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


Francis II
(of Austria) Holy Roman Emperor 1792–1806. He became Francis I, Emperor of Austria in 1804, and abandoned the title of Holy Roman Emperor in 1806. During his reign Austria was five times involved in war with France, 1792–97, 1798–1801, 1805, 1809, and 1813–14. He succeeded ...

France, Anatole
French writer. His works are marked by wit, urbanity, and style. His earliest novel was Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard/The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard (1881); later books include the satiric L'Ile des pingouins/Penguin Island (1908). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. His other...

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré
French painter. He was the leading exponent of the rococo style (along with his teacher François Boucher). His light-hearted subjects, often erotic, include Les heureux Hazards de l'escarpolette/The Swing (c. 1766; Wallace Collection, London). Madame de Pompadour was one of his patrons. Ran...

Francis I
(of France) King of France from 1515. He succeeded his cousin Louis XII, and from 1519 European politics turned on the rivalry between him and the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, which led to war in 1521–29, 1536–38, and 1542&...

Francis II
(of France) King of France from 1559 when he succeeded his father, Henri II. He married Mary Queen of Scots in 1558. He was completely under the influence of his mother, Catherine de' Medici

Franklin, Benjamin
Click images to enlargeUS scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, writer, printer, and publisher. He proved that lightning is a form of electricity, distinguished between positive and negative electricity, and invented the lightning conductor. He was the first US ambassador to France 1776–85, and negotiated peace w...

Fry, Elizabeth
English Quaker philanthropist. From 1813 she began to visit and teach the women in Newgate Prison in London who lived with their children in terrible conditions. She formed an association for the improvement of conditions for female prisoners in 1817, and worked with her brother, Joseph Gurney (1788–1847), on an 1819 report on prison reform. S...

Fry, Roger
(Eliot) English artist and art critic. An admirer of the French painter Paul Cézanne, he coined the term and championed post-Impressionism in Britain, expounding the theory of `significant form` and colour as the criteria for true art. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group...

Frasch process
Process used to extract underground deposits of sulphur. Superheated steam is piped into the sulphur deposit and melts it. Compressed air is then pumped down to force the molten sulphur to the surface. The process was developed in the USA in 1891 by German-born Herman Frasch (1851–1914)

free fall
The state in which a body is falling freely under the influence of gravity, as in freefall parachuting (skydiving). In a vacuum, a freely falling body accelerates at a rate of 9.806 m sec-2/32.174 ft sec-2; the value varies slightly at different latitudes and altitudes. A body falling th...

Friedrich, Caspar David
German Romantic landscape painter. He was active mainly in Dresden. He imbued his subjects – mountain scenes and moonlit seas – with poetic melancholy and was later admired by Symbolist painters. The Cross in the Mountains (1808; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden) and Moonrise over the Sea (1822; N...

fringe theatre
Productions that are anti-establishment or experimental, and performed in converted or informal venues (warehouses, pubs), in contrast to subsidized or mainstream commercial theatre. In the UK, the term originated in the 1960s from the activities held on the `fringe` of the Edinburgh Festival. The US equivalent is off-off-Broa...

free verse
Poetry without metrical form. At the beginning of the 20th century, many poets believed that the 19th century had accomplished most of what could be done with regular metre, and rejected it, in much the same spirit as John Milton in the 17th century had rejected rhyme, preferring irregular metres that made it possible to express thought clearly and...

France
Click images to enlargeCountry in western Europe, bounded to the northeast by Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, east by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, south by the Mediterranean Sea, southwest by Spain and Andorra, and west by the Atlantic Ocean. Government Under the 1958 Fifth Republic constitution, amended in 1962 and...

freezing point, depression of
Lowering of a solution's freezing point below that of the pure solvent; it depends on the number of molecules of solute per unit volume of the solution. For a single solvent, such as pure water, all solute substances in the same molar concentration produce the same lowering of freezing point. The depression d produced by ...

fractional distillation
Click images to enlargeProcess used to split complex mixtures (such as petroleum) into their components, usually by repeated heating, boiling, and condensation; see distillation. In the laboratory it is carried out using a fractionating column. Fractional distillation is used to separate mixtures of miscible liquids, ...

Frederick
(II) King of Prussia from 1740, when he succeeded his father Frederick William I. In that year he started the War of the Austrian Succession by his attack on Austria. In the peace of 1745 he secured Silesia. The struggle was renewed i...

Frederick III
(of Prussia) King of Prussia and emperor of Germany in 1888. The son of Wilhelm I, he married the eldest daughter (Victoria) of Queen Victoria of the UK in 1858 and, as a liberal, frequently opposed Chancellor Bismarck. He died three months after his accession

Frederick William I
King of Prussia from 1713, who developed Prussia's military might and commerce

Frederick William II
King of Prussia from 1786. He was a nephew of Frederick II but had little of his relative's military skill. He was unsuccessful in waging war on the French 1792–95 and lost all Prussia west of the Rhine

Frederick William III
King of Prussia from 1797. He was defeated by Napoleon in 1806, but contributed to his final overthrow 1813–15 and profited by being allotted territory at the Congress of Vienna

Frederick William IV
King of Prussia from 1840. He upheld the principle of the divine right of kings, but was forced to grant a constitution in 1850 after the Prussian revolution of 1848. He suffered two strokes in 1857 and became mentally debilitated. His brother William (later emperor) took over his duties

FRS
Abbreviation for Fellow of the Royal Society

free enterprise
Economic system where private capital is used in business with profits going to private companies and individuals. The government plays a relatively small role in providing goods and services, but it is responsible for upholding laws which protect rights to own property, and for maintaining a stable currency. In practice most economies, even capita...

fringe benefit
Perk given to employees in addition to their wage or salary. Fringe benefits include company cars, health insurance, pensions, subsidized lunches, favourable loan facilities, or other kinds of rewards. Fringe benefits are usually taxable on the value of the benefit. However, companies may often try to keep ahead of the revenue authorities by devisi...

Frederick
(I) Holy Roman Emperor from 1152. Originally duke of Swabia, he was elected emperor in 1152, and was engaged in a struggle with Pope Alexander III 1159–77, which ended in his submission; the Lombard cities, headed by Milan, took advantage of this to establish their independence of imp...

Francis Joseph
Emperor of Austria-Hungary, also known as Franz Joseph

Francis Ferdinand
Archduke of Austria, also known as Franz Ferdinand

Friendly Islands
Another name for Tonga, a country in the Pacific

Frederick V
Elector palatine of the Rhine 1610–23 and king of Bohemia 1619–20 (for one winter, hence the name), having been chosen by the Protestant Bohemians as ruler after the deposition of Catholic emperor Ferdinand II. His selection was the cause of the Thirty Years' War. Frederick was defeated at the Battle of the White Mountain, near Prague...

Frankenthaler, Helen
US abstract expressionist painter. She invented the colour-staining technique whereby the unprimed, absorbent canvas is stained or soaked with thinned-out paint, creating deep, soft veils of translucent colour, as in Mountains and Sea (1952)

freeze-drying
Method of preserving food (see food technology) or other perishable materials. The product to be dried is frozen and then put in a vacuum chamber that forces out the ice as water vapour, a process known as sublimation. The most widely-known freeze-dried product is instant coffee. Many of the substances that give products such as coffee thei...

free radical
In chemistry, an atom or molecule that has an unpaired electron and is therefore highly reactive. Most free radicals are very short-lived. They are by-products of normal cell chemistry and rapidly oxidize other molecules they encounter. Free radicals are thought to do considerable damage. They are neutralized by protective enzymes. Free rad...

Fresnel, Augustin Jean
French physicist who refined the theory of polarized light. Fresnel realized in 1821 that light waves do not vibrate like sound waves longitudinally, in the direction of their motion, but transversely, at right angles to the direction of the propagated wave. Fresnel first had to confirm the wave theory of light. He demonstrated mathematically that ...

Frescobaldi, Girolamo
Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. He was organist at St Peter's Cathedral, Rome, in 1608–28. His compositions included various forms of both instrumental and vocal music, and his fame rests on numerous keyboard toccatas, fugues, ricercari, and capriccios in which he advanced keyboard technique and used clever and daring modula...

Frost, Robert Lee
Click images to enlargeUS poet. His accessible, colloquial (written in local, informal dialect) blank verse, often flavoured with New England speech patterns, is written with an individual voice and penetrating vision. His poems include `Mending Wall` (`Something there is that does not love a wall`), &...

franchise
(politics) In politics, the eligibility, right, or privilege to vote at public elections, especially for the members of a legislative body, or parliament. In the UK adult citizens are eligible to vote from the age of 18, with the exclusion of peers, the insane, and criminals. The voting age fo...

frequency modulation
Variation of the frequency of a carrier wave in accordance with the signal to be transmitted. In FM the frequency of the carrier wave varies in accordance with the signal being transmitted. Its advantage over AM (amplitude modulation) is its better signal-to-noise ratio. It was invented by th...

fraction
(chemistry) In chemistry, a portion of the liquid resulting from a process, collected over a specific time, or from a specific outlet. In fractional distillation (fractionation), the components of a liquid boiling at or near a given temperature will be condensed in a cooler and collected in on...

fractionating column
Device in which many separate distillations can occur so that a liquid mixture can be separated into its components. The technique is known as fractional distillation, or fractionation. Various designs exist but the primary aim is to allow maximum contact between the hot rising vapours and the coolin...

freedom of the press
Absence of censorship in the press or other media; see press, freedom of

freeze–thaw
Click images to enlargeForm of physical weathering, common in mountains and glacial environments, caused by the expansion of water as it freezes. Water in a crack freezes and expands in volume by 9% as it turns to ice. This expansion exerts great pressure on the rock, causing the crack to enlarge. After many cycles of...

frequency
(statistics) In statistics, the number of times an event occurs. For example, in a survey carried out to find out a group of children's favourite colour of the rainbow, the colour red is chosen 26 times. This gives the colour red a frequency of 26. A table of the raw data collected, includ...

French Equatorial Africa
Federation of French territories in West Africa. Founded in 1910, it consisted of Gabon, Middle Congo, Chad, and Ubangi-Shari (now the Central African Republic), and was ruled from Brazzaville. The federation supported the Free French in World War II and was given representation in the French Fourth Republic 1944–58. In 1958, the states vo...

franchise
(business) In business, the right given by one company to another to manufacture, distribute, or provide its branded products. It is usual for the franchisor to impose minimum quality conditions on its franchisees to ensure that customers receive a fair deal and that the brand image is maintai...

Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez de
Paraguayan dictator 1814–40, known as El Supremo. A lawyer, he emerged as a strongman after independence was achieved in 1811, and was designated dictator by congress in 1814. Hostile to the Argentine regime, he sealed off the country and followed an isolationist policy

freezing point
For any given liquid, the temperature at which the liquid changes state from a liquid to a solid. The temperature remains at this point until all the liquid has solidified. It is invariable under similar conditions of pressure – for example, the freezing point of water under standard atmospheric pressure is 0°C/32°F. For a given ...

Franklin, Aretha
(Louise) US soul singer. Her voice has a four-octave range and she uses it with a passionate conviction and authority developed from her gospel background. Her hit singles include `Respect` (1967), `Think` (1968), and `Chain of Fools` (1968), and her albums in...

Friel, Brian
Northern Irish dramatist and short-story writer. Friel's work often addresses social and historical pressures that contribute to the Irish political situation. He distinguishes himself as a playwright by his experiments with dramatic forms and by his precise, often poetically charged language. His work dramatizes the interactions and tensio...

Franco, Itamar Augusto Cautiero
Brazilian politician, vice-president 1990–92, president 1992–94, governor of Minas Gerais state 1999–2003. As president he was initially criticized by friends and opponents for a lack of clear policies. His greatest achievement was the introduction in 1994, under his finance minister Fernando Henrique Cardoso, of the Plano Real p...

Francis I
(of Austria) Emperor of Austria from 1804, also known as Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor

friendship
Mutual attachment between persons, as distinguished from sexual or family affection. The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle distinguished three levels of friendship: the useful (friendship as a common enterprise), the pleasant (friendship as entertaining companionship), and the good or virtuous (friendship as mutual esteem)

Frigga
In Norse mythology, queen of the gods; wife of Odin. Her sons were Balder, the beloved god; Bragi, god of poetry and wisdom; and Thor, god of thunder. She was one of the Aesir, the principal warrior gods who lived in Asgard. Friday was named after her. Although initially separate deities, Frigga was assimilated in mythology with Freya, ...

frottage
Relief image obtained by placing a sheet of paper over a broken, textured, or ornamented surface, and rubbing it with a pencil, crayon, or charcoal. Brass rubbing uses the same technique. The term was invented by the German Dadaist and surrealist Max Ernst, who used the process to eliminate the conscious creative role of the artist. Ernst and other...

frame
Single photograph in a sequence representing motion, or movement, on film; in a network, a unit of data; in word processing or desktop publishing, a marked-out area on a page that can contain text or graphics. What appears to be motion on a cinema or TV screen is actually a rapid sequence of single shots. Because of limitations in the h...

freedom of information
Political principle that members of the public should have access to information held by the state. Restrictions are often placed upon the types of information. Even democratic governments will restrict disclosure for various reasons, such as national security, commercial interests, and privacy

Frederick II
Holy Roman Emperor from 1212, called `the Wonder of the World`. He was the son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. He led a crusade in 1228–29 that recovered Jerusalem by treaty without fighting. Frederick quarrelled with the pope, who excommunicated him three times, and a feud began that lasted with intervals until the end of his reign....

frequency diagram
Means of displaying raw data in a graphical form that is easier to interpret. Commonly used frequency diagrams are bar charts, histograms, pie charts, and scatter diagrams

frieze
In architecture and the decorative arts, an ornamental, horizontal band on a building, furniture, pottery, or other decorated work. In architecture, it is usually placed along the top of a wall, near or at ceiling height. In classical architecture, it is part of the entablature (architrave, frieze, and cornice). The frieze forms the division, usual...

free jazz
Style of jazz characterized by its lack of harmonic structures or melodic patterns, driven instead by improvisation, that emerged in the USA during the late 1950s. Saxophonist Ornette Coleman coined the term with his album Free Jazz (1960). Other pioneers of the movement include saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist Cecil Taylor

FTSE 100 Index
A share index of the 100 most highly capitalized companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. The index began in 1984 with a base level of 1,000. FTSE is an abbreviation of Financial Times Stock Exchange. The index is maintained by the FTSE Group, an independent company owned by the Financial Times newspaper and the London Stoc...

ft
Symbol for foot, a measure of distance

FTP
In computing, rules for transferring files between computers on the Internet. The use of FTP avoids incompatibility between individual computers. To use FTP over the Internet, a user must have an Internet connection, an FTP client or World Wide Web browser, and an account on the system holding the files. Many commercial and non-commercial syste...

fusion
(physics) In physics, the fusing of the nuclei of light elements, such as hydrogen, into those of a heavier element, such as helium. The resultant loss in their combined mass is converted into energy. Stars and thermonuclear weapons are powered by nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion takes place in ...

fuel cell
Cell converting chemical energy directly to electrical energy. It works on the same principle as a battery but is continually fed with fuel, usually hydrogen and oxygen. Fuel cells are silent and reliable (they have no moving parts) but expensive to produce. They are an example of a renewable energy source. Hydrogen is passed over an electrode (usu...

fuel
Any source of heat or energy, embracing the entire range of materials that burn in air (combustibles). A fuel is a substance that gives out energy when it burns. A nuclear fuel is any material that produces energy by nuclear fission in a nuclear reactor. Fossil fuels are formed from the fossilized remains of plants and animals. Crude oil (unrefined...

fuller's earth
Soft, greenish-grey rock resembling clay, but without clay's plasticity. It is formed largely of clay minerals, rich in montmorillonite, but a great deal of silica is also present. Its absorbent properties make it suitable for removing oil and grease, and it was formerly used for cleaning fleeces (`fulling`). It is still used in t...

funk
Dance music of black US origin, relying on heavy percussion in polyrhythmic patterns. Leading exponents include James Brown and George Clinton. Initially used for a hard-bop jazz style and as a loose term of approbation in rhythm and blues, funk became a defined category in the 1970s as disco music geared to a black audience, less slick and mec...

Fuentes, Carlos
Mexican writer, lawyer, and diplomat. His first novel La región más transparente/Where the Air Is Clear (1958) encompasses the history of the country from the Aztecs to the present day. More than other Mexican novelists, he presents the frustrated social philosophy of the failed Mexican revolution. He received inter...

Fuzhou
Industrial port and capital of Fujian province, on the Min River in southeast China; population (2000) 2,032,900. It is a centre for shipbuilding and steel production; rice, sugar, tea, and fruit pass through the port. Traditionally renowned for its handicrafts, particularly carving and lacquerware, Fuzhou's industries now include elect...

Futurism
Avant-garde art movement founded in 1909 that celebrated the dynamism of the modern world. It was chiefly an Italian movement and was mainly expressed in painting, but it also embraced other arts, including literature and music, and it had extensive influence outside Italy, particularly in Russia. In Italy the movement virtually died out during...

Fuseli,
(John) Swiss-born British Romantic artist. He painted macabre and dreamlike images, such as The Nightmare (1781; Institute of Arts, Detroit), which come close in feelings of horror and the unnatural to the English gothic novels of his day. His subjects include scenes...

Furtwängler,
(Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin) German conductor. He was leader of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 1924–54. His interpretations of Wagner, Bruckner, and Beethoven were valued expressions of monumental national grandeur, but he also gave first performances of Bartök, Schoenberg's...

furlong
Unit of measurement, originating in Anglo-Saxon England, equivalent to 220 yd (201.168 m). A furlong consists of 40 rods, poles, or perches; 8 furlongs equal one statute mile. Its literal meaning is `furrow-long`, and refers to the length of a furrow in the common field characteristic of medieval farming

Furies
In Greek mythology, spirits of vengeance, principally of murder within the family but also of other breaches of natural order such as filial disobedience, inhospitality, and oath-breaking; they may have been considered the personifications of curses. The Furies were also associated with fertility, and were appeasingly called the Eumenides &...

fundamentalism
In religion, an emphasis on basic principles or articles of faith. Christian fundamentalism emerged in the USA just after World War I (as a reaction to theological modernism and the historical criticism of the Bible) and insisted on belief in the literal truth of everything in the Bible. Islamic fundamentalism insists on strict observance of Muslim...

Functionalism
In architecture and design, the principle of excluding everything that serves no practical purpose. Central to 20th-century modernism, the Functionalist ethic developed as a reaction against the 19th-century practice of imitating and combining earlier styles. Its finest achievements are in the realms of industrial architecture and office fu...

Funchal
Capital and chief port of the Portuguese island of Madeira, on the south coast; population (1991) 109,900. Tourism and Madeira wine are the main industries. Founded 1421 by the Portuguese navigator João Gonçalves Zarco, it was under Spanish rule 1580–1640 and under Britain 1801 and 1807–14

Fuller,
(Richard) US architect, engineer, and social philosopher. He embarked on an unorthodox career in an attempt to maximize energy resources through improved technology. In 1947 he invented the lightweight geodesic dome, a hemispherical s...

Fukien
Alternative transcription of Fujian, a province of southeast China

Fulbright,
(James) US Democratic politician. A US senator 1945–75, he was responsible for the Fulbright Act 1946, which provided grants for thousands of Americans to study abroad and for overseas students to study in the USA. Fulbright chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 1959–74, and...

Fuji, Mount
Japanese volcano and highest peak, on Honshu Island, near Tokyo; height 3,778 m/12,400 ft. Dormant since 1707, it has a Shinto shrine and a weather station on its summit. Fuji has long been revered for its picturesque cone-shaped crater peak, and figures prominently in Japanese art, liter...

Fujian
Maritime province of southeast China, lying opposite Taiwan, bounded to the southwest by Guangdong, to the west and northwest by Jiangxi, to the northeast by Zhejiang, and to the southeast by the Taiwan Strait on the China Sea; area 123,100 sq km/47,500 sq mi; population (2000 est) 34,710,000. The main cities are Fuzhou (capital), Xiame...

fungus
Click images to enlargeAny of a unique group of organisms that includes moulds, yeasts, rusts, smuts, mildews, mushrooms, and toadstools. There are around 70,000 species of fungi known to science, although there may be as many as 1.5 million actually in existence. They are not considered to be plants for three main reason...

fuchsia
Any shrub or herbaceous plant of a group belonging to the evening-primrose family. Species are native to South and Central America and New Zealand, and bear red, purple, or pink bell-shaped flowers that hang downwards. (Genus Fuchsia, family Onagraceae.) The genus was named...

fusel oil
Liquid with a characteristic unpleasant smell, obtained as a by-product of the distillation of the product of any alcoholic fermentation, and used in paints, varnishes, essential oils, and plastics. It is a mixture of fatty acids, alcohols, and esters

fulminate
Any salt of fulminic acid (ONCH), the chief ones being silver and mercury. The fulminates detonate (are exploded by a blow); see detonator. They are isomeric but distinct from the salts of cyanic acid (HOCN), the cyanates

fulmar
Any of several species of petrels of the family Procellariidae, which are similar in size and colour to herring gulls. The northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis is found in the North Atlantic and visits land only to nest, laying a single egg

function
(computing) In computing, a small part of a program that supplies a specific value – for example, the square root of a specified number, or the current date. Most programming languages incorporate a number of built-in functions; some allow programmers to write their own. A functio...

function
(mathematics) In mathematics, a function f is a non-empty set of ordered pairs (x, f(x)) of which no two can have the same first element. Hence, if f(x) = x
fur
The hair of certain animals. Fur is an excellent insulating material and so has been used as clothing. This is, however, vociferously criticized by many groups on humane grounds, as the methods of breeding or trapping animals are often cruel. Mink, chinchilla, and sable are among the most valuable, the wild furs being finer than the farmed. Fur suc...

fuel injection
Injecting fuel directly into the cylinders of an internal combustion engine, instead of by way of a carburettor. It is the standard method used in diesel engines, and is now becoming standard for petrol engines. In the diesel engine, oil is injected into the hot compressed air at the top of the second piston stroke and explodes to drive the piston ...

fungicide
Any chemical pesticide used to prevent fungus diseases in plants and animals. Inorganic and organic compounds containing sulphur are widely used

furnace
Structure in which fuel such as coal, coke, gas, or oil is burned to produce heat for various purposes. Furnaces are used in conjunction with boilers for heating, to produce hot water, or steam for driving turbines – in ships for propulsion and in power stations for generating electricity. The l...

fuse
In electricity, a wire or strip of metal designed to melt (thus breaking the circuit) when excessive current passes through. It is a safety device that halts surges of current that would otherwise damage equipment and cause fires. In explosives, a fuse is a cord impregnated with chemicals so that it burns slowly at a predetermined rate. It is used ...

further education college
Centre of education for students over school-leaving age that provides courses for skills towards an occupation or trade, and general education at a level below that of a degree course. Further education colleges were removed from local authority control in 1993

fugue
(music) In music, a contrapuntal form where two or more (usually four) parts or voices (principal melodies for voices or instruments) are woven together. The voices enter one after the other in strict imitation of each other. They may be transposed to a higher or lower key, or combined in augm...

fumitory
Any of a group of plants native to Europe and Asia. The common fumitory (F. officinalis) grows to 50 cm/20 in and produces pink flowers tipped with blackish red; it has been used in medicine for stomach and liver complaints. (Genus Fumeria, family Fumariaceae.)

full stop
Punctuation mark (.). It has two functions: to mark the end of a sentence and to indicate that a word has been abbreviated (see abbreviation). It is also used in mathematics to indicate decimals and is then called a point

futures trading
Buying and selling futures