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

erotic verse
Genre of poetry which is about or inspired by sexual love. Erotic verse is present in each literary period, and may concern serious and heartfelt love as well as more lighthearted or shocking sexual subjects. Erotic verse was popular in classical (both Greek and Roman) literature and in medieval poetry (see courtly love). The metaphysical poets, in...

Erdogan, Recep Tayyip
Turkish conservative Islamic politician, prime minister from 2003. A populist mayor of Istanbul 1994–98, he was briefly imprisoned in 1998 because of his Islamist sympathies which were deemed to threaten Turkey's secularism. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) achieved victories in the 2002 and 2007 parliamentary elections, a...

esparto
Species of grass native to southern Spain, southern Portugal, and the Balearics, but now widely grown in dry, sandy locations throughout the world. The plant is just over 1 m/3 ft high, producing greyish-green leaves, which are used for making paper, ropes, baskets, mats, and cables. (Stipa tenacissima.)

Estonia
Country in northern Europe, bounded east by Russia, south by Latvia, and north and west by the Baltic Sea. Government Estonia is a multiparty parliamentary democracy with a dual executive, comprising a president and a prime minister. Under its 1992 constitution, it has a 101-member, popularly elected state assembly or parliament (Riigikogu), wh...

Esther
In the Old Testament, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), who prevented the extermination of her people by the king's vizier Haman. Their deliverance is celebrated in the Jewish festival of Purim. Her story is told in the Old Testament book of Esther

estate
(law) In law, the rights that a person has in relation to any property. Real estate is an interest in any land; personal estate is an interest in any other kind of property

Essen
City in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 29 km/18 mi northeast of Düsseldorf; population (2003 est) 588,800. It is the administrative centre of the Ruhr region, situated between the rivers Emscher and Ruhr. Industries include metalworking, glass-making, chemicals, telecommunications, brewing, and electronics. Its 9th–14th&...

essay
Short piece of non-fiction writing, often dealing with a particular subject from a personal point of view. The essay became a recognized form with the publication of Essais (1580) by French writer Montaigne and Essays (1597) by English politician, philosopher, and writer Francis Bacon. Today the essay is a ...

Eskimo
Algonquian term for Arctic peoples meaning `eater of raw meat`, now considered offensive. See Inuit

espionage
The practice of spying; a way to gather intelligence

Escher, M(aurits) C(ornelis)
Dutch graphic artist. His prints are often based on mathematical concepts and contain paradoxes and illusions. The lithograph Ascending and Descending (1960), with interlocking staircases creating a perspective puzzle, is a typical work. His work has continued to fascinate artists, mathematicians, psychologists, and the general p...

escalator
Automatic moving staircase that carries people between floors or levels. It consists of treads linked in an endless belt arranged to form strips (steps), powered by an electric motor that moves both steps and handrails at the same speed. Towards the top and bottom the steps flatten out for ease of passage. The first escalator was exhibited in Paris...

escape velocity
Minimum velocity required for a spacecraft or other object to escape from the gravitational pull of a planetary body. In the case of the Earth, the escape velocity is 11.2 kps/6.9 mps; the Moon, 2.4 kps/1.5 mps; Mars, 5 kps/3.1 mps; and Jupiter, 59.6 kps/37 mps

estuary
River mouth widening into the sea, where fresh water mixes with salt water and tidal effects are felt

ester
Organic compound formed by the reaction between an alcohol and an acid, with the elimination of water. Unlike salts, esters are covalent compounds

Esperanto
Language devised in 1887 by Polish philologist Ludwig L Zamenhof as an international auxiliary language. For its structure and vocabulary it draws on Latin, the Romance languages, English, and German. At its centenary in 1987, Esperantists claimed 10–15 million users worldwide. Esperanto spread from Europe to Japan, Brazil, and especially Chin...

Essex
County of southeast England, which has contained the unitary authorities of Southend and Thurrock since April 1998. Area 3,670 sq km/1,417 sq mi Towns and cities Chelmsford (administrative headquarters), Basildon, Colchester, Harlow, Harwich (port), Clacton-on-Sea (resort) Physical flat a...

Esfahan
Click images to enlargeCity in central Iran and capital of the province of the same name; population (2006) 1,602,100. The town lies on the Zayandeh Rud River at an altitude of 1,600 m/5,250 ft, in the centre of a large fertile oasis. Industries include steel, cotton, woollen and silk textiles, carpets, and tradit...

ESA
Abbreviation for European Space Agency

estate
(medieval history) In European history, an order of society that enjoyed a specified share in government. In medieval theory, there were usually three estates – the nobility, the clergy, and the commons – with the functions of, respectively, defending society from foreign aggression ...

Essequibo
Longest river in Guyana, South America, draining more than half the total area of the country; length 1,014 km/630 mi; it rises in the Guiana Highlands of southern Guyana and flows north past Bartica to meet the Atlantic at a 32 km/20 mi wide delta. Its course is interrupted by numerous rapids and falls, but its lower course is navi...

Estonian
The largest ethnic group in Estonia. There are 1 million speakers of the Estonian language, a member of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family. Most live in Estonia

esker
Narrow, steep-walled ridge, often meandering, found in formerly glaciated areas. It was originally formed beneath a glacier. It is made of sands and gravels, and represents the course of a river channel beneath the glacier. Eskers vary in height from 3 to 30 m/10 to 100 ft and can be up to 160 km/100 mi or so in length. Eskers are often...

escarpment
Large ridge created by the erosion of dipping sedimentary rocks. It has one steep side (scarp) and one gently sloping side (dip). Escarpments are common features of chalk landscapes, such as the Chiltern Hills and the North Downs in England. Certain features are associated with chalk escarpments, including dry valleys (formed on the dip slope), com...

Escorial, El
Monastery and palace standing over 900 m/2,953 ft above sea level on a southeastern slope of the Sierra de Guadarrama, 42 km/26 mi northwest of Madrid, Spain. El Escorial was built (1563–84) for Philip II. It was designed by Juan Bautista de Toledo (assistant to Michelangelo at St Peter&...

ESP
Abbreviation for extrasensory perception

Establishment, the
A perceived elite of the professional and governing classes (judges, civil servants, politicians, and so on) who collectively symbolize authority and the status quo

Estrecho de Magallanes
Spanish name for Strait of Magellan, the channel between the southern tip of the South American mainland and Tierra del Fuego

Etna, Mount
Volcano on the east coast of the Italian island of Sicily, 3,323 m/10,906 ft, the highest active volcano in Europe. About 90 eruptions have been recorded since 1800 BC, yet the lower slopes are densely populated because of the rich soil. This cultivated zone includes the coastal town of Catania. ...

Ethelred
(II) King of England from 978, following the murder of his half-brother, Edward the Martyr. He was son of King Edgar. Ethelred tried to buy off the Danish raiders by paying Danegeld. In 1002 he ordered the massacre of the Danish settlers, provoking an invasion by Sweyn I of Denmark. War wi...

ethics
Branch of philosophy concerned with the systematic study of human values. It involves the study of theories of conduct and goodness, and of the meanings of moral terms. In ancient India and China, sages like Buddha and Lao Zi made recommendations about how people should live, as Jesus and Muhammad did in later centuries. However, ethics as a system...

etching
Printmaking technique in which a metal plate (usually copper or zinc) is covered with a waxy overlayer (ground) and then drawn on with an etching needle. The exposed areas are then `etched`, or bitten into, by a corrosive agent (acid), so that they will hold ink for printing. The earliest dated etching is by Urs Graf (1513). Albrecht D...

ethene
Colourless, flammable gas, the first member of the alkene series of hydrocarbons. It is the most widely used synthetic organic chemical and is used to produce the plastics polythene (polyethylene), polychloroethene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It is obtained from natural gas or coal gas, or by the ...

ether
(chemistry) Any of a series of organic chemical compounds having an oxygen atom linking the carbon atoms of two hydrocarbon radical groups (general formula R-O-R'); also the common name for ethoxyethane C₂H₅OC₂...

ethanol
Alcohol found in beer, wine, cider, spirits, and other alcoholic drinks. When pure, it is a colourless liquid with a pleasant odour, miscible with water or ether; it burns in air with a pale blue flame. The vapour forms an explosive mixture with air and may be used in high-compression internal combustion engines. It is produced naturally by...

ethane
Colourless, odourless gas, the second member of the alkane series of hydrocarbons (paraffins)

ethanoic acid
One of the simplest carboxylic acids (fatty acids). In the pure state it is a colourless liquid with an unpleasant pungent odour; it solidifies to an icelike mass of crystals at 16.7°C/62.4°F, and hence is often called glacial ethanoic acid. In a dilute form, mixed with water, it is the acid found in vinegar. Vinegar contains 5...

ethanal
One of the chief members of the group of organic compounds known as aldehydes. It is a colourless flammable liquid boiling at 20.8°C/69.6°F. Ethanal is formed by the oxidation of ethanol or ethene and is used to make many other organic chemical compounds

ethology
Comparative study of animal behaviour in its natural setting. Ethology is concerned with the causal mechanisms (both the stimuli that elicit behaviour and the physiological mechanisms controlling it), as well as the development of behaviour, its function, and its evolutionary history. Ethology was pioneered during the 1930s by the Austrians Konrad ...

ethnicity
People's own sense of cultural identity; a social term that overlaps with such concepts as race, nation, class, and religion. Social scientists use the term ethnic group to refer to groups or societies who feel a common sense of identity, often based on a traditional shared culture, language, religion, and customs. It may or may not include...

etymology
Study of the origin and history of words within and across languages. It has two major aspects: the study of the phonetic and written forms of words, and of the semantics or meanings of those words. Standard dictionaries of a language such as English typically contain etymological information within square brackets at the end of each entry, ena...

Ethiopia
Click images to enlargeCountry in East Africa, bounded north by Eritrea, northeast by Djibouti, east and southeast by Somalia, south by Kenya, and west and northwest by Sudan. It was known as Abyssinia until the 1920s. Government Ethiopia is a federal, parliamentary republic. The 1994 constitution, which restored the coun...

etiolation
In botany, a form of growth seen in plants receiving insufficient light. It is characterized by long, weak stems, small leaves, and a pale yellowish colour (chlorosis) due to a lack of chlorophyll. The rapid increase in height enables a plant that is surrounded by others to quickly gain access to light, after which a return to normal growth usually...

ethanoate
Negative ion derived from ethanoic (acetic) acid; any salt containing this ion. In photography, acetate film is a non-flammable film made of cellulose ethanoate. In textiles, it is known as acetate, and is most commonly known in the form of a synthetic fibre which can be woven or knitted to produce a variety of different fabrics including s...

etc.
Abbreviation for et cetera (Latin `and the rest`), used to indicate that a list, formula or expression continues in the same way. Lazy writers tend to misuse `etc` to avoid thought or `boring` detail by giving one example only followed by the contraction

ethyne
Colourless inflammable gas produced by mixing calcium carbide and water. It is the simplest member of the alkyne series of hydrocarbons. It is used in the manufacture of the synthetic rubber neoprene, and in oxyacetylene welding and cutting. Ethyne was discovered by English chemist Edmund Davy in 1836 and was used in early gas lamps, where it was p...

ethyl alcohol
Common name for ethanol

ethylene
Common name for ethene

Etruscan art
Click images to enlargeThe art of the inhabitants of Etruria, central Italy, a civilization that flourished 8th–2nd centuries BC. The Etruscans produced sculpture, painting, pottery, metalwork, and jewellery. Etruscan terracotta coffins (sarcophagi), carved with reliefs and topped with portraits of the dead reclining...

ethnology
Study of contemporary peoples, concentrating on their geography and culture, as distinct from their social systems. Ethnologists make a comparative analysis of data from different cultures to understand how cultures work and why they change, with a view to deriving general principles about human society

ethnography
Study of living cultures, using anthropological techniques like participant observation (where the anthropologist lives in the society being studied) and a reliance on informants. Ethnography has provided much data of use to archaeologists as analogies

Ethelbert
King of Kent 560–616. He was defeated by the West Saxons in 568 but later became ruler of England south of the River Humber. Ethelbert received the Christian missionary Augustine in 597 and later converted to become the first Christian ruler of Anglo-Saxon England. He issued the first written code of laws known in England. He married a Fre...

Etruscan
Click images to enlargeMember of an ancient people inhabiting Etruria, Italy (modern-day Tuscany and part of Umbria) from the 8th to 2nd centuries BC. The Etruscan dynasty of the Tarquins ruled Rome 616–509 BC. At the height of their civilization, in the 6th century BC, the Etruscans achieved great wealth and pow...

ethnic cleansing
The forced expulsion or attempted extermination of one ethnic group by another to create a homogenous population, most notoriously by the Nazis against the Jews in World War II. More recent examples include the violence against Muslims by Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992–95, the mass killing of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi in 199...

Ethernet
In computing, the most popular protocol for local area networks. Ethernet was developed principally by the Xerox Corporation, but is now used on most computers. It originally allowed data transfer at rates up to 10 Mbps, but 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet – often called 100Base-T – is now in widespread use while the first product versions...

ethnocentrism
Viewing other peoples and cultures from the standard of one's own cultural assumptions, customs, and values. In anthropology, ethnocentrism is avoided in preference for a position of relativism

European Monetary System
Arrangement to coordinate monetary policy and exchange rates in the countries of the European Community. It was launched in March 1979, based on the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), but ceased to function with the advent of the euro as the single European currency

Europe
The second-smallest continent, occupying 8% of the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south by the Mediterranean Sea; its eastern border conventionally runs along the Ural Mountains and Ural River, swinging so...

eurhythmics
Practice of coordinated bodily movement as an aid to musical development. It was founded about 1900 by the Swiss musician Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, professor of harmony at the Geneva conservatoire. He devised a series of `gesture` songs, to be sung simultaneously with certain bodily actions

Eureka Stockade
Incident at Ballarat, Australia, when about 150 goldminers, or `diggers`, rebelled against the Victorian state police and military authorities. They took refuge behind a wooden stockade, which was taken in a few minutes by the military on 3 December 1854. Some 30 gold diggers were killed, and a few soldiers killed or wounded, but the majo...

Eurasian
A person of mixed European and Asian parentage; also, native to or an inhabitant of both Europe and Asia

euphonium
Tenor four-valved brass band instrument of the bugle type, often mistaken for a tuba. It is used chiefly in brass and military bands

Euphrates
River rising in east Turkey and flowing through Syria and Iraq, joining the River Tigris above Basra to form the River Shatt-al-Arab at the head of the Gulf; length 3,600 km/2,240 mi. The ancient cities of Babylon, Eridu, and Ur were situated along its course and depended largely for their prosperity on irrigation from its waters

eunuch
Castrated man. Originally eunuchs were bedchamber attendants in harems in the East, but as they were usually castrated to keep them from taking too great an interest in their charges, the term became applied more generally. In China, eunuchs were employed within the imperial harem from some 4,000 years ago and by medieval times wielded considerable...

Eumenides
In Greek mythology, an appeasing name for the Furies, used by 458 BC in Eumenides by the Greek dramatist Aeschylus. Originally they were worshipped at the foot of the Areopagus in Athens, in Colonus, and outside Attica; their cult was similar to that of Gaia, mother of the Earth. The Eumenides may have derived from pre-He...

Euclid
Greek mathematician who wrote the Stoicheia/Elements in 13 books, nine of which deal with plane and solid geometry and four with number theory. His great achievement lay in the systematic arrangement of previous mathematical discoveries and a methodology based on axioms, definitions, and theorems. Euclid's works, and the ...

Eucharist
Chief Christian sacrament, in which bread is eaten and wine drunk in memory of the death of Jesus. Other names for it are the Lord's Supper; Holy Communion; the Holy Liturgy (Eastern Orthodox); and the Mass (Roman Catholicism). Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine are trans...

europium
Soft, greyish, metallic element of the lanthanide series, atomic number 63, relative atomic mass 151.96. It is used in lasers and as the red phosphor in colour televisions; its compounds are used to make control rods for nuclear reactors. It was named in 1901 by French chemist Eugène Demarçay (1852–1904) after the continent of Eu...

Europa
(astronomy) In astronomy, fourth-largest moon of the planet Jupiter, diameter 3,140 km/1,950 mi, orbiting 671,000 km/417,000 mi from the planet every 3.55 days. It is a rocky body, probably with an iron core, covered by ic...

eusociality
Form of social life found in insects such as honey bees and termites, in which the colony is made up of special castes (for example, workers, drones, and reproductives) whose membership is biologically determined. The worker castes do not usually reproduce. Only one mammal, the naked mole rat, has a social organization of this type. A eusocial shri...

eugenics
Study of ways in which the physical and mental characteristics of the human race may be improved. The eugenic principle was abused by the Nazi Party in Germany during the 1930s and early 1940s to justify the attempted extermination of entire social and ethnic groups and the establishment of selective breeding programmes. Modern eugenics is concerne...

eutrophication
Excessive enrichment of rivers, lakes, and shallow sea areas, primarily by municipal sewage, by sewage itself, and by the nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers used in agriculture. These encourage the growth of algae and bacteria which use up the oxygen in the water, making it uninhabitable for fish and other animal life. In this way eutrophicat...

eukaryote
In biology, one of the three major groupings (domains) into which all life on Earth is divided. Eukaryotes are distinct from the other domains, the archaea and the bacteria (which in the obsolete systematics were combined under the name of prokaryotes) to a comparable extent and are believed to have evolved from ancestors that included genetic trai...

euphemism
Figure of speech that substitutes a direct or offensive statement with one that is suitably mild or evasive. Thus, `he passed away` is used in place of `he died`; `sleep with someone` substitutes for `have sex with someone`; and `liquidate the opposition` has a softer impact than `kill ...

European Union
Political and economic grouping, comprising 27 countries (in 2007) and a population of over 492 million. The six original members – Belgium, France, (West) Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands – were joined by the United Kingdom, Denmark, and the Republic of Ireland in 1973, Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, Austria, ...

Euler, Leonhard
Swiss mathematician. He developed the theory of differential equations and the calculus of variations, and worked in astronomy and optics. He also enlarged mathematical notation. Euler developed spherical trigonometry and demonstrated the significance of the coefficients of trigonometric expansions; Euler's number (e, as it is now called) h...

Euskal Herria
Basque name for the Basque Country

euthanasia
In medicine, `mercy killing` of someone with a severe and incurable condition or illness. Euthanasia is a highly controversial issue on medical and ethical grounds. A patient's right to refuse life-prolonging treatment is recognized in several countries. In November 2000, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthan...

Euston Road School
Group of English painters associated with the `School of Drawing and Painting` founded in 1937 in Euston Road, London, by William Coldstream (b. 1908), Victor Pasmore (1908–1998), Claude Rogers (b. 1907), and Graham Bell (1910–1943). Despite its brief existence, the school influenced many British painters with its emphasis on ca...

European Economic Community
Organization established, together with the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), under the terms of the 1957 Treaties of Rome. The treaties provided for the establishment by stages of a Common Market based on a customs union, the convergence of economic policies, and the promotion of growth in the nuclear industries for peaceful purposes. Th...

European Court of Justice
Court of the European Union (EU) responsible for interpreting Community law and ruling on breaches of such law. It sits in Luxembourg, with a judge from each of the 25 member states. Most of the court's work arises from questions on Community law asked by national courts. The European Commission can also complain to the court about a member cou...

eucalyptus
Any tree of a group belonging to the myrtle family, native to Australia, where they are commonly known as gumtrees. About 90% of Australian timber belongs to the eucalyptus genus, which contains about 500 species. The trees have dark hardwood timber which is used for heavy construction work such as railway and bridge building. They are mostly t...

European Parliament
Parliament of the European Union (EU), which meets in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels, Belgium. Members are elected for a five-year term. The number of seats in the parliament is related to the number of EU members – after the accession of ten new countries to the EU in 2004 the number of seats rose from 626 to 732. The president of the E...

Eutelsat
Acronym for European Telecommunications Satellite Organization

Euripides
Athenian tragic dramatist. He is ranked with Aeschylus and Sophocles as one of the three great tragedians. His plays deal with the emotions and reactions of ordinary people and social issues rather than with deities and the grandiose themes of his contemporaries. He wrote about 90 plays, of which 18 and some long fragments survive. These include &l...

Eurodollar
In finance, US currency deposited outside the USA and held by individuals and institutions, not necessarily in Europe. Eurodollars originated in the 1960s when East European countries deposited their US dollars in West European banks. Banks holding Eurodollar deposits may lend in dollars, usually to finance trade, and often redeposit with other for...

Eurocommunism
Policy followed by communist parties in Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s to seek power within the framework of national political structures rather than by revolutionary means. By 1990 it had lost significance with the collapse of communism across Central and Eastern Europe

European
The natives and inhabitants of the continent of Europe and their descendants. Europe is multicultural and, although most of its languages belong to the Indo-European family, there are also speakers of Uralic (such as Hungarian) and Altaic (such as Turkish) languages, as well as Basque

European Court of Human Rights
Court established under the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), whereby cases of alleged human rights violations were referred to the Court by the then European Commission of Human Rights, or by a member state of the Council of Europe following a report by the Commission. Under organizational and supervisory reforms, a revised Court came in...

European Monetary Cooperation Fund
Institution funded by the members of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) to stabilize the exchange rates of European Union member countries if they fluctuated by more than the range permitted by the ERM. If the exchange rate of a currency fell too far, EMCF would buy quantities of the currency on the foreign-exchange market, and if it rose too fa...

European Economic Area
Zone of economic cooperation between member states of the European Union (EU)) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which entered into force in 1994. In essence, the EEA extends the benefits of the single European market to the three non-EU EFTA states of Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. Switzerland, though a member of EFTA, rejec...

Eustachian tube
Small air-filled canal connecting the middle ear with the back of the throat. It is found in all land vertebrates and equalizes the pressure on both sides of the eardrum

European Community
Collective term for the European Economic Community (EEC), the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). The EC is now a separate legal entity within the European Union (EU), which was established under the Maastricht Treaty (1992) and includes intergovernmental cooperation on security and judicia...

EU
Abbreviation for European Union

Euskadi ta Askatasuna
Illegal organization of militant Basque separatists, founded in 1959, and committed to the independence of the Basque Country from Spain. Its main strategy has been based on violence, with more than 800 deaths attributed to the group over the period 1968–2000. It had links with the former political party Herri Batasuna (HB), and its French cou...

euro
Single currency of the European Union (EU), which was officially launched on 1 January 1999 in 11 of the then 15 EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain). Greece adopted the euro on 1 January 2001. Euro notes and coins were introduced from 1 January 2...

Eudora
In computing, popular program for handling and receiving Internet e-mail. Published by the Californian company Qualcomm, Eudora uses POP3, and by the mid-1990s was one of the most commonly used e-mail programs on the Net

European Convention on Human Rights
Human-rights convention signed in 1950 by all member countries of the Council of Europe. The Convention was the first attempt to give legal content to human rights in an international agreement, and to combine this with the establishment of authorities for supervision and enforcement. It was signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and came into force...

Eurasia
The combined land areas of Europe and Asia

European Commission
Executive body that proposes legislation on which the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament decide, and implements the decisions made in the European Union (EU). The European Commission is the biggest of the European institutions, and must work in close partnership with the governments of the member states and with the other Eur...