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


current
In earth science, flow of a body of water or air, or of heat, moving in a definite direction. Ocean currents are fast-flowing bodies of seawater moved by the wind or by variations in water density between two areas. They are partly responsible for transferring heat from the Equator to the poles and thereby evening out the global heat imbalance....

Cupid
In Roman mythology, the god of love (Greek Eros); son of the goddess of love, Venus, and either Mars, Jupiter, or Mercury. Joyous and mischievous, he is generally represented as a winged, naked boy with a bow and arrow, sometimes with a blindfold, torch, or quiver. According to the Roman poet Ovi...

Cumbria
Click images to enlargeCounty of northwest England, created in 1974 from Cumberland, Westmorland, the Furness district of northwest Lancashire, and the Sedbergh district of northwest Yorkshire. Area 6,810 sq km/2,629 sq mi Towns and cities Carlisle (administrative headquarters), Barrow, Kendal, Penrith, Whitehaven, Wo...

curve
In geometry, the locus of a point moving according to specified conditions. The circle is the locus of all points equidistant from a given point (the centre). Other common geometrical curves are the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola, which are also produced when a cone is cut by a plane at different a...

Curie, Marie
Polish scientist who, with husband Pierre Curie, discovered in 1898 two new radioactive elements in pitchblende ores: polonium and radium. They isolated the pure elements in 1902. Both scientists refused to take out a patent on their discovery and were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics ...

Cuban missile crisis
Confrontation in international relations in October 1962 when Soviet rockets were installed in Cuba and US president John F Kennedy compelled Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, by military threats and negotiation, to remove them. This event prompted an unsuccessful drive by the USSR to match the USA in...

cubism
Revolutionary style of painting created by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in Paris between 1907 and 1914. It was the most radical of the developments that revolutionized art in the years of unprecedented experimentation leading up to World War I, and it changed the course of painting by introducing a new way of seeing and depicting the world. To ...

Cuchulain
Legendary Celtic hero. A stupendous fighter in Irish hero-tales, he was the chief figure in a cycle associated with his uncle Conchobar mac Nessa, King of Ulster. While still a little boy, he performed his first great feat by slaying a ferocious hound. As a young man, he single-handedly kept a whole army at bay, and won battles in both the ...

Culloden, Battle of
Defeat in 1746 of the Jacobite rebel army of the British prince Charles Edward Stuart (the `Young Pretender`) by the Duke of Cumberland on a stretch of moorland in Inverness-shire, Scotland. This battle effectively ended the military challenge of the Jacobite rebellion

Cuman
Member of a powerful alliance of Turkic-speaking peoples of the Middle Ages, which dominated the steppes in the 11th and 12th centuries and built an empire reaching from the River Volga to the Danube. For a generation the Cumans held up the Mongol advance on the Volga, but in 1238 a Cuman and Russian army was defeated near Astrakhan, and 200,00...

Cumberland, William Augustus
British general who ended the Jacobite rising in Scotland with the Battle of Culloden in 1746; his brutal repression of the Highlanders earned him the nickname of `Butcher`. Third son of George II, he was created Duke of Cumberland in 1726. He fought in the War of the Austrian Succession at Dettingen in 1743 and Fontenoy in 1745. In t...

Cummings, E(dward) E(stlin)
US poet and novelist. His work is marked by idiosyncratic punctuation and typography (often using only lower case letters in his verse, for example), and a subtle, lyric celebration of life. Before his first collection Tulips and Chimneys (1923), Cummings published an avant-garde novel, The Enormous Room (1...

cuneiform
Ancient writing system formed of combinations of wedge-shaped strokes, usually impressed on clay. It was probably invented by the Sumerians, and was in use in Mesopotamia as early as the middle of the 4th millennium BC. It was adopted and modified by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hittites, Persians, and many other peoples with different...

Curaçao
(West Indies) Island in the West Indies, one of the Netherlands Antilles; area 444 sq km/171 sq mi; population (1998 est) 153,700. The principal industry, dating from 1918, is the refining of Venezuelan petroleum, though in recent years tourism has also become important. Curaç...

curare
Black, resinous poison extracted from the bark and juices of various South American trees and plants. Originally used on arrowheads by Amazonian hunters to paralyse prey, it blocks nerve stimulation of the muscles. Alkaloid derivatives (called curarines) are used in medicine as muscle relaxants during surgery

Curitiba
Capital of Paraná state, on the Curitiba River, southeast Brazil, situated on the Serra do Mar plateau at an altitude of 900 m/2,593 ft; population (2000) 1,587,300; metropolitan area (2005 est) 3,141,400. It is connected by rail to its seaport Paranaguá, 80 km/50 mi to the east. Curitiba is in the centre of a rich agricul...

Custer, George Armstrong
US Civil War general, who became the Union's youngest brigadier general in 1863 as a result of a brilliant war record. He was made a major general in 1865 but, following the end of the American Civil War, his rank was reduced to captain. He later rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He took pa...

Customs and Excise
Government department responsible for taxes levied on imports (customs duty). Excise duties are levied on goods produced domestically or on licences to carry on certain trades (such as sale of wines and spirits) or other activities (theatrical entertainments, betting, and so on) within a country

Cuzco
(city) Capital of Cuzco department, south-central Peru, 560 km/350 mi southeast of Lima; situated in a small valley in the Andes at a height of over 3,350 m/11,000 ft above sea level; population (1993) 255,600. The...

Cunningham, Merce
US choreographer and modern dancer. He is recognized as the father of postmodernist, or experimental, dance. Along with his friend and collaborator, composer John Cage, he introduced chance into the creative process, such as tossing coins to determine options. Influenced by Martha Graham, with whose company he was soloist 1939–45, he formed hi...

cucumber
Trailing annual plant belonging to the gourd family, producing long, green-skinned fruit with crisp, translucent, edible flesh. Small cucumbers, called gherkins, usually the fruit of Cucumis anguria, are often pickled. (Cucumis sativus, family Cucurbitaceae.) There are about 735 species belonging to the cuc...

Cuba
Click images to enlargeIsland country in the Caribbean Sea, the largest of the West Indies, off the south coast of Florida and to the east of Mexico. Government Cuba has a communist political executive and is dominated by the ruling Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). Its 1976 constitution created a socialist state with the Na...

culture
(society) In sociology and anthropology, the way of life of a particular society or group of people, including patterns of thought, beliefs, behaviour, customs, traditions, rituals, dress, and language, as well as art, music, and literature. Archaeologists use the word to mean the surviving ob...

cu
Abbreviation for cubic (measure)

current account
In economics, that part of the balance of payments concerned with current transactions, as opposed to capital movements. It includes trade (visibles) and service transactions, such as investment, insurance, shipping, and tourism (invisibles). The state of the current account is regarded as a barometer of overall economic health. In some countries, ...

Cushing, Harvey Williams
US neurologist who pioneered neurosurgery. He developed a range of techniques for the surgical treatment of brain tumours, and also studied the link between the pituitary gland and conditions such as dwarfism. He first described the chronic wasting disease now known as Cushing's syndrome

custody of children
For the legal control of a minor by an adult, see residence and contact and parental responsibility

Cultural Revolution
Chinese mass movement from 1966 to 1969 begun by Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, directed against the upper middle class – bureaucrats, artists, and academics – who were killed, imprisoned, humiliated, or `resettled`. Intended to `purify` Chinese communism, it was also an attempt by Mao to renew his political and id...

Culiacán
Capital of Sinaloa state, northwestern Mexico, on the Culiacán River; population (2005) 605,300. Lying on the Pan-American Highway, it is a commercial centre for the mining and agricultural activities of the area. Gold, silver, iron, copper, and cobalt are mined, and crops produced include maize, cotton, sugar cane, and tobacco. Indust...

cuboid
Six-sided three-dimensional prism whose faces are all rectangles. A brick is a cuboid

cumulative frequency
In statistics, the total frequency of a given value up to and including a certain point in a set of data. It is calculated by adding together the frequencies to give a running total and used to draw the cumulative frequency curve, the ogive. To plot a cumulative frequency diagram, the cumulative frequency is always plotted along the vertical axis a...

cusp
Point where two branches of a curve meet and the tangents to each branch coincide

Cugnot, Nicolas-Joseph
French engineer who produced the first high-pressure steam engine and, in 1769, the first self-propelled road vehicle. Although it proved the viability of steam-powered traction, the problems of water supply and pressure maintenance severely handicapped the vehicle. While serving in the army, Cugnot was asked to design a steam-opera...

current, electric
See electric current

curtain wall
In a building, an external, lightweight, non-loadbearing wall (either glazing or cladding) that is hung from a metal frame rather than built up from the ground like a brick wall; the framework it shields is usually of concrete or steel. Curtain walls are typically used in high-rise blocks, one of the earliest examples being the Reliance...

cultural anthropology
Subdiscipline of anthropology that analyses human culture and society, the nonbiological and behavioural aspects of humanity. Two principal branches are ethnography (the study at first hand of living cultures) and ethnology (the comparison of cultures using ethnographic evidence)

cursor
On a computer screen, the symbol that indicates the current entry position (where the next character will appear)

cube
(mathematics) In arithmetic, to multiply a number by itself and then by itself again. For example, 5 cubed = 53 = 5 × 5 × 5 = 125. Alternatively, the cube root of 125 is 5. The term also re...

curry
Traditional Indian mixture of spices used to flavour a dish of rice, meat, and/or vegetables. Spices include turmeric, fenugreek, cloves, chillies, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, black and cayenne pepper, coriander, and caraway. In southern India curry dishes are made primarily with vegetables, seasoned with sambar podi or other ho...

current account at a bank
Type of account at a bank where money is deposited for transactions rather than savings purposes. Little or no interest is given but the customer is offered a chequebook, cheque card, and standing order and direct-debit facilities. Typically, a worker will be paid directly into a current account and over the month gradually spend the money. Ove...

curing
Method of preserving meat by soaking it in salt (sodium chloride) solution, with saltpetre (sodium nitrate) added to give the meat its pink colour and characteristic taste. The nitrates in cured meats are converted to nitrites and nitrosamines by bacteria, and these are potentially carcinogenic to humans

customs union
Organization of autonomous countries where trade between member states is free of restrictions, but where a tariff or other restriction is placed on products entering the customs union from non-member states. Examples include the European Union (EU), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Central American Common Market, and the Economic Communi...

cube root
Number that, multiplied by itself, and then by the product, produces the cube. For example, 3 × 3 × 3 = 27, 3 being the cube root of 27, which is the cube of 3

Cusco
Alternative spelling of Cuzco, a city in south-central Peru

cut and paste
In computing, an editing function available in most office suite applications. Objects (including text and graphics) can be deleted from their current position (cut) and reinserted (pasted) at some other point, including in another application. The cut material is stored on a clipboard held in RAM memory, and thus lost when the computer is switched...

cutting tool
Tool used to cut resistant materials. There are many different cutting tools. The type of tool chosen depends on the type of cut to be made and the type of material being cut. Cutting can take place on a line, along or across a piece of material. Holes can be drilled or material can be dug out to make a hole or a groove. A piece of material can als...

CV
Abbreviation for curriculum vitae

cwt
Symbol for hundredweight, a unit of weight equal to 112 lb (50.80 kg) in the UK and Canada, and 100 lb (45.36 kg) in the USA

cypress
Any of a group of coniferous trees or shrubs containing about 20 species, originating from temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. They have tiny scalelike leaves and cones made up of woody, wedge-shaped scales containing an aromatic resin. (Genera Cupressus and Chamaecyparis, family Cupressaceae.)

cyclamen
Any of a group of perennial plants belonging to the primrose family, with heart-shaped leaves and petals that are twisted at the base and bent back, away from the centre of the downward-facing flower. The flowers are usually white or pink, and several species are cultivated. (Genus Cyclamen, family Primulaceae.)

cyclic compound
Any of a group of organic chemicals that have rings of atoms in their molecules, giving them a closed-chain structure

Cygnus
Large prominent constellation of the northern hemisphere, represented as a swan. Its brightest star is first-magnitude Alpha Cygni or Deneb. Beta Cygni (Albireo) is a yellow and blue double star, visible through small telescopes. The constellation contains the North America nebula (named after its shape), the Veil nebula (the remains of a super...

cyanide
Ion derived from hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and any salt containing this ion (produced when hydrogen cyanide is neutralized by alkalis), such as potassium cyanide (KCN). The principal cyanides are potassium, sodium, calcium, mercury, gold, and copper. Most cyanides are poisons. Organic compounds containing a CN group are sometimes called cyanides but ...

cytology
Study of the structure of cells and their functions. Major advances have been made possible in this field by the development of electron microscopes

cytoplasm
Part of plant and animal cells outside the nucleus (and outside the large vacuole of plant cells). Strictly speaking, this includes all the organelles (mitochondria, chloroplasts, and so on) and is the area in which most cell activities take place. However, cytoplasm is often used to refer to the jel...

cylinder
(geometry) In geometry, a prism with a circular cross-section. In everyday use, the term applies to a right cylinder, in which the curved surface is perpendicular to the base. As it is a prism, the volume (V) of...

cycloid
In geometry, a curve resembling a series of arches traced out by a point on the circumference of a circle that rolls along a straight line. Its applications include the study of the motion of wheeled vehicles along roads and tracks

cystitis
Inflammation of the bladder, usually caused by bacterial infection, and resulting in frequent and painful urination. It is more common in women. Treatment is by antibiotics and copious fluids with vitamin C. Cystitis is more common after sexual intercourse, and it is thought that intercourse encourages bacteria, especially Escherichia coli...

cystic fibrosis
Hereditary disease involving defects of various tissues, including the sweat glands, the mucous glands of the bronchi (air passages), and the pancreas. The sufferer experiences repeated chest infections and digestive disorders and generally fails to thrive. In 1989 a gene for cystic fibrosis was iden...

Cyclops
In Greek mythology, one of a race of Sicilian giants with one eye in the middle of their foreheads. According to Homer, they lived as shepherds. Odysseus blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey. In Theogony, the Greek poet Hesiod represents the Cyclops as Arges, Steropes, and Brontes; sons of ...

cycling
Riding a bicycle for sport, pleasure, or transport. Cycle racing can take place on oval artificial tracks, on the road, or across country (cyclocross and mountain biking). Stage races are run over gruelling terrain and can last anything from three days to three and a half weeks, as in the Tour de Fra...

cybernetics
Science concerned with how systems organize, regulate, and reproduce themselves, and also how they evolve and learn. In the laboratory, inanimate objects are created that behave like living systems. Applications range from the creation of electronic artificial limbs to the running of the fully automated factory where decision-making machines op...

Cyclades
Group of about 200 Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, lying between mainland Greece and Turkey; area 2,579 sq km/996 sq mi; population (2005 est) 119,500. They include Andros, Melos, Paros, Naxos, and Siros, on which is the capital Hermoupoli

cymbal
Ancient percussion instrument of indefinite pitch. It consists of a shallow, circular brass dish suspended from the centre. They are either used in pairs clashed together or singly, struck with a beater. Crashed cymbals can be heard in Dvorak's first and eighth Slavonic Dances. Extensive use of cymbals is found in much 20th&#...

Cymru
Welsh name for Wales

cynic
Member of a school of Greek philosophy (cynicism), founded in Athens about 400 BC by Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, who advocated a stern and simple morality and a complete disregard of pleasure and comfort. His followers, led by Diogenes, not only showed a contemptuous disregard for pleasure, but despised all human affection as a source of w...

Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinien
French writer. Joining a corps of guards at the age of 19, he performed heroic feats. He is the hero of a classic play by Edmond Rostand, in which his excessively long nose is used as a counterpoint to his chivalrous character

Cyrenaica
Area of eastern Libya, colonized by the Greeks in the 7th century BC; later held by the Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, and Italians. Present cities in the region are Benghazi, Darnah, and Tobruk. There are archaeological ruins at Cyrene and Apollonia. The Greek colonies passed under the rule of the Ptolemies 322 BC, and in 74 BC Cyrenaica bec...

Cyrenaic
Member of a school of Greek hedonistic philosophy founded in about 400 BC by Aristippus of Cyrene. He regarded pleasure as the only absolutely worthwhile thing in life but taught that self-control and intelligence were necessary to choose the best pleasures

cycad
Any of a group of plants belonging to the gymnosperms, whose seeds develop in cones. Some are superficially similar to palms, others to ferns. Their large cones (up to 0.5 m/1.6 ft in length) contain fleshy seeds. There are ten genera and about 80–100 species, native to tropical and subtropi...

Cyprus
Island in the Mediterranean Sea, off the south coast of Turkey and west coast of Syria. Government Cyprus has two governments: an internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus government, controlled by Greek Cypriots; and a Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, controlled by Turkish Cypriots a...

Cyril and Methodius, Sts
Two brothers, both Christian saints: Cyril (826–869) and Methodius (815–885). Born in Thessalonica, they were sent as missionaries to what is today Moravia. They invented a Slavonic alphabet, and translated the Bible and the liturgy from Greek to Slavonic. The language (known as Old Church Slavonic) remained in use in churches and for...

Cymbeline
King of the Catuvellauni (AD 5–40), who fought unsuccessfully against the Roman invasion of Britain. His capital was at Colchester

cytokine
In biology, chemical messenger that carries information from one cell to another, for example the lymphokines

cycle
In physics, a sequence of changes in which a system moves away from, and then back to, its original state. An example is a vibration in which a particle moves first in one direction and then in the opposite direction, with the particle returning to its original position at the end of the each cycle

cyanocobalamin
Chemical name for vitamin B12, which is normally produced by micro-organisms in the gut. The richest sources are liver, fish, and eggs. It is essential to the replacement of cells, the maintenance of the myelin sheath which insulates nerve fibres, and the efficient use of folic acid, another vitamin in the B complex. Defi...

cyclone
Alternative name for a depression, an area of low atmospheric pressure with winds blowing in an anticlockwise direction in the northern hemisphere and in a clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere. A severe cyclone that forms in the tropics is called a tropical cyclone or hurricane

cyanobacteria
Single-celled, primitive organisms that resemble bacteria in their internal cell organization, sometimes joined together in colonies or filaments. Cyanobacteria are among the oldest known living organisms and, with bacteria, belong to the kingdom Monera; remains have been found in rocks up to 3.5 billion years old. They are widely distribut...

cyberspace
Imaginary, interactive `worlds` created by networked computers; often used interchangeably with `virtual world`. The invention of the word `cyberspace` is generally credited to US science fiction writer William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer (1984). As well as meaning the interactive environment...

cybercafé
Coffeehouse equipped with public-access Internet terminals. Typically, users pay a small sum to use the terminals for short periods. Cafés usually supply brief tutorials for newcomers. There were estimated to be more than 200,000 cybercafés in more than 148 countries by the end of 2004. In developing countries, because of the high cos...

czar
Alternative spelling of tsar, an emperor of Russia

Czestochowa
City in Poland, on the River Warta, 193 km/120 mi southwest of Warsaw; population (2002) 251,400. It produces iron goods, chemicals, paper, and cement. The basilica of Jasna Góra is a centre for Catholic pilgrims (it contains the painting known as the Black Madonna)

Czechoslovakia
Former country in eastern central Europe, which came into existence as an independent republic in 1918 after the break-up of the Austro–Hungarian empire at the end of World War I. It consisted originally of the Bohemian crown lands (Bohemia, Moravia, and part of Silesia) and Slovakia, the ar...

Czech Republic
Click images to enlargeLandlocked country in east-central Europe, bounded north by Poland, northwest and west by Germany, south by Austria, and east by the Slovak Republic. Government The 1992 constitution, which came into force in January 1993, provides for a two-chamber parliament, comprising a 200-member ch...

dance of death
Popular theme in painting of the late medieval period, depicting an allegorical representation of death (usually a skeleton) leading the famous and the not-so-famous to the grave. One of the best-known representations is a series of woodcuts (1523–26) by Hans Holbein the Younger. It has also been exploited as a theme in music, for ...

Dawkins,
(Clinton) English evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. His book The Selfish Gene (1976) popularized the theories of sociobiology (social behaviour in humans and animals in the context of evolution). In The Blind Watchmaker (1986) he explained...

dasyure
Any marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, also known as a `native cat`, found in Australia and New Guinea. Various species have body lengths from 25 cm/10 in to 75 cm/2.5 ft. Dasyures have long, bushy tails and dark coats with white spots. They are agile, nocturnal carnivores, able to move fast and climb

Dandie Dinmont
Breed of terrier that originated in the Scottish border country. It is about 25 cm/10 in tall, short-legged and long-bodied, with drooping ears and a long tail. Its hair, about 5 cm/2 in long, can be greyish or yellowish. It is named after the character Dandie Dinmont in Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering (181...

daddy-long-legs
Popular name for a crane fly

Dalmatian
Breed of dog, about 60 cm/24 in tall, with a distinctive smooth white coat with spots that are black or brown. Dalmatians are born white; the spots appear later. They were formerly used as coach dogs, running beside horse-drawn carriages to fend off highwaymen

dachshund
Small dog of German origin, bred originally for digging out badgers. It has a long body and short legs. Several varieties are bred: standard size (up to 10 kg/22 lb), miniature (5 kg/11 lb or less), long-haired, smooth-haired, and wire-haired

dace
Freshwater fish Leuciscus leuciscus of the carp family. Common in England and mainland Europe, it is silvery and grows up to 30 cm/1 ft

dab
Small marine flatfish of the flounder family, especially the genus Limanda. Dabs live in the North Atlantic and around the coasts of Britain and Scandinavia. Species include L. limanda which grows to about 40 cm/16 in, and the American dab L. proboscida, which grows to 30 cm/12 in. Bo...

damselfly
Long, slender, colourful dragonfly of the suborder Zygoptera, with two pairs of similar wings that are generally held vertically over the body when at rest, unlike those of other dragonflies

dating
In geology, the process of determining the age of minerals, rocks, fossils, and geological formations. There are two types of dating: relative and absolute. Relative dating involves determining the relative ages of materials, that is determining the chronological order of formation of particular rocks, fossils, or formations, by means of carefu...

Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé
French pioneer of photography. Together with Joseph Niépce, he is credited with the invention of photography (though others were reaching the same point simultaneously). In 1837 he invented the daguerreotype, a single image process superseded by Fox Talbot's negative/positive process

Danish language
Member of the North Germanic group of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Denmark and Greenland and related to Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, and Swedish. It has had a particularly strong influence on Norwegian. As one of the languages of the Vikings, who invaded and settled in parts of Britain during the 9th to 11th centuries, Old Dan...

Davison, Emily Wilding
English militant suffragette who died after throwing herself under the king's horse at the Derby at Epsom (she was trampled by the horse). She joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1906 and served several prison sentences for militant action such as stone throwing, setting fire to pillar boxes, and bombing Lloyd George's coun...

database
In computing, a structured collection of data, which may be manipulated to select and sort desired items of information. For example, an accounting system might be built around a database containing details of customers and suppliers. In larger computers, the database makes data available to the various programs that need it, without the need for t...

data processing
Use of computers for performing clerical tasks such as stock control, payroll, and dealing with orders. DP systems are typically batch systems, running on mainframe computers. Data processing cycle For data to be processed the following cycle of operations must be undergone: data are collected, then input into a computer where they are processe...