drivers to support Hewlett-Packard and Houston Instrument plotters.

Clef
In music, a clef is a sign placed at the beginning of a stave to indicate the pitch and name of notes. There are now only three clefs in use: the treble or G clef; the base or F clet; and the C clef. The G clef consists of the five highest lines, the F clef of the five lowest lines, of the great stave.

Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra's Needle is a famous monolith which was erected at Heliopolis around 1500 BC before the great temple which stood there. It was removed to Alexandria by Augustus Caesar in 14 BC and presented to England by Mehemet Ali in 1819 and brought to London in 1878 by Sir Erasmus Wilson (the British government thinking it not worth the cost of removal) and erected on the Thames embankment between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. It is made of granite and stands roughly 21 meters tall.

Clepsydra
A clepsydra was a Greek and Roman water clock which measured time by the rate of the flow of water through small holes at the bottom of an earthenware globe.

Clerestory
The clerestory is that part of the walls of a Gothic church which rise above the aisle and contains a row of windows. Its purpose being to admit as much light as possible to the nave.

Click
Click is a peculiar variety of speech which occurs in the Bushman and Hottentot languages. The sounds are produced by pressing the tongue against some portion of the teeth-ridge or palate, and then quickly withdrawing it so as to produce an implosive click.

Climate
Climate is the average state of the atmosphere with regard to warmth, wind, rain and other variable conditions throughout a long period of time. It is dependant on the interaction of atmospheric conditions, such as wind, cloud, temperature and rainfall and on the surface features of the earth itself, such as the distribution of land and water, mountains and ocean currents. Hence it may vary considerably in places only a few kilometres apart.

Clincher-built
see "Clinker-built"

Clinker-built
Clinker-built, formerly clincher-built, was a term applied to a boat or ship built with the lower edge of each plank overlapping the one below it, like the tiles on a roof.

Clipper
A clipper is a sharp bowed fast sailing vessel.
Clipper is a database development tool based on the dBase III Plus file structure. All code developed with Clipper can be linked and compiled into machine-executed code that can be run directly from the DOS prompt. Clipper allows many enhancements to the database parameters of dBase III Plus and dBase IV and offers the ability to create user-defined functions, link object files compiled with other languages (such as C and assembler) and data arrays, and call external programs. No runtime module is required. Clipper contains a library, an error handler, a debugger, and a compiler. The library stores frequently used routines. The error handler system lets a programmer control the response of an application when and where errors occur. The debugger assists in finding and correcting both logical and execution errors. The compiler translates the source code into an executable format. Once the source code is debugged and compiled, the program (stored in an executable file) will run faster than non-compiled dBase III Plus programs. This executable file can be transported to any machine. You do not need Clipper or a runtime version to run the compiled program. Clipper makes it easy to create multi-user applications that support record and file locking and can open files for shared or exclusive access. It supports single and multi-user commands with no need to purchase additional runtime licences or multi-user versions.

Cloak
A cloak is a loose fitting, usually sleeveless outer garment.

Clog
A clog is a wooden soled, leather uppered boot.

Cloisonne
Cloisonne is a form of decorative enamel.

Clonus
Clonus is a rapidly alternating contraction and relaxation of muscles, resulting in violent tremors of part of a limb.

Cloud
A cloud is a mist formed above the ground by floating water particles.

Clove hitch
The clove hitch is a knot.

Cloybosh
see "Bela"

Clubmen
Clubmen were associations founded in the southern and western counties of England, to restrain the excesses of the armies during the civil wars oif 1642 - 1649. They professed neutrality, but inclined towards the king, and were considered enemies by his opponents.

Clutch
A clutch is an apparatus by which two rotating shafts may be connected or disconnected for the purpose of causing one to drive the other.

Copyright 1997,1998 Servile Software Enquiries to Matthew Probert

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