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


basketry
Ancient craft (Mesolithic–Neolithic) used to make a wide range of objects (from baskets to furniture) by interweaving or braiding rushes, cane, or other equally strong and supple natural fibres. Wickerwork is a more rigid type of basketry worked onto a sturdy frame, usually made from strips of willow

bailiff
Officer of the court whose job, usually in the county courts, is to serve notices and enforce the court's orders involving seizure of the goods of a debtor. In France, the royal bailli or bayle was appointed to administer a large area of territory, the baillage, and was a leading local of...

Babism
Religious movement founded during the 1840s by Mirza Ali Muhammad (`the Bab`). An offshoot of Islam, it differs mainly in the belief that Muhammad was not the last of the prophets. The movement split into two groups after the death of the Bab; Baha'u'llah, the leader of one of t...

Barebones Parliament
English assembly called by Oliver Cromwell to replace the Rump Parliament in July 1653. Although its members attempted to pass sensible legislation (civil marriage; registration of births, deaths, and marriages; custody of lunatics), their attempts to abolish tithes, patronage, and the court of chancery, and to codify the law, led to the re...

bayonet
Short sword attached to the muzzle of a firearm. The bayonet was placed inside the barrel of the muzzleloading muskets of the late 17th century. The sock or ring bayonet, invented in 1700, allowed a weapon to be fired without interruption, leading to the demise of the pike. Since the 1700s, bayonets have evolved into a variety of types. During Worl...

Barbican, the
Arts and residential complex in the City of London. The Barbican Arts Centre (1982) contains theatres, cinemas, and exhibition and concert halls. The architects were Powell, Chamberlin, and Bon

bank holiday
In the UK, a public holiday, when banks are closed by law. Bank holidays were instituted by the Bank Holiday Acts 1871 and 1875

Basse-Normandie
Coastal region of northwest France lying between Haute-Normandie and Brittany (Bretagne). It includes the départements of Calvados, Manche, and Orne; area 17,589 sq km/6,791 sq mi; population (1999 est) 1,422,200. Its administrative centre is Caen. Apart from stock farming, dairy farming (including the produc...

basal metabolic rate
Minimum amount of energy needed by the body to maintain life. It is measured when the subject is awake but resting, and includes the energy required to keep the heart beating, sustain breathing, repair tissues, and keep the brain and nerves functioning. The rate varies depending on the height, weight, age, and activity of the person. Measuring the ...

Baliol, John de
King of Scotland 1292–96. As an heir to the Scottish throne on the death of Margaret, the Maid of Norway, he had the support of the English king, Edward I, against 12 other claimants. Baliol was proclaimed king, having paid homage to Edward. When English forces attacked Scotland, Baliol rebelled against England and gave up the kingdom. Baliol ...

Bacall, Lauren
US actor. She became an overnight star when cast by Howard Hawks opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944). She and Bogart went on to star together in The Big Sleep (1946), The Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo...

bar code
Pattern of bars and spaces that can be read by a computer. Bar codes are widely used in retailing, industrial distribution, and libraries. The code is read by a scanning device; the computer determines the code from the widths of the bars and spaces. The technique was patented in 1949 but became ...

baud
In engineering, a unit of electrical signalling speed equal to one pulse per second, measuring the rate at which signals are sent between electronic devices such as telegraphs and computers. Bauds were used as a measure to identify the speed of modems until the early 1990s because at the lower modem speeds available then the baud rate generally equ...

bar chart
In statistics, a way of displaying data, using horizontal or vertical bars. The heights or lengths of the bars are proportional to the quantities they represent

base
In chemistry, a substance that accepts hydrogen ions, or protons. A base reacts with an acid, neutralizing it to form a salt: acid + base ® salt + water. Metal oxides and metal hydroxides are bases; examples include copper oxide and sodium hydroxide. Bases can contain negative ions such as the hydroxide ion (OH-&...

Babbitt, Milton
(Byron) US composer and theorist. A leading proponent of serialism, he pioneered the application of information theory to music in the 1950s, introducing set theory to series manipulations and the term `pitch class` to define every octave identity of a note name. His works include fo...

baking
Cooking in an oven by dry heat. It is the method used for most breads, cakes, biscuits, and pastries

Bazalgette, Joseph William
British civil engineer who, as chief engineer to the London Board of Works, designed London's sewer system, a total of 155 km/83 mi of sewers, covering an area of 256 sq km/100 sq mi. It was completed in 1865

bathyal zone
Upper part of the ocean, which lies on the continental shelf at a depth of between 200 m/650 ft and 2,000 m/6,500 ft. Bathyal zones (both temperate and tropical) have greater biodiversity than coral reefs, according to a 1995 study by the Natural History Museum in London. Maximum biodiversity occurs between 1,000 m/3,280 ft and 3,000 m&...

Baltistan
Region in the Karakoram range of northeast Kashmir, western Ladakh, held by Pakistan since 1949. The region lies to the south of K2, the world's second highest mountain (8,611 m/28,2161 ft); the average elevation is 3,350 m/11,000 ft. It contains the upper reaches of the Indus River. It is the home of Balti Muslims of Tibetan origin...

Basque Country
(cultural region) Cultural homeland of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees, divided by the Franco-Spanish border, and covering an area of 20,742 sq km/8,009 sq mi. The Spanish Basque Country (País Vasco) is an autonomous community of central northern Spain; it has a much...

balm, lemon
Garden herb, see lemon balm

Balanchine, George
Russian-born US choreographer. After leaving the USSR in 1924, he worked with Diaghilev in France. Moving to the USA in 1933, he became a major influence on dance, starting the New York City Ballet in 1948. He was the most influential 20th-century choreographer of ballet in the USA. He developed an `American Neoclassic` dance styl...

Barber, Samuel
US composer. He worked in a neoclassical, astringent style. Compositions include Adagio for Strings (1936) and the opera Vanessa (1958), which won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes. Another opera, Antony and Cleopatra (1966), was commissioned for the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House a...

barrier island
Long island of sand, lying offshore and parallel to the coast. Some are over 100 km/60 mi in length. Most barrier islands are derived from marine sands piled up by shallow longshore currents that sweep sand parallel to the seashore. Others are derived from former spits, connected to land and built up by drifted sand, that were later severed fro...

batholith
Large, irregular, deep-seated mass of intrusive igneous rock, usually granite, with an exposed surface of more than 100 sq km/40 sq mi. The mass forms by the intrusion or upswelling of magma (molten rock) through the surrounding rock. Batholiths form the core of some large mountain ranges like the Sierra Nevada of western North America. Acc...

Bates, H(erbert) E(rnest)
English writer. Of his many novels and short stories, The Jacaranda Tree (1949) and The Darling Buds of May (1958) particularly demonstrate the fineness of his natural observation and compassionate portrayal of character. His work captures the feeling of life in the changing countryside of England in a simple, ...

balanced diet
Diet that can be followed for a long period of time and that will keep the body healthy. In simple terms a balanced diet includes carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, water, minerals, and dietary fibre (roughage) in appropriate quantities. What is appropriate varies according to a person's age, sex, and level of activity. Although there can be...

ball-and-socket joint
Joint between bones that allows considerable movement in three dimensions, for instance the joint between the pelvis and the femur (hip joint). To facilitate movement, such joints are rimmed with cartilage and lubricated by synovial fluid. The bones are kept in place by ligaments and moved by muscles

background radiation
Radiation that is always present in the environment. By far the greater proportion (87%) of it is emitted from natural sources. Alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma radiation are emitted by the traces of radioactive minerals that occur naturally in the environment and even in the human body (for example, by breathing in 14
bark
Protective outer layer on the stems and roots of woody plants, composed mainly of dead cells. To allow for expansion of the stem, the bark is continually added to from within, and the outer surface often becomes cracked or is shed as scales. Trees deposit a variety of chemicals in their bark, including poisons. Many of these chemical substances hav...

bacille Calmette-Guérin
Tuberculosis vaccine BCG

ballot
The process of voting in an election. In political elections in democracies ballots are usually secret: voters indicate their choice of candidate on a voting slip which is then placed in a sealed ballot box. Ballot rigging is a term used to describe elections that are fraudulent because of interference with the voting process or the counting of...

back pain
Aches in the region of the spine. Low back pain can be caused by a very wide range of medical conditions. About half of all episodes of back pain will resolve within a week, but severe back pain can be chronic and disabling. The causes include muscle sprain, a prolapsed intervertebral disc, and vertebral collapse due to osteoporosis or cancer. Trea...

bar
(music) Modular segment of music incorporating a fixed number of beats, as in the phrase `two/three/four beats to the bar`. It is shown in notation by vertical `barring` of the musical continuum. The US term is measure

Bashkir
(people) The majority ethnic group of the autonomous republic of Bashkir in Russia. The Bashkirs are agriculturalists and have been Muslims since the 13th century. The Bashkir language belongs to the Turkic branch of the Altaic family, and has about 1 million speakers. They have been known sin...

baking powder
Mixture of bicarbonate of soda, an acidic compound, and a nonreactive filler (usually starch or calcium sulphate), used in baking as a raising agent. It gives a light open texture to cakes and scones, and is used as a substitute for yeast in making soda bread. Several different acidic compounds (for example, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, sodium o...

Babi Yar
Ravine near Kiev, Ukraine, where more than 100,000 people (80,000 of whom were Jews, the remainder being Poles, Russians, and Ukrainians) were murdered by the Nazis in 1941. The site was ignored until the Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote a poem called `Babi Yar` (1961) in protest at plans for a sports centre on the site

Basque
The people inhabiting the Basque Country of central northern Spain and the extreme southwest of France. The Basques are a pre-Indo-European people whose language (Euskara) is unrelated to any other language. Although both the Romans and, later, the Visigoths conquered them, they largely maintained their independence until the 19th century. ...

Basque language
Language of Western Europe known to its speakers, the Basques, as Euskara, and apparently unrelated to any other language on Earth. It is spoken by some half a million people in central northern Spain and southwestern France, around the Bay of Biscay, as well as by emigrants in both Europe and the Americas. The language is of cen...

backing storage
In computing, memory outside the central processing unit (CPU) used to store programs and data that are not in current use. Backing storage must be nonvolatile – that is, its contents must not be lost when the power supply to the computer system is disconnected. Backing storage uses either direct or serial access methods. Direct access means t...

back-up system
In computing, duplicate computer system that can take over the operation of a main computer system in the event of equipment failure. A large interactive system, such as an airline's ticket-booking system, cannot be out of action for even a few hours without causing considerable disruption. In such cases a complete duplicate computer system...

bar
(earth science) In earth sciences, deposit of sand or silt formed in a river channel, or a long ridge of sand or pebbles running parallel to a coastline (see coastal erosion). Coastal bars can extend across estuaries to form bay bars and are formed in one of two ways. Longshore drift can trans...

bad debt
Bill or debt which has not been paid and is most unlikely to be paid. Bad debts eventually have to be `written off` on the profit and loss account. They are counted as a provision and are deducted from the account

Balmaceda, José Manuel
Chilean president 1886–91. He inaugurated a vast reform programme including education, railways, communications, and public utilities, and invested revenue from Chile's nitrate fields in public works. The volatility of this key market led him to denounce foreign interests in Chile. Balmaceda entered public life 1864 as secretary to former ...

bathos
In literary theory, sudden descent from the important and serious to the ridiculous or comic; when it occurs at the end of a passage or sequence, it is a form of anticlimax. In weak or inexperienced writers, bathos is usually unintentional

Balenciaga, Cristóbal
Spanish couturier. His influential innovations in women's clothing included drop shoulder lines, nipped-in waists, and rounded hips, followed by three-quarter length sleeves and the pillbox hat. During the 1950s–1960s he moved away from fitted outfits to show loose designs such as a dress known as the `sack` (cut full aro...

bas relief
See relief

Balladur, Edouard
French Conservative politician, prime minister 1993–95. During his first year of `co-habitation` with socialist president François Mitterrand he demonstrated the sureness of his political touch, retaining popular support despite active opposition to some of his more right-wing policies. He unsuccessfully contested the pr...

bard
Celtic minstrel who, in addition to composing songs, usually at a court, often held important political posts. Originating in the pre-Christian era, bards were persecuted in Wales during the 13th century on political grounds. Since the 19th century annual meetings and competitions in Wales – known as eisteddfod – have attempted to rev...

baroque music
Music of the period following the Renaissance and before the classical period, lasting from about 1600 to the deaths of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel in the 1750s. Baroque music is characterized by the contrapuntal use of voices and instrumental parts, for example in the fugue, which flourished during these years; the develop...

back-up
In computing, a copy file that is transferred to another medium, usually a CD-ROM, DVD or memory stick. The purpose of this is to have available a copy of a file that can be restored in case of a fault in the system or the file itself. Back-up files are also created by many applications (with the extension .BAC or .BAK); a version is th...

bandwidth
In computing and communications, the rate of data transmission, measured in bits per second (bps)

Barrett Browning, Elizabeth
English poet; see Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

backbone
In networking, a high-bandwidth trunk to which smaller networks connect. The original backbone of the Internet was NSFnet, funded by the US National Science Foundation, which linked together the five regional supercomputing centres

batch file
In computing, file that runs a group (batch) of commands. The most commonly used batch file is the DOS start-up file AUTOEXEC.BAT

Bath and North East Somerset
Unitary authority in southwest England created in 1996 from part of the former county of Avon. Area 351 sq km/136 sq mi Towns and cities Bath (administrative headquarters), Keynsham, Chew Magna, Paulton, Radstock, Peasedown St John, Midsomer Norton Features River Avon and tributaries; Chew Va...

Barnes, Julian
(Patrick) English novelist and critic. His first novel, Metroland, was published in 1981, followed by Before She Met Me in 1982. It was his third novel, Flaubert's Parrot (1984) – skilfully combining fiction, biography, and essa...

bass clarinet
Single-reed woodwind instrument in B flat. It is twice the length of the `ordinary` B flat clarinet with a range an octave lower. It has a rich and resonant sound. An example of the bass clarinet can be heard in the `Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy` from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite (1891–...

backswimmer
Aquatic predatory bug living mostly in fresh water. The adults are about 15 mm/0.5 in long and rest upside down at the water surface to breathe. When disturbed they dive, carrying with them a supply of air trapped under the wings. They have piercing beaks, used in feeding on tadpoles and small fish. Classification Backswimmers belong to the gen...

bark beetle
Any one of a number of species of mainly wood-boring beetles. Bark beetles are cylindrical, brown or black, and 1–9 mm/0.04–0.4 in long. Some live just under the bark and others bore deeper into the hardwood. The detailed tunnelling pattern that they make within the trunk varies with the species concerned, and is used for identifi...

baptistery
In church architecture, a building or part of a church in which Christians perform the ceremony of baptism; also the pool used in Baptist churches for the total immersion of adults

Banks, Gordon
English footballer. Banks kept goal for England's 1966 World Cup-winning side. Widely recognized as one of the world's greatest goalkeepers, his brilliant reflexes were most memorably displayed by his famous save from Pelé in the 1970 World Cup finals, which has been called the `save of the century`. He won 73 full Englan...

Bannockburn, Battle of
Battle fought on 23–24 June 1314 at Bannockburn, Scotland, between Robert (I) the Bruce, King of Scotland, and Edward II of England. The defeat of the English led to the independence of Scotland. Edward II, attempting to relieve Stirling castle, led over 2,000 knights and 15,000 foot soldiers, including about 5,000 archers. Bruce had only 500 ...

Basil II
Byzantine emperor 976–1025. He completed the work of his predecessors Nicephorus (II) Phocas and John Zimisces and expanded the borders of the Byzantine Empire to their greatest extent since the 5th century. He eliminated political rivals, drove the Muslims from Syria, and destroyed the power of the Bulgars. Basil's decisive defeat of the ...

Barons' War
(1264–67) Civil war begun by the English barons under Simon de Montfort (the Younger), leader of a reform movement against King Henry III of England's government. Success at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 led to the king's capture, but at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 the rebellious ...

Baker, Josephine
US-born dancer and entertainer. Baker achieved international fame for her daring stage act which involved lively dancing, scat singing, and scanty costume. After appearing in the Paris Folies Bergère in 1925, she became enormously successful in France, becoming a French citizen in 1937. Baker boycotted the USA for many years, refusing to a...

Baker, Norma Jean
US film actor; see Marilyn Monroe

Barnett, Samuel Augustus
English clergyman and social reformer who spent his life preaching and working among the poor in the East End of London. He used music, nonbiblical readings, and art to teach those with no education or religious leanings. He was instrumental in founding the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Whitechapel public library, and the Toynbee Hall workers' e...

Balmer series
A sequence of wavelengths of light emitted by atoms of hydrogen, and a mathematical formula that yields those wavelengths. One such wavelength lies in the red part of the spectrum, four others in the blue and violet regions, and the remainder in the ultraviolet region. Johann Jakob Balmer (1825–1898) a Swiss school and university teacher of ma...

Barak, Ehud
Israeli Labour politician, prime minister 1999–2001, former chief of staff of the Israeli army, and the most decorated soldier in the nation's history. As prime minister, Barak formed a government consisting of seven parties of differing political views, the `One Israel` alliance. He often faced difficulties in keeping the coalit...

Banghazi
Alternative spelling of Benghazi, an industrial port in northern Libya

Bahr el-Azraq
Arabic name for the Blue Nile

Baki
Alternative spelling of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan

Bahr el Nîl
Arabic name in Sudan for the River Nile, a river in Africa

bay
(earth science) In earth science, a wide-curving indentation of the sea into the land. Bays are often eroded in beds of rocks that are weaker than the adjacent headlands. Deposition is most intense in bays due to wave refraction. A bay is larger than a cove, but smaller than a gulf. A bay&...

bat mitzvah
In Judaism, the female equivalent to a boy's bar mitzvah (initiation into the adult Jewish community)

Badrinath
Village within the mountainous region of northern India, situated on the right bank of the River Alaknanda, one of 12 channels of the Ganges, and a main site of pilgrimage in Hinduism. The village is renowned for the Badrinath temple, and for naturally-occurring sulphur springs. The temple stands 3,050 m/10,000 ft above sea level and reflec...

balanced forces
Situation where several forces applied to an object have no overall effect on the motion of an object. For example, two tug-of-war teams pulling in opposite directions with the same size force display a balanced force. If the forces acting on an object are unbalanced they will have an effect, for example the object might accelerate

Basque Country
(Spanish region) Autonomous community of central northern Spain, created in 1979, including the provinces of Vizcaya, Álava, and Guipúzcoa; area 7,261 sq km/2,803 sq mi; population (2002 est) 2,067,600. The region is bordered by the Bay of Biscay to the north and separate...

Bachelet Jeria, Verónica Michelle
Chilean left-of centre politician, president of Chile from 2006. A moderate socialist, she became Chile's first female president in March 2006 after narrowly defeating Sebastián Pinera, a centre-right billionaire businessman-politician. She continued Chile's free-market economic policies, signing a free-trade treaty...

Ban Ki-Moon
South Korean diplomat, eighth secretary general of the United Nations from 2007. An experienced diplomat and foreign minister of South Korea 2004–06, he was elected secretary general of the UN General Assembly in October 2006, being the only candidate not to receive a `no` vote from one of the five permanent members of the UN Securit...

Balkenende, Jan Pieter
Dutch centre-right politician, leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and prime minister from 2002. The CDA became the largest party in the Netherlands parliament after the May 2002 elections, which had been disrupted during the campaign by the assassination of the populist politician Pim Fortuyn. The CDA's coalition governme...

Basescu, Traian
Romanian centre-right politician, president from 2004. A former merchant navy officer, he replaced Petre Roman as leader of the Democratic Party (PD) in 2001 and was mayor of Bucharest 2000–04. He narrowly defeated president Adrian Nastase in the 2004 presidential election, after replacing Theodor Stolojan as candidate for the Justice and ...

BBC
Abbreviation for British Broadcasting Corporation

BCG
Abbreviation for bacille Calmette-Guérin, bacillus injected as a vaccine to confer active immunity to tuberculosis (TB). BCG was developed by Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin in France in 1921 from live bovine TB bacilli. These bacteria were bred in the laboratory over many generations until they became attenuated (weakened). Each i...

beech
One of several European hardwood trees or related trees growing in Australasia and South America. The common beech (Fagus sylvaticus), found in European forests, has a smooth grey trunk and edible nuts, or `mast`, which are used as animal feed or processed for oil. The ti...

belladonna
Poisonous plant belonging to the nightshade family, found in Europe and Asia. It grows to 1.5 m/5 ft in height, with dull green leaves growing in unequal pairs, up to 20 cm/8 in long, and single purplish flowers that produce deadly black berries. Drugs are made from the leaves. (Atropa belladonna, family Solanaceae.) The ...

bean
Seed of a large number of leguminous plants (see legume). Beans are rich in nitrogen compounds and proteins and are grown both for human consumption and as food for cattle and horses. Varieties of bean are grown throughout Europe, the USA, South America, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia. T...

Betelgeuse
Red supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. It is the tenth-brightest star in the night sky, although its brightness varies. It is 1,100 million km/700 million mi across, about 800 times larger than the Sun, roughly the same size as the orbit of Mars. It is over 10,000 times as luminous as the Sun, and lies 310 light years from the S...

beryllium
Hard, lightweight, silver-white, metallic element, atomic number 4, relative atomic mass 9.012. It is one of the alkaline-earth metals, with chemical properties similar to those of magnesium. In nature it is found only in combination with other elements and occurs mainly as beryl (3BeO.Al2O3.6Si...

benzoic acid
White crystalline solid, sparingly soluble in water, that is used as a preservative for certain foods and as an antiseptic. It is obtained chemically by the direct oxidation of benzaldehyde and occurs in certain natural resins, some essential oils, and as hippuric acid

benzene
Clear liquid hydrocarbon of characteristic odour, occurring in coal tar. It is used as a solvent and in the synthesis of many chemicals. The benzene molecule consists of a ring of six carbon atoms, all of which are in a single plane, and it is one of the simplest cyclic compounds. Benzene is the simp...

benzaldehyde
Colourless liquid with the characteristic odour of almonds. It is used as a solvent and in the making of perfumes and dyes. It occurs in certain leaves, such as the cherry, laurel, and peach, and in a combined form in certain nuts and kernels. It can be extracted from such natural sources, but is usually made from toluene

Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm
German astronomer and mathematician. He was the first person to find the approximate distance to a star by direct methods when he measured the parallax (annual displacement) of the star 61 Cygni in 1838. In mathematics, he introduced the series of functions now known as Bessel functions. Bessel's...

Best, Charles H(erbert)
Canadian physiologist. He was one of the team of Canadian scientists including Frederick Banting whose research resulted in 1922 in the discovery of insulin as a treatment for diabetes. Best also discovered the vitamin choline and the enzyme histaminase, and introduced the use of the anticoagulant heparin

bent
Any of a group of grasses. Creeping bent grass (Agrostis stolonifera), also known as fiorin, is common in northern North America, Europe, and Asia, including lowland Britain. It spreads by runners and has large attractive clusters (panicles) of yellow or purple flowers on thin stalks, like oats. It is often used on lawns and golf...

bellflower
General name for many plants with bell-shaped flowers. The harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) is a wild bellflower. The Canterbury bell (C. medium) is the garden variety, originally from southern Europe. (Genus Campanula, family Campanulaceae.)

bearberry
Any of a group of evergreen trailing shrubs belonging to the heath family, found in high and rocky places. Most bearberries are North American but Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is also found in Asia and Europe in northern mountainous regions. It has small pink flowers in spring, followed by red berries that are dry but edible. (Gen...

beak
Horn-covered projecting jaws of a bird (see bill), or other horny jaws such as those of the octopus, platypus, or tortoise