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


Yankton
Dialect of the American Indian Siouan-Nakota language

yd
Abbreviation for yard

yeast
One of various single-celled fungi (see fungus) that form masses of tiny round or oval cells by budding. When placed in a sugar solution the cells multiply and convert the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Yeasts are used as fermenting agents in baking, brewing, and the making of wine and spirits. Brewer's yeast (S. cerevisiae...

year
Unit of time measurement, based on the orbital period of the Earth around the Sun. The tropical year (also called equinoctial and solar year), from one spring equinox to the next, lasts 365.2422 days (nearly 3651/4 days). It governs the occurrence of the seasons, and is the period on which the calendar year is based. Every four years is a leap ...

Yersin, Alexandre Émile John
Swiss bacteriologist who discovered the bubonic plague bacillus in Hong Kong in 1894 and prepared a serum against it. The bacillus was discovered independently, in the same epidemic, by Japanese bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato, who published his results before Yersin did

yellow archangel
Flowering plant belonging to the mint family, found over much of Europe. It grows up to 60 cm/2 ft tall and has nettlelike leaves and rings, or whorls, of yellow flowers growing around the main stem; the lower lips of the flowers are streaked with red in early summer. (Genus Lamiastrum galeobdolon, family Labiatae.)

yellowhammer
Eurasian bird Emberiza citrinella of the bunting family Emberizidae, order Passeriformes. About 16.5 cm/6.5 in long, the male has a yellow head and underside, a chestnut rump, and a brown-streaked back. The female is duller

Yezidi
Islamic sect originating as disciples of the Sufi saint Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (12th century). The beliefs of its adherents mingle folk traditions with Islam, also incorporating features of Judaism and Christianity (they practise circumcision and baptism), and include a cult of the Fallen Angel who has been reconciled with God. Their chief centre i...

Yesenin, Sergei Aleksandrovich
Alternative form of Esenin, Russian poet

Yerkes Observatory
Astronomical centre in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, founded by George Hale in 1897. It houses the world's largest refracting optical telescope, with a lens of diameter 102 cm/40 in

Yellow River
English name for the Huang He River, China

Yeats, Jack Butler
Irish painter and illustrator. His spirited portrayals of Irish life and landscape are painted in a colourful and highly individualistic style, with vigorously worked paint, as in Back from the Races (1925; Tate Gallery, London). He was the brother of the poet W B Yeats. His youth was spent in Sligo, where he was educated pri...

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny Aleksandrovich
Russian poet. He aroused controversy with his anti-Stalinist `Stalin's Heirs` (1956), published with Khrushchev's support, and `Babi Yar` (1961), which attacked Russian as well as Nazi anti-Semitism. His other works include the long poem Zima Junction (1956), the novel Berries...

Yerevan
Capital city, economic, and cultural centre of the independent Republic of Armenia, situated in the southern Caucasus 25 km/16 mi north of the Turkish border; population (2001) 1,103,500. Yerevan stands on the Razdan River, and is a major industrial city, manufacturing machine tools, agricultural equipment, chemicals, bricks, bicycles, and ...

Yeomen of the Guard
English military corps, popularly known as Beefeaters, the sovereign's bodyguard since the corps was founded by Henry VII in 1485. Its duties are now purely ceremonial

yeoman
In England, a small landowner who farmed his own fields – a system that formed a bridge between the break-up of feudalism and the agrarian revolution of the 18th–19th centuries

Yenisey
One of the main rivers in Russia, rising in the Sayan Mountains in the Asian Tuva region and flowing generally north through the Central Siberian Plateau into the Arctic Ocean; length 4,100 km/2,550 mi. The Yenisey has a drainage basin of 2,580,000 sq km/996,000 sq mi, and most of this area is at a height of between 487 m/1,600 ft t...

Yellowstone National Park
Click images to enlargeOldest US nature reserve, and largest in the lower 48 states, situated on a broad plateau in the Rocky Mountains, chiefly in northwest Wyoming, but also projecting about 3 km/2 mi into southwest Montana and eastern Idaho; area 8,987 sq km/3,469 sq mi. The world's first national park,...

Yellow Sea
Gulf of the Pacific Ocean between China and Korea; length approximately 1,000 km/620 mi, greatest width 700 km/435 mi; area 466,200 sq km/180,000 sq mi. To the north are the gulfs of Korea, Chihli, and Liaotung. There are many small islands to the east near the Korean coast. It receives the Huang He (Yellow River) and Chang Jian...

Yedo
Former name of Tokyo, Japan, until 1868

yellow fever
Acute tropical viral disease, prevalent in the Caribbean area, Brazil, and on the west coast of Africa. The yellow fever virus is an arbovirus transmitted by mosquitoes. Its symptoms include a high fever, headache, joint and muscle pains, vomiting, and yellowish skin (jaundice, possibly leading to liver failure); the heart and kidneys may also ...

yew
Any of a group of evergreen coniferous trees native to the northern hemisphere. The dark green flat needlelike leaves and bright red berrylike seeds are poisonous; the wood is hard and close-grained. (Genus Taxus, family Taxaceae.) The western or Pacific yew (T. br...

Yemen
Click images to enlargeCountry in southwest Asia, bounded north by Saudi Arabia, east by Oman, south by the Gulf of Aden, and west by the Red Sea. Government The 1991 constitution, as subsequently amended, provides for a president and a two-chamber legislature. The president is elected for seven years (renewable once)...

yen
The standard currency of Japan

Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich
Russian politician, president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) 1990–91, and first president of the newly independent Russian Federation 1991–99. He directed the Federation's secession from the USSR and the formation of a new, decentralized confederation, the C...

yeast artificial chromosome
Fragment of DNA from the human genome inserted into a yeast cell. The yeast replicates the fragment along with its own DNA. In this way the fragments are copied to be preserved in a gene library. YACs are characteristically between 250,000 and 1 million base pairs in length. A cosmid works in the same way

yeheb nut
Small tree found in Ethiopia and Somalia, formerly much valued for its nuts as a food source. Although cultivated as a food crop in Kenya and Sudan, it is now critically endangered in the wild and is only known to survive at three sites. Overgrazing by cattle and goats has prevented regrowth, and the taking of nuts for consumption prevents reseedin...

year 2000
Another name for the Millennium Bug

Yerushalayim
Hebrew name for Jerusalem, Israel

yeshiva
Jewish college of religion; in Orthodox Judaism, a day school providing religious and secular instruction. On average, college students will attend yeshiva for five years, studying the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, Midrash, and Jewish philosophy in depth, as well as completing a university course. Continued studies in rabbinical law will lead to th...

Yggdrasil
In Norse mythology, the world tree, a sacred ash which spanned heaven and hell. It was evergreen and tended by the Norns, goddesses of past, present, and future

YHVH
In Hebrew texts, the written form of the unutterable sacred name of God, given as Yahweh or Jehovah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The vowels are removed to make the name unpronounceable

Yiddish language
Member of the west Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, deriving from 13th–14th-century Rhineland German and spoken by northern, central, and eastern European Jews, who have carried it to Israel, the USA, and many other parts of the world. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet and has many dialects reflecting European a...

Yinchuan
Capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, northwest China, on the Huang He River; population (2000) 578,400. It is a trading centre for the Ningxia Plain. Industries include the manufacture of machinery, plastic products, and textiles, and the processing of wool and hides from surrounding grazing areas

yin and yang
The passive (characterized as feminine, negative, intuitive) and active (characterized as masculine, positive, intellectual) principles of nature. Their interaction is believed to maintain equilibrium and harmony in the universe and to be present in all things. In Taoism and Confucianism they are represented by two interlocked curved shapes within ...

Yi
Member of a people living in the mountainous regions of southwestern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, totalling about 5.5 million (1987).The Yi are farmers, producing both crops and livestock, and opium as a cash crop. Traditionally they were stratified into princes, aristocrats, commoners, and debt slaves. Their language belon...

yield point
Stress beyond which a material deforms by a relatively large amount for a small increase in stretching force. Beyond this stress, the material no longer obeys Hooke's law

yield
(chemistry) In chemistry, the amount of pure product that can be obtained from a chemical reaction. The amount is usually expressed as a percentage by mass. It is calculated by assuming that the greatest amount of product is that given by the balanced chemical equation, the theoretical yield. ...

Ymir
In Norse mythology, the first living being, a giant who grew from melting frost; father of the Jotuns, a race of evil giants. He was nurtured by four streams of milk from the cow Audhumla, mother of Buri, the grandfather of Odin. After Ymir was killed by Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve, heaven and earth were created from parts of his body

yolk
Store of food, mostly in the form of fats and proteins, found in the eggs of many animals. It provides nourishment for the growing embryo

Young, Lester Willis
US tenor saxophonist and jazz composer. He was a major figure in the development of his instrument for jazz music from the 1930s and was an accompanist for the singer Billie Holiday, who gave him the nickname `President`, later shortened to `Pres`. His approach inspired the birth of cool jazz

Young Men's Christian Association
International organization founded in 1844 by George Williams (1821–1905) in London and in 1851 in the USA. It aims at self-improvement – spiritual, intellectual, and physical. Although the organization began as a Christian movement, YMCAs are now largely secular and apolitical

York
(dynasty) English dynasty founded by Richard, Duke of York (1411–60). He claimed the throne through his descent from Lionel, Duke of Clarence (1338–68), third son of Edward III, whereas the reigning monarch, Henry VI of the rival house of Lancaster, was descended from the fourth son,...

York
(city, UK) Cathedral and industrial city and administrative headquarters of York unitary authority in northern England, on the River Ouse; population (2001) 137,500. It was the administrative headquarters of the county of North Yo...

Yogyakarta
City in Java, Indonesia, capital 1945–49; population (2000) 599,100. It is the cultural centre of the Javanese ethnic group, and the centre for a rich agricultural region, producing rice, sugar cane, and tobacco. The chief industries are batik textiles, handicrafts, and tourism. It lies on the Jakarta–Surabaya railway

yoga
Hindu philosophical system attributed to Patanjali, who lived about 150 BC at Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, India. He preached mystical union with a personal deity through the practice of self-hypnosis and a rising above the senses by abstract meditation, adoption of special postures, and ascetic practices. As practised in the West, yoga is more a syst...

Young Women's Christian Association
International organization for the welfare of women and girls. Founded in London, England, in 1855, it was a response to the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution on women. The world headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, with branches in some 125 countries

Yosemite
Click images to enlargeRegion in the Sierra Nevada, eastern California, USA, a national park from 1890; area 3,079 sq km/1,189 sq mi. Embracing 12 km/8 mi of the Yosemite Valley, its main features are Yosemite Gorge, cut by the Merced River; Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in the USA, plunging 739 m&...

Yorkshire
Former county in northeast England on the North Sea divided administratively into North, East, and West Ridings (thirds), but reorganized to form a number of new counties in 1974: the major part of Cleveland and Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and West Yorkshire. Small outlying areas also went to Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, and G...

yolk sac
Sac containing the yolk in the egg of most vertebrates. The term is also used for the membranous sac formed below the developing mammalian embryo and connected with the umbilical cord

Yourcenar, Marguerite
French writer. She first gained recognition as a novelist in France in the 1930s with books such as La Nouvelle Euridyce/The New Euridyce (1931). Her evocation of past eras and characters, exemplified in Les Mémoires d'Hadrien/The Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), brought her acclaim as a historical n...

Yom Kippur
Jewish high holy day, or `day of awe`, held on the tenth day of Tishri (September–October), the first month of the Jewish year. It is a day of fasting, penitence, and cleansing from sin, ending the ten days of penitence that follow Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year

Young Turk
Member of a reformist movement of young army officers in the Ottoman Empire founded 1889. The movement was instrumental in the constitutional changes of 1908 and the abdication of Sultan Abd al-Hamid II 1909. It gained prestige during the Balkan Wars 1912–13 and encouraged Turkish links with the German empire. Its influence diminished afte...

Young Ireland
Irish romantic nationalist organization, centred on a group of young idealists associated with the Nation newspaper from 1844. They sought to create a non-sectarian spirit in an independent Ireland, and promoted Irish cultural nationalism. Young Ireland initially sided with Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association, but s...

Young Italy
Italian nationalist organization founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini while in exile in Marseille. The movement, which was immediately popular, was followed the next year by Young Germany, Young Poland, and similar organizations. All the groups were linked by Mazzini in his Young Europe movement, but none achieved much practical success; attempt...

Yoshida, Shigeru
Japanese diplomat and conservative Liberal politician who served as prime minister for most of the period 1946–54, including much of the US occupation 1945–52. Under Yoshida, Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the USA and its allies in 1951

Yoruba
The majority ethnic group living in southwestern Nigeria; there is a Yoruba minority in eastern Benin. They number approximately 20 million in all, and their language belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family. The Yoruba established powerful city states in the 15th century, known for their advanced culture which includes sculpture...

Youth Hostels Association
Registered charity founded in Britain in 1930 to promote knowledge and care of the countryside by providing cheap overnight accommodation for young people on active holidays (such as walking or cycling). Types of accommodation range from castles to log cabins. YHA is a member of the International Youth Hostel Federation, with over 3 million members...

Young Pretender
Nickname of Charles Edward Stuart, claimant to the Scottish and English thrones

Young, Thomas
English physicist, physician, and Egyptologist who revived the wave theory of light and identified the phenomenon of interference in 1801. He also established many important concepts in mechanics. In 1793, Young recognized that focusing of the eye (accommodation) is achieved by a change of shape in the lens of the eye, the lens being composed of mu...

yogurt
Semisolid curdlike dairy product made from milk fermented with bacteria. It was originally made by nomadic tribes of Central Asia, from mare's milk in leather pouches attached to their saddles. It is drunk plain throughout the Asian and Mediterranean region, to which it spread, but honey, sugar, and fruit were added in Europe and the USA, and t...

Yom Kippur War
The surprise attack on Israel in October 1973 by Egypt and Syria; see Arab-Israeli Wars; Israel, the Fourth Arab–Israeli War; and Egypt, the Fourth Arab–Israeli War. It is named after the Jewish national holiday on which it began, the holiest day of the Jewish year

Yogi Bear
Cartoon-film character created for television by US animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The shrewd, smiling Yogi and his accomplice Boo-Boo (a cautious cub) steal picnic baskets from tourists and generally create mischief for Mr Ranger in Jellystone Park. Yogi Bear made his US comic-book debut in 1959, and appeared in his first ...

young offender institution
In the UK, place of detention for lawbreakers under 17 (juveniles) and 17–21 (young adults). The period of detention depends on the seriousness of the offence and on the age and sex of the offender. The institution was introduced by the Criminal Justice Act of 1988. A number of statutory (legal) requirements support the principle that a custod...

Youth Training Scheme
In the UK, a one- or two-year course of training and work experience for unemployed school leavers aged 16 and 17, from 1989 provided by employer-led Training and Enterprise Councils at local levels and renamed Youth Training. On the basis of a government promise of training places for all school leavers without jobs, social security co...

youth culture
Imprecise term for the variety of subcultural phenomena associated with young people as a social group. These may oppose the norms of adult life and are often symbolized by distinctive styles of clothing and taste in music

York
(UK authority) Unitary authority in northeast England created in 1996 from part of the county of North Yorkshire. Area 271 sq km/105 sq mi Towns York (administrative headquarters) Features River Ouse; River Fosse; York Min...

Younis, Waqar
Pakistani cricketer. A right-arm opening bowler capable of bowling with great pace and hostility, using reverse swing to great effect, he made his Test debut in 1989 and was only the third bowler to take 300 wickets for Pakistan. Remarkably accurate for a bowler of his pace, he was the second player in history to take 400 wickets in One-day...

Yorkshire Dales
Series of river valleys in northern England, see Dales

YouTube
Online video sharing company. Founded in 2005, it was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion the following year. A range of content includes basic home movies and video blogs, music videos, film shorts, television and film clips, and major news clips from leading providers. The original company was launched by former employees of e-commerce ...

Ypres, Battles of
In World War I, three major battles 1914–17 between German and Allied forces near Ypres, a Belgian town in western Flanders, 40 km/25 mi south of Ostend. Neither side made much progress in any of the battles, despite heavy casualties, but the third battle in particular (also known as Passchendaele) July–November 1917 stands out as an ...

yttrium
Silver-grey, metallic element, atomic number 39, relative atomic mass 88.905. It is associated with and resembles the rare-earth elements (lanthanides), occurring in gadolinite, xenotime, and other minerals. It is used in colour-television tubes and to reduce steel corrosion. The name derives from the Swedish town of Ytterby, near where...

ytterbium
Soft, lustrous, silvery, malleable, and ductile metallic element of the lanthanide series, symbol Yb, atomic number 70, relative atomic mass 173.04. It occurs with (and resembles) yttrium in gadolinite and other minerals, and is used in making steel and other alloys. In 1878 Swiss chemist Jean-Charles de Marignac gave the name ytterbium (after ...

YTS
Abbreviation for Youth Training Scheme

yucca
Any of a group of plants belonging to the lily family, with over 40 species found in Latin America and the southwestern USA. The leaves are stiff and sword-shaped and the flowers, which grow on upright central spikes, are white and bell-shaped. (Genus Yucca, family Liliaceae.) Yuccas grow in dry soils where nitrate salts,...

Yunnan
Province of southwest China, bounded to the north by Tibet and Sichuan, to the east by Guizhou and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to the south by Vietnam and Laos, and to the west by Myanmar (formerly Burma); area 436,200 sq km/168,373 sq mi; population (2000 est) 42,880,000. The capit...

Yucatán
(peninsula) Peninsula in Central America, divided among Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala; area 180,000 sq km/70,000 sq mi. Tropical crops are grown. It is inhabited by Maya Indians and contains the remains of their civilization. There are ruins at Chichén Itzá and Uxmal. The Mex...

Yukon
River in North America, 3,185 km/1,979 mi long, flowing from Lake Tagish in Yukon Territory into Alaska, where it empties into the Bering Sea. It is the third-longest North American river after the Mississippi and the Missouri

Yukon Territory
Most northwesterly administrative division of Canada, bordered by the Beaufort Sea to the north, the Northwest Territories to the east, British Columbia to the south (below the 60th Parallel), and Alaska, USA, to the west; area 483,500 sq km/186,631 sq mi; population (2002 est) 29,900 (in...

Yuan dynasty
Mongol rulers of China 1279–1368 after Kublai Khan defeated the Song dynasty. Much of Song China's administrative infrastructure survived and internal and foreign trade expanded. The Silk Road to the west was re-established and the Grand Canal extended north to Beijing to supply the court with grain. The Mongol conquest was particularl...

Zahir ud-Din Muhammad
First Mogul emperor of India; see Babur

Zaragoza
Capital of Zaragoza province and of Aragón autonomous community, northeast Spain, on the River Ebro; population (2001 est) 611,000. Situated in a fertile, irrigated agricultural region, manufacturing includes wood products, vehicles, machinery, foodstuffs, paper, chemicals, and plastics. It is an archiepiscopal see; the medieval city w...

Zapata, Emiliano
Mexican Indian revolutionary leader. He led a revolt against dictator Porfirio Díaz from 1910 under the slogan `Land and Liberty`, to repossess for the indigenous Mexicans the land taken by the Spanish. By 1915 he was driven into retreat, and was assassinated in his stronghold, Morelos, by an agent of Venustiano Carranza. Initially h...

Zanzibar
(island) Island region of Tanzania, 40 km/25 mi from the mainland, separated by the Zanzibar Channel; area 1,658 sq km/640 sq mi (80 km/50 mi long); population (2002 est) 622,500. Fishing is an important industry a...

Zampieri, Domenico
Italian baroque painter, known as Domenichino

Zamenhof, Lazarus Ludovik
Polish inventor of the international language Esperanto in 1887

Zambezi
River in central and southeast Africa; length 3,540 km/2,200 mi from northwest Zambia through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean, with a wide delta near Chinde. Major tributaries include the Kafue in Zambia. It is interrupted by rapids, and includes on the Zimbabwe–Zambia border the Victoria...

Zama, Battle of
Battle fought 202 BC in Numidia (now Algeria), in which the Carthaginians under Hannibal were defeated by the Romans under the younger Scipio, so ending the Second Punic War. The Carthaginians were forced to give up Spain and were also subject to harsh peace terms

Zahir Shah, Muhammad
King of Afghanistan 1933–73. Zahir, educated in Kabul and Paris, served in the government 1932–33 before being crowned king. He was overthrown in 1973 by a republican coup and went into exile. He became a symbol of national unity for the Mujahedin Islamic fundamentalist resistance groups. In 1991 the Afghan government restored Zahir's...

Zambia
Landlocked country in southern central Africa, bounded north by the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) and Tanzania, east by Malawi, south by Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia, and west by Angola. Government Zambia is an independent republic within the Commonwealth. The 1991 multiparty constitution provides for a directly-e...

ZANU
Political organization founded in 1963 by the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and later led by Robert Mugabe. It was banned in 1964 by Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front government, against which it conducted a guerrilla war from Zambia until the free elections of 1980, when the ZANU Patriotic Front party, led by Mugabe, won 63% of the vote. In 1987 i...

ZAPU
Political organization founded by Joshua Nkomo in 1961 and banned in 1962 by the Rhodesian government. It engaged in a guerrilla war in alliance with ZANU against the Rhodesian regime until late 1979. In the 1980 elections ZAPU was defeated and was then persecuted by the ruling ZANU Patriotic Front party. In 1987 the two parties merged

zazen
Formal seated meditation in Zen Buddhism. Correct posture and breathing are necessary

Zapotec
An American Indian people of southern Mexico, now numbering approximately 250,000, living mainly in Oaxaca. The Zapotec language, which belong s to the Oto-Mangean family, has nine dialects. The ancient Zapotec built the ceremonial centre of Monte Albán 1000–500 BC. They developed one of...

Zappa, Frank
(Francis Vincent) US rock musician, bandleader, and composer. His crudely satirical songs, as in Joe's Garage (1980), deliberately bad taste, and complex orchestral and electronic compositions make his work hard to categorize. His group the Mothers of Invention 1965–...

Zarathustra
Another name for the Persian religious leader Zoroaster

zakat
In Islam, the obligatory duty to pay annually a percentage of income as alms; it is the third of the Five Pillars of Islam The payment `cleanses` the income of possessiveness, and reminds Muslims that everything is owned by God. Different rates apply to different types of income; for instance, there is a 2.5% levy on money and...

zeolite
Any of the hydrous aluminium silicates, also containing sodium, calcium, barium, strontium, or potassium, chiefly found in igneous rocks and characterized by a ready loss or gain of water. Zeolites are used as `molecular sieves` to separate mixtures because they are capable of selective absorption. They have a high ion-exchange capaci...

zebu
Any of a species of cattle Bos indicus found domesticated in East Asia, India, and Africa. It is usually light-coloured, with large horns and a large fatty hump near the shoulders. It is used for pulling loads and is held by some Hindus to be sacred. There are about 30 breeds. Zebus have been crossbred with other species of c...

zebra
Black and white striped member of the horse genus Equus found in Africa; the stripes serve as camouflage or dazzle and confuse predators. It is about 1.5 m/5 ft high at the shoulder, with a stout body and a short, thick mane. Zebras live in family groups and herds on mounta...