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


Fahd
King of Saudi Arabia 1982–2005. He encouraged the investment of the country's enormous oil wealth in infrastructure and new activities – such as petrochemical industries – in order to diversify the economy, and also built up the country's military forces. When Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait in August 1990, King Fahd joined ...

Faeroe Islands
Alternative spelling of the Faroe Islands, in the North Atlantic

Fabius Maximus
Roman general, known as Cunctator or `Delayer` because of his cautious tactics against Hannibal 217–214 BC, when he continually harassed Hannibal's armies but never risked a set battle

Fawkes, Guy
English conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up King James I and the members of both Houses of Parliament. Fawkes, a Roman Catholic convert, was arrested in the cellar underneath the House of Lords on 4 November 1605, tortured, and executed. The event is still commemorated in Britain and elsewhe...

fauvism
Movement in modern French painting characterized by the use of very bold, vivid, pure colours. The name is a reference to the fact that the works seemed crude and untamed to many people at the time. The Fauves believed that colour and a strong linear pattern were more important than realistic representation; André Derain's Lon...

Faust
Legendary magician who sold his soul to the devil. The historical Georg (or Johann) Faust appears to have been a wandering scholar and conjurer in Germany at the start of the 16th century. Christopher Marlowe, J W Goethe, Heinrich Heine, and Thomas Mann all used the legend, and it inspired musical works by Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Charles Gouno...

Fauré, Gabriel
(Urbain) French composer. He wrote songs, chamber music, and a choral Requiem (1887–89). He was a pupil of Saint-Saëns, became professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896, and was its director 1905–20

Faulkner, William
(Cuthbert) US novelist. His works employ difficult narrative styles in their epic mapping of a quasi-imaginary region of the American South. His third novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929), deals with the decline of a Southern family, told in four voices, beginning with a...

Fatimid
Dynasty of Muslim Shiite caliphs founded in 909 by Obaidallah, who claimed to be a descendant of Fatima (the prophet Muhammad's daughter) and her husband Ali, in North Africa. In 969 the Fatimids conquered Egypt, and the dynasty continued until overthrown by Saladin in 1171

Father of the Church
Any of certain teachers and writers of the early Christian church, eminent for their learning and orthodoxy, experience, and sanctity of life. They lived between the end of the 1st and the end of the 7th century, a period divided by the Council of Nicaea in 325 into the ante-Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers. The ante-Nicene Fathers includ...

Fars
Province of southern Iran, comprising fertile valleys among mountain ranges running northwest–southeast; area 133,300 sq km/51,500 sq mi; population (1991) 3,543,800. The capital is Shiraz. The main products are dates, rice, olives, cereals, cotton, tobacco, fruit, and vines. Livestock is also raised. There are imposing ruins of Cy...

Farquhar, George
Irish dramatist. His most notable plays are The Recruiting Officer (1706) and The Beaux Stratagem (1707). Although typical of the Restoration tradition of comedy of manners, the good-humoured realism of his drama transcends the artificiality and cynicism of the genre

Farouk
King of Egypt. He succeeded the throne on the death of his father Fuad I. His early popularity was later overshadowed by his somewhat unsuccessful private life, and more importantly by the humiliating defeat of the Egyptian army in 1948. In 1952 a group called the `Free Officers`, led by Muhammad Neguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, forced him ...

Farnese
Italian family, originating in upper Lazio, who held the duchy of Parma 1545–1731. Among the family's most notable members were Alessandro Farnese (1468–1549), who became Pope Paul III in 1534 and granted his duchy to his illegitimate son Pier Luigi (1503–1547); and Elizabeth (1692–1766), niece of the last Farnese duke, ...

Fargo, William George
US pioneer of long-distance transport. In 1844 he established with Henry Wells (1805–1878) and Daniel Dunning the first express company to carry freight west of Buffalo. Its success led to his appointment in 1850 as secretary of the newly established American Express Company, of which he was president 1868–81. He also established Well...

Faraday, Michael
Click images to enlargeEnglish chemist and physicist. In 1821 he began experimenting with electromagnetism, and discovered electromagnetic induction (the production of a continuous supply of electricity using magnetic fields). He made the first dynamo, the first electric motor, the first transformer, and developed the fir...

Fantin-Latour,
(Ignace) French painter. He excelled in delicate still lifes, flower paintings, and portraits. Homage à Delacroix (1864; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) is a portrait group featuring several poets, authors, and painters, including Charles Baudelaire and James McNeill...

Falla, Manuel de
Spanish composer. The folk music (flamenco) of southern Spain is a major part of his compositions. His opera La vida breve/Brief Life (1905; first performed 1913) was followed by the ballets El amor brujo/Love the Magician (first performed 1915) and El sombrero de tres picos/The Three&#...

falconry
The use of specially trained falcons and hawks to capture birds or small mammals. Practised since ancient times in the Middle East, falconry was introduced from continental Europe to Britain in Saxon times. In recent times there has been a revival of interest in the West

Falange
Also known as Falange Española. Former Spanish Fascist Party, founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera (1903–1936), son of military ruler Miguel Primo de Rivera. It was closely modelled in programme and organization on the Italian fascists and on the Nazis. In 1937, when Franco assumed leadership, it was declared the only lega...

Faisal Ibn Abd al-Aziz
King of Saudi Arabia from 1964. Ruling without a prime minister, he instituted a successful programme of economic modernization, using Saudi Arabia's vast annual oil revenues, which grew from $334 million in 1960 to $22.5 billion in 1974, after the quadrupling of world oil prices in 1973–74. A generous welfare system was establishe...

fainting
Sudden, temporary loss of consciousness caused by reduced blood supply to the brain. It may be due to emotional shock or physical factors, such as pooling of blood in the legs from standing still for long periods

factory act
In Britain, an act of Parliament which governs conditions of work, hours of labour, safety, and sanitary provision in factories and workshops. In the 19th century legislation was progressively introduced to regulate conditions of work. The first legislation was the Health and Morals of Apprentices Ac...

Fabricius, Hieronymus
Italian anatomist and embryologist. From 1574 he made detailed studies of the veins and blood flow and discovered the existence of one-way valves that direct the blood towards the heart. He also studied the development of chick embryos. Fabricius also investigated the mechanics of respiration, the action of muscles, the anatomy of the larynx (a...

fable
Genre of story, in either verse or prose, in which animals or inanimate objects are given the mentality and speech of human beings to point out a moral. Fables are common in folklore and children's literature, and range from the short fables of the ancient Greek writer Aesop to the modern novel Animal Farm (1945) by English w...

Fabian Society
UK socialist organization promoting research, discussion, and publication, founded in London in 1884. Its name is derived from the Roman commander Fabius Maximus, and refers to the evolutionary methods by which it hoped to attain socialism by a succession of gradual reforms. Early members included the playwright George Bernard Shaw and Beatrice and...

Fabergé, Peter Carl
Russian goldsmith and jeweller. Among his masterpieces was a series of jewelled Easter eggs, the first of which was commissioned by Alexander III for the tsarina in 1884. His workshops in St Petersburg and Moscow were celebrated for the exquisite delicacy of their products, especially the use of gold in various shades. Fabergé died in exile in...

false-colour imagery
Graphic technique that displays images in false (not true-to-life) colours so as to enhance certain features. It is widely used in displaying electronic images taken by spacecraft; for example, Earth-survey satellites such as Landsat. Any colours can be selected by a computer processing the received data

fast reactor
Nuclear reactor that makes use of fast neutrons to bring about fission. Unlike other reactors used by the nuclear-power industry, it has little or no moderator, to slow down neutrons. The reactor core is surrounded by a `blanket` of uranium carbide. During operation, some of this uranium is converted into plutonium, which can be extra...

fax
Transmission of images over a telecommunications link, usually the telephone network. When placed on a fax machine, the original image is scanned by a transmitting device and converted into coded signals, which travel via the telephone lines to the receiving fax machine, where an image is created tha...

farce
Genre broad popular comedy drama involving stereotyped characters in which ordinary people become unwittingly trapped in complex and often improbable situations. The term `bedroom farce` relates to a common farcical situation revolving around extramarital relationships. Originating in the physical knockabout comedy of Greek satyr plays an...

Fatah, al-
Palestinian nationalist organization, founded in 1957 to bring about an independent state of Palestine. Also called Tahir al-Hatani al Falastani (Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine), it is the main component of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Al-Fatah was formed by Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian students in ...

Fahrenheit scale
Temperature scale invented in 1714 by Gabriel Fahrenheit that was commonly used in English-speaking countries until the 1970s, after which the Celsius scale was generally adopted, in line with the rest of the world. In the Fahrenheit scale, intervals are measured in degrees (°F); °F = (°C × 9/5) + 32. Fahrenh...

farad
SI unit of electrical capacitance (how much electric charge a capacitor can store for a given voltage). One farad is a capacitance of one coulomb per volt. For practical purposes the microfarad (one millionth of a farad, symbol μF) is more commonly used

falsetto
In music, the tone-production of male singers resulting in notes above their normal pitch in the female (soprano or alto) register, and sounding like an unbroken voice. The notes are `falsely`, or artificially, produced by making the vocal cords vibrate at a length shorter than usual. Falsetto is the voice normally cultivated by male ...

Faraday's laws
Three laws of electromagnetic induction, and two laws of electrolysis, all proposed originally by English physicist Michael Faraday. The laws of induction are: (1) a changing magnetic field induces an electromagnetic force in a conductor; (2) the electromagnetic force is proportional to the r...

factory farming
Intensive rearing of poultry or other animals for food. These are usually fed on high-protein foodstuffs in confined quarters. Chickens for eggs and meat, and calves for veal are commonly factory farmed. Some countries restrict the use of antibiotics and growth hormones as aids to factory farming because they can persist in the flesh of the ani...

FA
Abbreviation for Football Association

FAO
Abbreviation for Food and Agriculture Organization

fallow
Land ploughed and tilled, but left unsown for a season to allow it to recuperate. In Europe, it is associated with the medieval three-field system. It is used in some modern crop rotations and in countries that do not have access to fertilizers to maintain soil fertility

Faisalabad
City in Punjab province, Pakistan, 120 km/75 mi west of Lahore; population (1998) 2,008,900, (2007 calc) 2,658,200. It is an important road and railway junction, and the commercial centre for a large area where major crops of cotton, wheat, vegetables, and fruit are produced. Industries in the city include textiles and textile machinery, fl...

fata morgana
Mirage, often seen in the Strait of Messina and traditionally attributed to the sorcery of Morgan le Fay. She was believed to reside in Calabria, a region of southern Italy

Farrow, Mia
(Villiers) US film and television actor. She starred in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968), and in 13 films by Woody Allen, including Zelig (1983), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1...

Fall of Man, the
Myth that explains the existence of evil as the result of some primeval wrongdoing by humanity. It occurs independently in many cultures. The biblical version, recorded in the Old Testament (Genesis 3), provided the inspiration for the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton. The Fall of Man (as narrated in the Bible) occur...

fantasia
In music, a free-form instrumental composition for keyboard or chamber ensemble, originating in the late Renaissance, and much favoured by the English composers John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, and William Byrd. It implies the free manipulation of musical figures without regard to models of form. Later composers include Georg Telemann, Johann Seb...

Fathy, Hassan
Egyptian architect. In his work at the village of New Gournia in Upper Egypt 1945–48, he demonstrated the value of indigenous building technology and natural materials in solving contemporary housing problems. This, together with his book The Architecture of the Poor (1973), influenced the growth of community architecture en...

famine
Severe shortage of food affecting a large number of people. A report made by the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), published in October 1999, showed that although the number of people in the developing world without sufficient food declined by 40 million during the first half of the 1990s, there were still, in 1999, 790 m...

fasting
The practice of voluntarily going without food. It can be undertaken as a religious observance, a sign of mourning, a political protest (hunger strike), or for slimming purposes. Fasting or abstinence from certain types of food or beverages occurs in most religious traditions. It is seen as an act of self-discipline that increases spiritual awa...

fairy tale
Genre of magical story, usually originating in folklore. Typically in European fairy tales, a poor, brave, and resourceful hero or heroine goes through testing adventures to eventual good fortune. The Germanic tales collected by the Grimm brothers have been retold in many variants. Charles Perrault's retellings include `Cinderella` an...

Fagatogo
Seat of government of American Samoa, situated on Pago Pago Harbour, next to the dependency capital Pago Pago, on Tutuila Island; population (2000 est) 2,100

facies
Body of rock strata possessing unifying characteristics usually indicative of the environment in which the rocks were formed. The term is also used to describe the environment of formation itself or unifying features of the rocks that comprise the facies. Features that define a facies can include collections of fossils, sequences of rock layers, or...

family
(society) Group of people related to each other by blood or by marriage. Families are usually described as either extended (a large group of relations living together or in close contact with each other) or nuclear (a family consisting of two parents and their children). In some societies an e...

Faisal I
King of Iraq from 1921. During his reign, which included the achievement of full independence in 1932, he sought to foster pan-Arabism and astutely maintained a balance between Iraqi nationalists and British interests. He was succeded by his only son, Ghazi I, who was killed in a car accident in 1939. Born in Ta'if, Hejaz, the third son of ...

Faraday's constant
Constant representing the electric charge carried on one mole of electrons. It is found by multiplying Avogadro's constant by the charge carried on a single electron, and is equal to 9.648 × 104 coulombs per mole. One faraday is this constant used as a unit. The constant is used to calculate the electric charge neede...

faraday
Unit of electrical charge equal to the charge on one mole of electrons. Its value is 9.648 × 104 coulombs

factoring
Lending money to a company on the security of money owed to that company; this is often done on the basis of collecting those debts. The lender is known as the factor. Factoring may also describe acting as a commission agent for the sale of goods

Fang
West African people living in the rainforests of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and northwestern Gabon, numbering about 2.5 million. The Fang language belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family. In the colonial period the Fang were involved in trading, and used coins made of copper and iron. They now live by farming, as well as by hunt...

Farsi
Language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family, and the official language of Iran (formerly Persia). It is also spoken in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Tajikistan. Farsi is the language of the province of Fars (Persia proper). It is written in Arabic script, from right to left, and has a large mixture of Arabic religious...

FA Cup
Abbreviation for Football Association Challenge Cup, the major annual soccer knockout competition open to all member clubs of the English Football Association. First held in 1871–72, it is the oldest football knockout competition in the world. Manchester United won the 2004 FA Cup against Millwall, a record 11th FA Cup victory

fast breeder
Alternative name for fast reactor, a type of nuclear reactor

Fang Lizhi
Chinese political dissident and astrophysicist. He advocated human rights and political pluralism and encouraged his students to campaign for democracy. After the Red Army massacred the student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in June 1989, Fang and his wife took refuge in the US embassy in Beijing until June 1990, when they received off...

fatwa
In Islamic law, an authoritative legal opinion on a point of doctrine. In 1989, a fatwa calling for the death of British novelist Salman Rushdie was made by the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, following publication of Rushdie's controversial and allegedly blasphemous book The Satanic Verses (1988)

Falklands War
War between Argentina and Britain over disputed sovereignty of the Falkland Islands initiated when Argentina invaded and occupied the islands on 2 April 1982. On the following day, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for Argentina to withdraw. A British task force was immediately dispatched and, after a fierce conflict i...

farming system
In agriculture, a way of organizing resources depending on inputs such as nature of the land, labour, government subsidies, climate, knowledge and abilities of the farmer, and other factors; processes such as ploughing and harvesting; and outputs such as milk, eggs, and straw. Different types of farming system include intensive agriculture ...

fanfare
A short call or flourish for trumpets, or other instruments imitating the effect of trumpets. It is often used for the arrival of an important person, or to introduce a ceremony or important event. Traditionally fanfares were written for valveless (natural) instruments, and usually include notes of the major triad and diatonic scale. An example of ...

faith
In religion, trust and belief in God's provision; the `assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen` (St Paul). It can also mean a particular religion or set of beliefs. The idea of faithfulness, in the sense of commitment or steadfastness, can be applied to both human beings and God. Faith includes moral or li...

fax modem
Modem capable of transmitting and receiving data in the form of a fax. A normal fax machine sends data in binary form down a telephone line, in a similar way to a modem. A modem can therefore act as a fax machine, given suitable software. This means a document does not need to be printed before faxing and an incoming fax can be viewed before printi...

Farrakhan, Louis
African-American religious and political figure. Leader of the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan preached strict adherence to Muslim values and black separatism. His outspoken views against Jews, homosexuals, and whites caused outrage. In 1995 he organized the `Million Man March` in Washington, DC; an estimated 400,000 people attended

FAQ
In computing, file of answers to commonly asked questions on any topic. They were first used on Usenet, where regular posters to newsgroups wrote FAQs to avoid answering repeatedly the same questions from new users. By 1996 FAQ was a common term for any information file, online or offline

Falkirk
(authority) Unitary authority in central Scotland, created from the former district of the same name in 1996 from part of the former Central region. Area 297 sq km/115 sq mi Towns Falkirk (administrative headquarters), Grangemouth...

Fanthorpe, U(rsula) A
English poet. Her first collection, Side Effects (1978), was highly praised as a strong and clear new voice in English poetry. Standing To (1982) was chosen as the Financial Times book of the year for its humour and emotional appeal. Her vision is often an amusing and restrained response to p...

Father Christmas
Popular personification of the spirit of Christmas, derived from the Christian legend of St Nicholas and elements of Scandinavian mythology. He is depicted as a fat, jolly old man with a long white beard, dressed in boots and a red hat and suit trimmed with white fur. He lives with his toy-making elves at the North Pole, and on Christmas Eve he...

fair trade
A way of conducting international trade so that all parties involved receive fair payments. Fair trade schemes are designed to counteract unjust international trade systems, which often exploit workers in developing countries. By ensuring that producers are paid a fair price for their skills and products, they are able to develop their businesses. ...

farming
Click images to enlargeBusiness of cultivating land. Different approaches to farming can be classified in several ways: according to crop or animal combinations, for example arable farming or pastoral farming; according to the dominant product group, for example dairy farming or market gardening; or according ...

factor
(algebra) In algebra, certain kinds of polynomials (expressions consisting of several or many terms) can be factorized using their common factors. Brackets are put into an expression, and the common factor is sought. For example, the factors of 2a2 ...

facsimile
Exact copy or reproduction. The term is used particularly when referring to copies of artwork or printed material. The most common method of facsimile is the electronic transmission of images or text (collectively known as faxes), traditionally along telephone lines using a fax machine. Printing is essentially a form of facsimile because an image o...

fabric
Textile that has been constructed by weaving, knitting, or felting. Fabrics are constructed from a wide range of different yarns and fibres ranging from natural fibre such as cotton, silk, linen, and wool, to synthetic fibre such as nylon, polyester, acetate, acrylic, lycra, and rayon. Each type of fibre can be made into a range of different fabric...

fabric paint
Paint designed specially for the decoration and colouring of fabric. Some fabric paints can be painted directly on fabric and some are transfer paints, which are painted on paper and then ironed on to fabric. Fabric paint can be applied using a range of different techniques and tools, including paintbrushes, sponges, and sprays. Designs can be pain...

FBI
Abbreviation for Federal Bureau of Investigation, agency of the US Department of Justice

FCO
Abbreviation for Foreign and Commonwealth Office

feldspar
Any of a group of silicate minerals. Feldspars are the most abundant mineral type in the Earth's crust. They are the chief constituents of igneous rock and are present in most metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. All feldspars contain silicon, aluminium, and oxygen, linked together to form a framew...

fescue
Any grass of a widely distributed group. Many are used in temperate regions for lawns and pasture. Many upland species are viviparous, producing young plantlets instead of flowers. (Genus Festuca, family Gramineae.)

ferro-alloy
Alloy of iron with a high proportion of elements such as manganese, silicon, chromium, and molybdenum. Ferro-alloys are used in the manufacture of alloy steels. Each alloy is generally named after the added metal – for example, ferrochromium

fennel
Any of several varieties of a perennial plant with feathery green leaves, belonging to the carrot family. Fennels have an aniseed (liquorice) flavour, and the leaves and seeds are used in seasoning. The thickened leafstalks of sweet fennel (F. vulgare dulce) are eaten as a vegetabl...

fermium
Synthesized, radioactive, metallic element of the actinide series, atomic number 100, relative atomic mass 257.10. Ten isotopes are known, the longest-lived of which, Fm-257, has a half-life of 80 days. Fermium has been produced only in minute quantities in particle accelerators. It was discovered in 1952 in the debris of the first ther...

ferret
Domesticated variety of the Old World polecat. About 35 cm/1.2 ft long, it usually has yellowish-white fur and pink eyes, but may be the dark brown colour of a wild polecat. Ferrets may breed with wild polecats. They have been used since ancient times to hunt rabbits and rats

fennec
Small nocturnal desert fox Fennecus zerda found in North Africa and Arabia. It has a head and body only 40 cm/1.3 ft long, and its enormous ears act as radiators to lose excess heat. It eats insects and small animals

fertility
Organism's ability to reproduce, as distinct from the rate at which it reproduces (fecundity). Individuals that can reproduce are fertile. Individuals that cannot reproduce are infertile. Individuals become infertile (unable to reproduce) when they cannot generate gametes (eggs or sperm) or when their gametes cannot yield a viable embryo after ...

fertilization
Click images to enlargeIn sexual reproduction, the union of two gametes (sex cells, often called egg or ovum, and sperm) to produce a zygote, which combines the genetic material contributed by each parent. In self-fertilization the male and female gametes come from the same plant; in cross-fertilization they c...

fermentation
Breakdown of sugars by bacteria and yeasts using a method of respiration without oxygen (anaerobic). The enzymes in yeast break down glucose to give two products: ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide. Fermentation processes have long been utilized in baking bread, making beer and wine, and produc...

fecundity
Potential rate at which an organism reproduces, as distinct from its ability to reproduce (fertility). In vertebrates, it is usually measured as the number of offspring produced by a female each year. Specifically, it refers to the quantity of gametes (usually eggs) produced per female over a given time

fern
Click images to enlargeAny of a group of plants related to horsetails and clubmosses. Ferns are spore-bearing, not flowering, plants and most are perennial, spreading by slow-growing roots. The leaves, known as fronds, vary widely in size and shape. Some taller types, such as tree ferns, grow in the tropics. There...

feather star
Any of an unattached, free-swimming group of sea lilies, order Comatulida. The arms are branched into numerous projections (hence `feather` star), and grow from a small cup-shaped body. Below the body are appendages that can hold on to a surface, but the feather star is not permanently attached

fetus
Click images to enlargeStage in mammalian embryo development after fusion of gametes produces a zygote cell. The human embryo is usually termed a fetus after the eighth week of development, when the limbs and external features of the head are recognizable. The stage ends at birth

feudalism
The main form of social organization in medieval Europe; the term was first used in 1839. A system based primarily on land, feudalism involved a hierarchy of authority, rights, and power that extended from the monarchy downwards. At the head of the system the crown owned all the land. Beneath the...

feather
Rigid outgrowth of the outer layer of the skin of birds, made of the protein keratin. Feathers provide insulation and facilitate flight. There are several types, including long quill feathers on the wings and tail, fluffy down feathers for retaining body heat, and contour feathers covering the body. The colouring of feathers is often important in c...

Ferrara
(town) Industrial town and archbishopric in Emilia-Romagna region, northern Italy, on a branch of the Po delta, 52 km/32 mi west of the Adriatic Sea; population (2001) 131,000. It is the principal distribution and market centre of a major fruit-growing area. Industries include ...

Fermat, Pierre de
French mathematician who, with Blaise Pascal, founded the theory of probability and the modern theory of numbers. Fermat also made contributions to analytical geometry. In 1657 Fermat published a series of problems as challenges to other mathematicians, in the form of theorems to be proved. Fermat's last theorem states that equations of the for...

Fermanagh
(county) Historic county of Northern Ireland; area 1,680 sq km/648 sq mi. It occupies the southwestern corner of Northern Ireland is characterized by hills in the west and Lough Erne, which has many wooded islands and is used for fishing and sailing. The principal towns are Enniskillen...

Fenian movement
Irish-American republican secret society, founded in the USA in 1858 to campaign for Irish-American support for armed rebellion following the death of the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell and the break-up of Young Ireland. Its name, a reference to the ancient Irish legendary warrior band of the Fianna, became synonymous wit...