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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


naive art
Fresh, childlike style of painting, employing bright colours and strong, rhythmic designs. It is usually the work of self-taught artists with no formal training, and is less technical in approach. Outstanding naive artists include Henri Rousseau and Camille Bombois (1883–1970) in France, and Alfred Wallis in England. The term is also used ...

Narayan, R(asipuram) K(rishnaswamy)
Indian novelist. His immensely popular novels, notably Swami and Friends (1935), his first, and The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1962), successfully combine realism with mythic and grotesque elements. They are comedies of sadness, of the family and middle-class life, set in `Malgudi`, intensely local...

naturalism
In the arts generally, an approach that advocates the factual and realistic representation of the subject of a painting or novel with no stylization. Specifically, naturalism refers to a movement in literature and drama that developed as a reaction to the mannered, conventional and heavily stylized approach to all the arts favoured in the 18th cent...

NAFTA
Acronym for North American Free Trade Agreement

Nazi
Click images to enlargeMember of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, usually abbreviated to the Nazi Party. The party was based on the ideology of Nazism

Nation of Islam
Original name of the group popularly known as the Black Muslims, now the title of a 100,000-member splinter group faithful to the Black Muslims' original principles led by Louis Farrakhan. Members strive to improve their social and religious position in society, and the group has won praise for its work in deprived areas, although its reput...

natural law
The idea that basic fundamental laws exist in nature that are common to all humankind. Natural law is distinct from positive law, which is those laws imposed on people by people

National Assembly for Wales
Devolved parliamentary body for Wales, comprising 60 members and based in Cardiff. The Assembly was created by the July 1998 Government of Wales Act, which was passed following the Welsh electorate's narrow approval of government proposals in an 18 September 1997 referendum on devolution. Its temporary base is the Cardiff University Council Cha...

narration
Means of communication that involves telling a story to others. It is likely to be less precisely factual than an explanation and contains devices of rhetoric (or figures of speech), including exaggeration, and the development of suspense. These are used to engage and entertain listeners, rather than simply to convey information

Narmada Valley Project
Controversial US$5 billion project to build more than 3,000 dams on the Narmada River, which runs for 1,245 km/778 mi through western India, to supply water to irrigate farmland for 30 million people and provide hydroelectric power. The project has been fiercely opposed by environmentalists in India and abroad. They believe it will lead to ...

natural defence
In biology, the defence against disease provided by natural barriers. In animals this is provided by natural barriers to infection such as the skin, and defence systems of the blood circulation such as the production of antibodies. If the natural defences work, they provide immunity (see immunization) to infection. Plants also have natural defences...

National Missile Defense
US programme to create a system to defend the USA against a limited strategic ballistic missile attack. NMD is a much reduced version of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). It involves launching interceptor missiles from the ground, using land-based radars and space-based infrared sensors to guide them to destroy incoming long-range...

narrative painting
Art that tells a story. Narrative painting has a long tradition, some of the earliest works being found in ancient Egypt. However, its status and content have changed over the centuries. Popular trends in narrative painting have included history painting – Biblical, mythological, and historical themes, favoured from the Renaissance to the 18th...

naturalism
(art) In art, the accurate, factual representation of people, places, and objects. Taken to the extreme, the most realistic painting is trompe l'oeil art, which intends to `trick the eye` into believing an object is real. In the 19th century a French literary movement, led by the...

narrator
Voice that tells the story of a novel (or occasionally a play). The narrator may be a character in the action, in which case the narration will be in the first person, but the voice which narrates in the third person (using the more distanced and impersonal `he did`/`she did`, is also a narrator, and may or may not display t...

Navaratri
In Hindu tradition, a nine-day festival for the worship of Durga, goddess of bravery and the wife or shakti (female attribute) of Shiva. It leads to the festival of Dussehra (`the tenth`). The celebration of Navaratri, held September/October, takes different forms in different regions of India. In areas such as Gujarat the nine da...

Nansei
Alternative name for the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost island group of Japan

Nahr en Nil
Arabic name in Egypt for the River Nile, a river in Africa

narrative verse
Literary verse genre, which describes a poetical form that tells a story. The genre includes the verse forms: ballad, epic, lay, and saga. Some of the earliest poems written in English, such as Beowulf (8th century), told stories. In the USA, the neo-narrative movement encouraged the rebirth of the narrative verse form fr...

Naughton, Bill
Irish-born author and playwright. His best-known collections of short stories include Late Night on Watling Street (1959) and The Goalkeeper's Revenge (1961), both collections firmly set in the Lancashire industrial landscape and written with the realism that marked his style. His best-known wor...

National Consumer Council
UK public body set up by the government in 1975 to safeguard the interests of consumers and to take action on behalf of consumers. The NCC is largely funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), but the NCC is a non-departmental public body, so it has the interest of consumers, rather than the government, at its basis. There are separa...

natural fibre
Fibres that occur naturally, suitable for making into yarn and fabric. They include cotton, linen, silk, and wool. Cotton and linen are vegetable fibres and consist of cellulose; silk and wool are animal hair fibres and are based on protein

Napoleonic era
Period of European and French history 1799–1815 named after Napoleon (I) Bonaparte, ruler of France as dictator from 1799, conqueror of most of Europe from 1803, and emperor of the French 1804–14 and 1814–15. Napoleon was born into a minor aristocratic family on the Mediterranean islan...

Native American
Alternative term for American Indian

Navaho
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Navajo people

Nakota
Subgroup of the American Indian Sioux people and dialect of the Siouan language

Ndjamena
Capital of Chad, in the southwest of the country, at the confluence of the Chari and Logone rivers, on the Cameroon border; population (2000 est) 639,000. Industries include cotton, textiles, and meat packing. The city's agricultural markets trade in livestock, salt, dates, and grain. The Great Mosque, built 1974–78, is an important la...

Ndola
Mining centre and capital of Western Province in the copperbelt region of central Zambia; population (2000) 374,800. It lies 275 km/171 mi north of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, and is the commercial centre of the copperbelt, with good communications by rail and air. There is a copper refinery, a cobalt treatment plant, an oil refinery, a ...

nectarine
Smooth, shiny-skinned variety of peach, usually smaller than other peaches and with firmer flesh. It arose from a natural variation of the original form

Negro, Río
River in South America, rising in eastern Colombia and joining the Amazon at Manáus, Brazil; length 2,250 km/1,400 mi

Neptune
(astronomy) Click images to enlargeEighth planet in average distance from the Sun. It is a giant gas (hydrogen, helium, methane) planet, with a mass 17.2 times that of Earth. It has the fastest winds in the Solar System. Mean distance from the Sun 4....

Neagh, Lough
Lake in Northern Ireland, 25 km/15 mi west of Belfast; area 396 sq km/153 sq mi. It is the largest lake in the British Isles, being 27 km/17 mi long, 16 km/10 mi wide, with an average depth of 12 m/39 ft. The shores are mostly flat and marshy; there are a few islands of which Ram's Island is the largest, on which is ...

neptunium
Silvery, radioactive metallic element of the actinide series, atomic number 93, relative atomic mass 237.048. It occurs in nature in minute amounts in pitchblende and other uranium ores, where it is produced from the decay of neutron-bombarded uranium in these ores. The longest-lived isotope, Np-237, has a half-life of 2.2 million y...

neon
Colourless, odourless, non-metallic, gaseous element, atomic number 10, relative atomic mass 20.183. It is grouped with the noble gases (rare gases) in Group 0 of the periodic table. Neon is nonreactive, and forms no compounds. It occurs in small quantities in the Earth's atmosphere. Tubes containing neon are used in electric advertising si...

network
Click images to enlargeIn computing, a method of connecting computers so that they can share data and peripheral devices, such as printers. The main types are classified by the pattern of the connections – star or ring network, for example – or by the degree of geographical spread allowed; for example, local...

newt
Small salamander found in Europe, Asia, northwestern Africa, and North America. (Family Salamandridae, order Urodela.)

Newfoundland
(dog) Breed of large, gentle dog said to have originated in Newfoundland, Canada. Males can grow to 70 cm/27.5 in tall, and weigh 65 kg/145 lb; the females are slightly smaller. They have a dense, flat coat, usually dull black, and an oily, water-repellent undercoat, and they a...

nematode
Any of a group of unsegmented worms that are pointed at both ends, with a tough, smooth outer skin. They include many free-living species found in soil and water, including the sea, but a large number are parasites, such as the roundworms and pinworms that live in humans, or the eelworms that attack plant roots. They differ from flatworms in th...

needlefish
Any of a group of bony marine fishes with an elongated body and long jaws lined with many sharp teeth. They live in warm, tropical seas. (Family Belonidae.)

neo-Darwinism
Modern theory of evolution, built up since the 1930s by integrating the 19th-century English scientist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection with the theory of genetic inheritance founded on the work of the Austrian biologist Gregor Mendel. Neo-Darwinism asserts that evolution takes place because the environment...

nectar
(botany) Sugary liquid secreted by some plants from a nectary, a specialized gland usually situated near the base of the flower. Nectar often accumulates in special pouches or spurs, not always in the same location as the nectary. Nectar attracts insects, birds, bats, and other animals to the ...

neuron
Another name for a nerve cell

neurotransmitter
Chemical that diffuses across a synapse, and thus transmits impulses between nerve cells or between nerve cells and effector organs (for example, muscles). Common neurotransmitters are the amino acids glutamate and GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid), as well as noradrenaline (which also acts as a hormone) and acetylcholine, the latter being most f...

nervous system
System of interconnected nerve cells of most invertebrates and all vertebrates. It is composed of the central and autonomic nervous systems. It may be as simple as the nerve net of coelenterates (for example, jellyfishes) or as complex as the mammalian nervous system, with a central nervous system comprising brain and spinal cord and a peripheral n...

nerve
Bundle of nerve cells enclosed in a sheath of connective tissue and transmitting impulses to and from the brain and spinal cord. A single nerve may contain both motor and sensory nerve cells, but they function independently

neoplatonism
School of philosophy that flourished during the declining centuries of the Roman Empire (3rd–6th centuries AD). Neoplatonists argued that the highest stage of philosophy is attained not through reason and experience, but through a mystical ecstasy. Many later philosophers, including Nicholas of Cusa, were influenced by neoplatonism

neoprene
Synthetic rubber, developed in the USA in 1931 from the polymerization of chloroprene monomers, CH2CCl.CHCH2. The elastic properties of the polymer are enhanced by vulcanization. It is much more resistant to heat, light, oxidation, and petroleum than is ordinary rubber. It is used for making car tyres

newly industrialized country
Country formerly classified as less developed, but which is becoming rapidly industrialized. The first wave of countries to be identified as newly industrializing included Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. These countries underwent rapid industrial growth in the 1970s and 1980s, attracting significant financial investment, and are now ...

Newton's laws of motion
In physics, three laws that form the basis of Newtonian mechanics, describing the motion of objects. (1) Unless acted upon by an unbalanced force, a body at rest stays at rest, and a moving body continues moving at the same speed in the same straight line. (2) An unbalanced force applied to a body gives it an acceleration proportional to the force ...

neutrality
The legal status of a country that decides not to choose sides in a war. Certain states, notably Switzerland and Austria, have opted for permanent neutrality. Neutrality always has a legal connotation. In peacetime, neutrality towards the big power alliances is called non-alignment (see non-aligned movement)

NEP
Abbreviation for the Soviet leader Lenin's New Economic Policy

New South Wales
State of southeast Australia, including the dependency of Lord Howe Island; area 801,600 sq km/309,500 sq mi; population (2001 est) 6,609,300 (over half in the capital, Sydney). It is the most populous of the Australian states, the population having more than doubled, especially in coasta...

New Economic Policy
Economic policy of the USSR 1921–29 devised by the Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Rather than requisitioning all agricultural produce above a stated subsistence allowance, the state requisitioned only a fixed proportion of the surplus; the rest could be traded freely by the peasant. The NEP thus reinstated a limited form of free-...

news agency
Business handling news stories and photographs that are then sold to newspapers and magazines. International agencies include the Associated Press (AP, 1848), Agence France-Presse (AFP, 1944), United Press International (UPI, 1907), and Reuters

Newport
(Welsh city) Seaport and administrative centre of Newport unitary authority, southeast Wales, situated on the River Usk 30 km/19 mi northwest of Bristol; population (2001) city 116,150; urban area 139,300. There is a steelworks at nearby Llanwern, and a high-tech complex at Cle...

Newport
(Isle of Wight) River port, administrative headquarters of the Isle of Wight unitary authority, southern England, on the River Medina; population (2001) 23,000. Newport is the retail centre for the island, and Parkhurst Prison and Camp Hill Prison, in the nearby residential district of Par...

Newham
Inner borough of east Greater London, north of the River Thames. It includes the districts of East and West Ham and the northern part of Woolwich features site of former Royal Docks: Victoria (1855), Albert (1880), and King George V (1921); post-war tower blocks (collapse of Ronan Point in 1968 led to official enquiry); Stratford ha...

Newfoundland
(province) Canadian province on the Atlantic Ocean, the country's most easterly administrative region, comprising the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador, separated by the Strait of Belle Isle; area 405,700 sq km/...

Newcastle upon Tyne
City and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear in northeast England on the River Tyne opposite Gateshead, 17 km/10 mi from the North Sea; population (2001) 259,500. It is the administrative centre of Tyne and Wear and a centre for retail, commerce, communications, and the arts. Newcastle first began to trade in coal in the 13th century, and...

Newcastle
(Australia) Industrial city and port in New South Wales, Australia, on the Hunter River, 157 km/98 mi north of Sydney; population (2001) 280,000. Newcastle is the second-largest city in the state after Sydney, and is dependent mainly on coalmining and alumina production. Other indu...

Newark
(USA) Largest city and port of New Jersey, USA, on Newark Bay, 15 km/9 mi west of lower Manhattan; population (2000 est) 273,500. It is a commercial, financial, and industrial centre, with an international airport. Electrical equipment, machinery, chemicals, paints, beer, and canned me...

Nervi, Pier Luigi
Italian engineer. He used soft steel mesh within concrete to give it flowing form; for example, the Turin exhibition hall 1948–49, consisting of a single undulating large-span roof, the UNESCO building in Paris 1953–58, with Marcel Breuer and Bernard-Louis Zehrfuss, and the cathedral at New Norcia, near Perth, Australia, (1960...

Nerva, Marcus Cocceius
Roman emperor. He was proclaimed emperor on Domitian's death in AD 96, and introduced state loans for farmers, family allowances, and allotments of land to poor citizens in his sixteen-month reign

Neptune
(mythology) In Roman mythology, god of water, who became god of the sea only after his identification with the Greek Poseidon

Nereid
In Greek mythology, any of 50 sea goddesses, or nymphs, who sometimes mated with mortals. Their father was Nereus, a sea god, and their mother was Doris

Nemesis
In late Greek mythology, the goddess of retribution, who especially punished hubris (Greek hybris), violent acts carried through in defiance of the gods and human custom. Nemesis was originally a goddess of distribution, concerned with preserving order and proportion in the affairs of men. She personified the indignation felt at ...

Nehru, Jawaharlal
Indian nationalist politician, prime minister from 1947 until his death. Before the partition (the division of British India into India and Pakistan), he led the socialist wing of the nationalist Congress Party, and was second in influence only to Mahatma Gandhi. He was imprisoned nine times by the British 1921–45 for political activities. As ...

Ney, Michel
Marshal of France under Napoleon I, who commanded the rearguard of the French army during the retreat from Moscow, and for his personal courage was called `the bravest of the brave`. When Napoleon returned from Elba, Ney was sent to arrest him, but instead deserted to him and fought at Waterloo. He was subsequently shot for treason

Newton, Isaac
Click images to enlargeEnglish physicist and mathematician who laid the foundations of physics as a modern discipline. During 1665–66, he discovered the binomial theorem, differential and integral calculus, and that white light is composed of many colours. He developed the three standard laws of motion (Newton's ...

Newman, John Henry
English Roman Catholic theologian. While still an Anglican, he wrote a series of Tracts for the Times, which gave their name to the Tractarian Movement (subsequently called the Oxford Movement) for the revival of Catholicism. He became a Catholic in 1845 and was made a cardinal in 1879. In 1864 his autobiography, Apologi...

neutron star
Very small, `superdense` star composed mostly of neutrons. They are thought to form when massive stars explode as supernovae, during which the protons and electrons of the star's atoms merge, owing to intense gravitational collapse, to make neutrons. A neutron star has a mass two to three times that of the Sun, compressed into a globe...

nebula
Click images to enlargeCloud of gas and dust in space. Nebulae are the birthplaces of stars, but some nebulae are produced by gas thrown off from dying stars (see planetary nebula; supernova). Nebulae are classified according to whether they emit, reflect, or absorb light. An emission nebula, such as the Orion nebula,...

nettle
Any of a group of weedy plants with stinging hairs on oval, tooth-edged leaves; the hairs contain nerve poisons that penetrate the skin and cause a rash. The flowers are small and greenish, carried on spikes emerging at the same point where the leaves join the stem. The common nettle (U. dioica) grows on waste ground in E...

nerve cell
Click images to enlargeElongated cell that transmits information rapidly between different parts of the body, the basic functional unit of the nervous system. Each nerve cell has a cell body, containing the nucleus, from which trail processes called dendrites, responsible for receiving incoming signals. The unit of inform...

newton
SI unit of force. A newton is defined as the amount of force needed to move an object of 1 kg so that it accelerates at 1 metre per second per second. It is also used as a unit of weight. The weight of a medium size (100 g/3 oz) apple is one newton

Newton's rings
In optics, an interference phenomenon seen (using white light) as concentric rings of spectral colours where light passes through a thin film of a transparent medium, such as the wedge of air between a large-radius convex lens and a flat glass plate. With monochromatic light (light of a single wavelength), the rings take the form of alternate l...

neutron beam machine
Nuclear reactor or accelerator producing a stream of neutrons, which can `see` through metals. It is used in industry to check molecular changes in metal under stress

Neanderthal
Hominid of the Mid-Late Palaeolithic, named after the Neander Tal (valley) near Düsseldorf, Germany, where a skeleton was found in 1856. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis lived from about 150,000 to 35,000 years ago and was similar in build to present-day people, but slightly smaller, stockier, and heavier-featured w...

Nebuchadnezzar
King of Babylonia from 605 BC. Shortly before his accession he defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and brought Palestine and Syria into his empire. Judah revolted, with Egyptian assistance, in 596 and 587–586 BC; on both occasions he captured Jerusalem and took many Hebrews into captivity. ...

neck
(anatomy) Structure between the head and the trunk in animals. In the back of the neck are the upper seven vertebrae of the spinal column, and there are many powerful muscles that support and move the head. In front, the neck region contains the pharynx and trachea, and behind these the oesoph...

Needles, the
Group of rocks in the sea, rising to 30 m/100 ft, off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, southern England

Negev
Triangular desert region in southern Israel that tapers to the port of Elat, 120 km/75 mi wide at Beersheba, 13 km/8 mi at Elat; area 12,215 sq km/4,716 sq mi. It is fertile under irrigation, and minerals include oil and copper

negligence
In law, doing some act that a `prudent and reasonable` person would not do, or omitting to do some act that such a person would do. Negligence may arise in respect of a person's duty towards an individual or towards other people in general. Breach of the duty of care that results in reasonably foreseeable damage is a tort. Contributor...

nephritis
General term used to describe inflammation of the kidney. The degree of illness varies, and it may be acute (often following a recent streptococcal infection), or chronic, requiring a range of treatments from antibiotics to dialysis or transplant

Nero
Roman emperor from 54. In 59 he had his mother Agrippina and his wife Octavia put to death. The great fire at Rome in 64 was blamed on the Christians, whom he subsequently persecuted. In 65 a plot against Nero was discovered. Further revolts followed in 68, and he committed suicide. Son of Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, Nero was adopted by Cla...

Neruda, Pablo
Chilean poet and diplomat. His work includes lyrics and the epic poem of the American continent Canto General (1950). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He served as consul and ambassador to many countries during the period 1927–44

Nerval, Gérard de
French writer and poet. He was a precursor of French symbolism and surrealism. His writings include the travelogue Le Voyage en Orient (1851); short stories, including the collection Les Filles du feu (1854); poetry, including Les Chimères (1854), a sequence of 12 sonnets; a ...

Ness, Loch
Lake in the Highland unitary authority, Scotland, extending northeast to southwest. Forming part of the Caledonian Canal, it is 36 km/22.5 mi long, 2 km/1 mi wide (on average), 229 m/754 ft deep, and is the greatest expanse of fresh water in Europe. There have been unconfirmed reports of a Loch Ness monster since the 6th century

Nestorianism
Christian doctrine held by the Syrian ecclesiastic Nestorius (died c. 451), patriarch of Constantinople 428–431. He asserted that Jesus had two natures, human and divine. He was banished for maintaining that Mary was the mother of the man Jesus only, and therefore should not be called the mother of God. Today the Nestorian C...

Netherlands Antilles
Two groups of Caribbean islands, overseas territories of the Netherlands with full internal autonomy, comprising Curaçao and Bonaire off the coast of Venezuela (Aruba is considered separately), and St Eustatius, Saba, and the southern part of St Maarten in the Leeward Islands, 800 km/500 mi ...

nettle rash
Popular name for the skin disorder urticaria

neuralgia
Sharp or burning pain originating in a nerve and spreading over its area of distribution. Trigeminal neuralgia, a common form, is a severe pain on one side of the face

neurosis
In psychology, a general term referring to emotional disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and phobias. The main disturbance tends to be one of mood; contact with reality is relatively unaffected, in contrast to psychosis

New Britain
(island) Largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of Papua New Guinea; capital Rabaul; population (2000) East New Britain 220,100; West New Britain 184,500. It has an area of 37,800 sq km/14,600 sq mi, an average width of 80 km/50 mi and is 482 km/300 mi long. T...

New Brunswick
Largest of the three Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada; area 73,400 sq km/28,332 sq mi; population (2001 est) 787,100; 33% French-speaking; 52% rural inhabitants. It is bounded on the north by Québec, with the Matapédia and Restigouche rivers forming part ...

New Caledonia
Island group in the South Pacific, a French overseas territory between Australia and the Fiji Islands; area 18,576 sq km/7,170 sq mi; population (2001 est) 204,900. The capital, largest city and chief port is Nouméa. The islands are surrounded by a barrier reef, and are the world's third-largest producer of nickel. Other in...

New Deal
In US history, the programme introduced by President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933 to tackle the Great Depression, including employment on public works, farm loans at low rates, and social reforms such as old-age and unemployment insurance, prevention of child labour, protection of employees again...

New Democratic Party
Canadian political party, moderately socialist, formed in 1961 by a merger of the Labour Congress and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. Its leader is Alexa McDonough. There are also provincial and territorial New Democratic Parties, which have formed governments in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Yukon

New England
(USA) Region of northeast USA, comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; population (2000 est) 13,922,500. It is a geographic region rather than a political entity, with an area of 172,681 sq km/66,672 sq mi. Boston is the pri...

New England
(Australia) District of northern New South Wales, Australia, especially the tableland area of Glen Innes and Armidale