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


Goth
East Germanic people who settled near the Black Sea around AD 2nd century. There are two branches, the eastern Ostrogoths and the western Visigoths. The Ostrogoths were conquered by the Huns in 372. They regained their independence in 454 and under Theodoric the Great conquered Italy 488–93; they disappeared as a nation after the Byzantine...

gothic novel
Literary genre established by Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) and marked by mystery, violence, and horror; other pre-20th century practitioners were the English writers Ann Radcliffe, Matthew `Monk` Lewis, Mary Shelley, the Irish writer Bram Stoker, and the US writer Edgar Allen Poe. The late 2...

Gorky, Maxim
Russian writer. Born in Nizhniy-Novgorod (named Gorky 1932–90 in his honour), he was exiled 1906–13 for his revolutionary principles. His works, which include the play The Lower Depths (1902) and the memoir My Childhood (1913–14), combine reali...

Gorky
Name 1932–91 of Nizhniy-Novgorod, a city in central Russia. The city was named after the writer Maxim Gorky in 1932, but reverted to its original name after the collapse of the Soviet Union

Gorgon
In Greek mythology according to the Greek poet Hesiod, any of three monsters; the sisters Stheno and Euryale, daughters of the sea god Phorcys and Ceto, and the mortal Medusa. They had wings, claws, enormous teeth, and snakes for hair; direct sight of them turned living creatures to stone. Medusa was slain by Perseus who watched her reflect...

Gordimer, Nadine
South African novelist and short-story writer. Internationally acclaimed for her fiction and regarded by many as South Africa's conscience, Gordimer was for many years one of the most prominent opponents of apartheid and censorship. Her novel The Conservationist (1974) won the Booker Prize, and she was awarded the Nobel P...

Gordian knot
In Greek mythology, the knot tied by King Gordius of Phrygia that – so an oracle revealed – could be unravelled only by the future conqueror of Asia. According to tradition, Alexander the Great, unable to untie it, cut it with his sword in 334 BC

Gondwanaland
Southern landmass formed 200 million years ago by the splitting of the single world continent Pangaea. (The northern landmass was Laurasia.) It later fragmented into the continents of South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica, which then drifted slowly to their present positions. The baobab tree found in both Africa and Australia is a relic ...

Goliath
In the Old Testament, a champion of the Philistines, who was said to have been slain by a stone from a sling by the young David in single combat in front of their opposing armies

gonadotrophin
Any hormone that supports and stimulates the function of the gonads (sex glands); some gonadotrophins are used as fertility drugs

Golding, William
(Gerald) English novelist. His work is often principally concerned with the fundamental corruption and evil inherent in human nature. His first book, Lord of the Flies (1954; filmed in 1962), concerns the degeneration into savagery of a group of English schoolboys maroon...

Golden Horde
The invading Mongol-Tatar army that first terrorized Europe from 1237 under the leadership of Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. Tamerlane broke their power in 1395, and Ivan III ended Russia's payment of tribute to them in 1480

Golden Fleece
(mythology) In Greek legend, the fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallus, which hung on an oak tree at Colchis and was guarded by a dragon. It was stolen by Jason and the Argonauts

gold standard
System under which a country's currency is exchangeable for a fixed weight of gold on demand at the central bank. It was almost universally applied 1870–1914, but by 1937 no single country was on the full gold standard. Britain abandoned the gold standard in 1931; the USA abandoned it in 1971. Holdings of gold are still retained becaus...

Gold Coast
(Africa) Former name for Ghana, but historically the west coast of Africa from Cape Three Points to the Volta River, where alluvial gold is washed down. Portuguese and French navigators visited this coast in the 14th century, and a British trading settlement developed into the colony of the Go...

Golan Heights
Plateau on the Syrian border with Israel, bitterly contested in the Arab–Israeli Wars due to its strategic importance. Having been used by Syria to bombard Israeli settlements in the valley below, the Golan Heights were captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Nearly all of the Syrian population of 148,000 were expelled. Israel withdrew...

goitre
Enlargement of the thyroid gland seen as a swelling on the neck. It is most pronounced in simple goitre, which is caused by iodine deficiency. More common is toxic goitre or hyperthyroidism, caused by overactivity of the thyroid gland. According to a World Health Organization survey of 1997 up to 60% of people in some Indian states were sufferi...

Goes, Hugo van der
Flemish painter. Chiefly active in Ghent. His works were highly praised by Italian artists, particularly his Portinari Altarpiece (c. 1475; Uffizi, Florence), typically rich both in symbolism and naturalistic detail. He began with small panels warmly coloured and detailed in the van Eyck fashion, but from a...

Goering, Hermann Wilhelm
Nazi leader, German field marshal from 1938. He was part of Hitler's inner circle, and with Hitler's rise to power was appointed commissioner for aviation from 1933 and built up the Luftwaffe (airforce). He built a vast economic empire in occupied Europe, but later lost favour and was expelle...

Godunov, Boris Fyodorovich
Tsar of Russia from 1598, elected after the death of Fyodor I, son of Ivan the Terrible. He was assassinated by a pretender to the throne who professed to be Dmitri, a brother of Fyodor and the rightful heir. The legend that has grown up around this forms the basis of Pushkin's play Boris Godunov (1831) and Mussorgsky's o...

Godthåb
Capital and largest town of Greenland, on the Godthåbsfjord; population (2003 est) 14,100. Godthåb is the seat of the national council and of the supreme court. It is a storage centre for oil and gas, and the chief industry is fish processing. The surrounding region has fine pastures and supports reindeer herds. The town was founded i...

Godiva, or Godgifu, Lady
Wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia (died 1057). Legend has it that her husband promised to reduce the heavy taxes on the people of Coventry if she rode naked through the streets at noon. The grateful citizens remained indoors as she did so, but `Peeping Tom` bored a hole in his shutters and was struck blind

god
The concept of a supreme being, a unique creative entity, basic to several monotheistic religions (for example Judaism, Christianity, Islam); in many polytheistic cultures (for example Norse, Roman, Greek), the term refers to a supernatural being who personifies the force behind an aspect of life (for example Neptune, Roman god of the sea). Sin...

Gobi
(desert) Vast desert region of Central Asia in the independent state of Mongolia, and Inner Mongolia, China. It covers an area of 1,280,000 sq km/490,000 sq mi (800 km/500 mi north–south and 1,600 km/1,000 mi east–west), and lies on a high plateau 900–1,500 m/2,9...

Goa
State on the west coast of India, lying 400 km/250 mi south of Mumbai (formerly Bombay); area 3,702 sq km/1,429 sq mi; population (2001 est) 1,344,000. The capital is Panaji. Tourism is very important to the economy; local industries include clothing, footwear, pesticides, mangane...

Gowon, Yakubu
Nigerian politician, head of state 1966–75. He became army chief of staff following a coup in January 1966, and five months later seized power in a further coup. Unsuccessful in his efforts to prevent the secession of the eastern region of Biafra, Nigeria was plunged into civil war 1967–70. After leading the federal army to victory, he re...

Gounod, Charles François
French composer and organist. His operas, notably Faust (1859) and Roméo et Juliette (1867), and church music, including Messe solennelle/Solemn Mass (1849), combine graceful melody and elegant harmonization. His Méditation sur le prélude de Bach/Meditation on ...

Gothic architecture
Click images to enlargeStyle of architecture that flourished in Europe from the mid-12th century to the end of the 15th century. It is characterized by the vertical lines of tall pillars and spires, greater height in interior spaces, the pointed arch, rib vaulting, and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture originat...

Gospel
Click images to enlargeIn the New Testament generally, the message of Christian salvation; in particular the four written accounts of the life of Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Although the first three give approximately the same account or synopsis (giving rise to the name `Synoptic Gospels...

Goodyear, Charles
US inventor who developed rubber coating in 1837 and vulcanized rubber in 1839, a method of curing raw rubber to make it strong and elastic

Gordon, Charles George
British general sent to Khartoum in the Sudan in 1884 to rescue English garrisons that were under attack by the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmed; he was himself besieged for ten months by the Mahdi's army. A relief expedition arrived on 28 January 1885 to find that Khartoum had been captured and Gordon killed two days before. Gordon served in the Crim...

Good Friday
In the Christian church, the Friday of Holy Week, before Easter, which is observed in memory of the crucifixion (the death of Jesus on the cross). It is called `Good` Friday because of the goodness Jesus showed in giving life as a sacrifice for others

gonorrhoea
Common sexually transmitted disease arising from infection with the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which causes inflammation of the genito-urinary tract. After an incubation period of two to ten days, infected men experience pain while urinating and a discharge from the penis...

Goncourt, de
French writers. The brothers collaborated in producing a compendium, L'Art du XVIIIème siècle/18th-Century Art 1859–75, historical studies, and a Journal published 1887–96 that depicts French literary life of their day. Edmond de Goncourt founded the Académie Goncourt, opene...

Goncharov, Ivan Alexandrovitch
Russian novelist. His first novel, A Common Story (1847), was followed in 1858 by his humorous masterpiece Oblomov, which satirized the indolent Russian landed gentry

Goldwyn, Samuel
US film producer. He founded the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation in 1917, which merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1924, although he was not part of the deal. He remained an independent producer for many years, making classics such as Wuthering Heights (1939), The Little Foxes (1941), The Be...

Goldsmith, Oliver
Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist. His works include the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), an outwardly artless and gentle story which is also a social and political satire, and in which rural honesty, kindness, and patience triumph over urban values; it became ...

Gogol, Nicolai Vasilyevich
Russian writer. His first success was a collection of stories, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1831–32), followed by Mirgorod (1835). Later works include Arabesques (1835), the comedy play The Inspector General (1836), and the picaresque novel Dead Souls
Gogh, Vincent
(Willem) Dutch post-Impressionist painter. He began painting in the 1880s, his early works often being sombre depictions of peasant life, such as The Potato Eaters (1885; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam). Influenced by the Impressionists and by Japanese prints, he develop...

Good Hope, Cape of
South African headland forming a peninsula between Table Bay and False Bay, Cape Town. The first European to sail around it was Bartolomeu Diaz in 1488. Formerly named Cape of Storms, it was given its present name by King John II of Portugal

Goebbels,
(Paul) German Nazi leader. As minister of propaganda from 1933, he brought all cultural and educational activities under Nazi control and built up sympathetic movements abroad to carry on the `war of nerves` against Hitler's intended victims. On the capture of Berlin by the Allie...

gospel music
Vocal music developed in the 1920s in the African-American Baptist churches of the US South from spirituals. It has an enthusiastic and emotional style and is often accompanied by rhythmical hand-clapping and foot-stamping. Outstanding among the early gospel singers was Mahalia Jackson, but from the 1930s to the mid-1950s male harmo...

gold
Heavy, precious, yellow, metallic element, atomic number 79, relative atomic mass 197.0. Its symbol comes from the Latin aurum meaning `gold`. It occurs in nature frequently as a free metal (see native metal) and is highly resistant to acids, tarnishing, and corrosion. Pure gold is the most malleable of all metals and i...

gout
Hereditary form of arthritis, marked by an excess of uric acid crystals in the tissues, causing pain and inflammation in one or more joints (usually of the feet or hands). Acute attacks are treated with anti-inflammatories. The disease, ten times more common in men, poses a long-term threat to the blood vessels and the kidneys, so ongoing t...

governor
In engineering, any device that controls the speed of a machine or engine, usually by regulating the intake of fuel or steam. Scottish inventor James Watt invented the steam-engine governor in 1788. It works by means of heavy balls, which rotate on the end of linkages and move in or out because of centrifugal force according to the speed of rot...

Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich
Russian politician, leader and president of the USSR 1985–91. He attempted to revive the faltering Soviet economy through economic reforms (perestroika) and liberalize society and politics through glasnost (openness) and competition in elections, and to halt the arms race abroad through arms reduction agre...

González Márquez, Felipe
Spanish socialist politician, leader of the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), and prime minister 1982–96. His party was re-elected in 1989 and 1993, but his popularity suffered as a result of economic upheaval and revelations of corruption within his administration. During 1995 he was himself briefly under investigation for alleged invo...

golden section
Click images to enlargeMathematical relationship between three points, A, B, C, in a straight line, in which the ratio AC:BC equals the ratio BC:AB (about 8:13 or 1:1.618). The area of a rectangle produced by the whole line and one of the segments is equal to the square drawn on the other segment. A golden...

Godard, Jean-Luc
French film director. A politically motivated, neo-modernist film-maker, he was one of the leaders of New Wave cinema. He made his name with the highly influential A bout de souffle/Breathless (1959), in which his subversive approach to conventional narrative, in this case US gangster films, was evident. Godard was a ...

golf
Outdoor game in which a small rubber-cored ball is hit with a wooden- or iron-faced club into a series of holes using the least number of shots. On the first shot for each hole, the ball is hit from a tee, which elevates the ball slightly off the ground; subsequent strokes are played off the ground. Most courses have 18 holes and ar...

Gothic Revival
Click images to enlargeThe resurgence of interest in Gothic architecture, as displayed in the late 18th and 19th centuries, notably in Britain and the USA. Gothic Revival buildings include Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin's Houses of Parliament (1836–65) and Gilbert Scott's St Pancras Station Hotel (1868–...

Gothic art
Style that succeeded Romanesque as the most popular force in European art and prevailed in most countries, particularly in northern Europe, from the middle of the 12th century to the 16th century, when it gave way to Renaissance influence. The term `Gothic` was first used with reference to architecture, and it is only in Gothic architectu...

Gond
Member of a heterogenous people of central India, about half of whom speak unwritten languages belonging to the Dravidian family. The rest speak Indo-European languages such as Hindi. There are over 4 million Gonds, most of whom live in Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra, and northern Andra Pradesh, although some live in Orissa. Traditionally,...

Gossaert, Jan
Flemish painter, known as Mabuse

gonad
The part of an animal's body that produces the sperm or egg cells (ova) required for sexual reproduction. The sperm-producing gonad is called a testis, and the egg-producing gonad is called an ovary

Golgi, Camillo
Italian cell biologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1906 with Santiago Ramón y Cajal for their discovery of the fine structure of the nervous system. Golgi's use of silver salts in staining cells proved so effective in showing up the components and fine processes of nerve cells that even the synapses – t...

Gould, Stephen Jay
US palaeontologist and writer. In 1972 he proposed the theory of punctuated equilibrium, suggesting that the evolution of species did not occur at a steady rate but could suddenly accelerate, with rapid change occurring over a few hundred thousand years. His books include Ever Since Darwin (1977), The Panda's Thumb&l...

Gorky, Arshile
Armenian-born US painter. He painted in several modernist styles before developing a semi-abstract surreal style, using organic shapes and vigorous brushwork. His works, such as The Liver Is the Cock's Comb (1944; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo), are noted for their sense of fantasy. Among Gorky's majo...

Gooch, Graham Alan
English cricketer. An attacking right-handed opening batsman, he is England's leading run-scorer in Test cricket. He captained England 34 times between 1988 and 1993. Career highlights Test cricket (1975–95) appearances: 118; runs: 8,900; average: 42.58; not out: 6; 100s: 20; best: 333 (v...

Golgi apparatus
Stack of flattened membranous sacs found in the cells of eukaryotes. Many molecules travel through the Golgi apparatus on their way to other organelles or to the endoplasmic reticulum. Some are modified or assembled inside the sacs. The Golgi apparatus is named after the Italian biologist Camillo Gol...

Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA field centre at Greenbelt, Maryland, responsible for the development and operation of uncrewed scientific satellites, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). Goddard is also the home of the National Space Science Data Center, a repos...

gorge
Click images to enlargeNarrow steep-sided valley or canyon that may or may not have a river at the bottom. A gorge may be formed as a waterfall retreats upstream, eroding away the rock at the base of a river valley; or it may be caused by rejuvenation, when a river begins to cut downwards into its channel for some...

Gore, Al(bert) Arnold Jr
US Democratic politician and environmentalist, vice-president 1993–2001. A member of the House of Representatives 1977–85 and senator for Tennessee 1985–93, he was on the conservative wing of the party, but held liberal views on such matters as women's rights, environmental issues, and abortion. As vice-president to presi...

good
(economics) In economics, a term often used to denote any product, including services. Equally, a good is often distinguished from a service, as in `goods and services`. The opposite of a normal good, a product for which demand increases as a person's income increases, is an infe...

government expenditure
Another name for public spending

González, Julio
Spanish sculptor and painter. He established the use of wrought and welded iron as an expressive sculptural medium. Influenced by the cubism of his close friend Pablo Picasso, and also by Russian constructivism and surrealism, his early sculptures are open, linear designs using rods and bands of iron, as in Woman with a Mirror ab...

gouache
Painting medium in which watercolour is mixed with opaque white pigment. Applied in the same way as watercolour, gouache gives a chalky finish similar to that of tempera painting. It has long been popular in continental Europe, where Dürer and Boucher were both masters of the technique. Poster paints are usually a form of gouache

Gombrich, Ernst
(Hans Joseph) Austrian-born British art historian. One of his abiding concerns was the problems of content and symbolism in painting. His studies are deeply analytical and make connections with other fields, such as the psychology of perception. Among his works are The Story of Ar...

Gopher
Menu-based server on the Internet that indexes resources and retrieves them according to user choice via any one of several built-in methods such as FTP or Telnet. Gopher servers can also be accessed via the World Wide Web and searched via special servers called Veronica. Gopher has now been eclipsed by the Web

Gordon setter
Breed of dog. See setter

Good Friday Agreement
Multiparty settlement proposed on 10 April 1998 in the Northern Ireland peace process

golden rule
Code of Christian behaviour, based on the teachings of St Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 7:12) in which Jesus instructed his followers to treat other people as they would want to be treated themselves

God
(Christianity) In Christianity, the supreme creator and ruler of the universe. The Christian religion, like Judaism and Islam, maintains that there is only one God (monotheism), who is active in and concerned about the world. These religions are also patriarchal (male-dominated), which has...

Google
Internet search engine that ranks Web pages according to the number of links they have from other pages. It also uses sophisticated text-matching techniques to determine the importance and relevance of a site to a search. As well as searching over 4 billion Web pages for text or images, Google can also search for stories posted to news sites as...

GP
In medicine, abbreviation for general practitioner

Great Rift Valley
Volcanic valley formed 10–20 million years ago owing to rifting (major subsidence through faulting) of part of the Earth's crust, and running about 8,000 km/5,000 mi from the Jordan Valley through the Red Sea to central Mozambique in southeast Africa. For most of its length the Rift Vall...

groundnut
Another name for peanut

grass
Any of a very large family of plants, many of which are economically important because they provide grazing for animals and food for humans in the form of cereals. There are about 9,000 species distributed worldwide except in the Arctic regions. Most are perennial, with long, narrow leaves and jointed, hollow stems; flowers with both male and f...

Great Red Spot
Prominent oval feature, 14,000 km/8,500 mi wide and some 30,000 km/20,000 mi long, in the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter, south of its equator. It was first observed in 1664. Space probes show it to be an anticlockwise vortex of cold clouds, coloured possibly by phosphorus

Great Bear
Popular name for the constellation Ursa Major

grouse
Plump fowl-like game bird belonging to a subfamily of the pheasant family, which also includes the ptarmigan, capercaillie, and prairie chicken. Grouse are native to North America and northern Europe. They spend most of their time on the ground. During the mating season the males undertake elabor...

grouper
Any of several species of large sea perch (spiny-finned fish), found in warm waters. Some species grow to 2 m/6.5 ft long, and can weigh 300 kg/660 lbs. (Family Serranidae.) The spotted giant grouper (Promicrops itaiara) is 2–2.5 m/6–8 ft long, may weigh o...

grosbeak
Any of various thick-billed finches. The pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) breeds in Arctic forests. Its plumage is similar to that of the pine crossbill. (Family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes.)

greyhound
Ancient breed of dog, with a long narrow head, slight build, and long legs. It stands up to 75 cm/30 in tall. It is renowned for its swiftness, and can exceed 60 kph/40 mph. Greyhounds were bred to hunt by sight, their main quarry being hares. Hunting hares with greyhounds is the basis of the ancient sport of coursing. Track-based greyh...

greenfly
Plant-sucking insect, a type of aphid

greenshank
Greyish shorebird of the sandpiper group. It has long olive-green legs and a long, slightly upturned bill, with white underparts and rump and dark grey wings. It breeds in northern Europe and regularly migrates through the Aleutian Islands, southwest of Alaska. (Species Tringa nebularia, family Scolopacidae, order Charadriifo...

greenfinch
Olive-green songbird common in Europe and North Africa. It has bright-yellow markings on the outer tail feathers and wings; males are much brighter in colour than females. (Species Carduelis chloris, family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes.)

Great Dane
Breed of large, short-haired dog, often fawn or brindle in colour, standing up to 76 cm/30 in tall, and weighing up to 70 kg/154 lb. It has a large head and muzzle, and small, erect ears. It was formerly used in Europe for hunting boar and stags

grayling
Freshwater fish with a long multirayed dorsal (back) fin and silver to purple body colouring. It is found in northern parts of Europe, Asia, and North America, where it was once common in the Great Lakes. (Species Thymallus thymallus, family Salmonidae.)

grasshopper
Any of several insects with strongly developed hind legs, enabling them to leap into the air. The hind leg in the male usually has a row of protruding joints that produce the characteristic chirping sound when rubbed against the hard wing veins. Locusts, crickets, and katydids are related to grasshoppers. (Families Acrididae and Tettigoniidae, orde...

grooming
In biology, the use by an animal of teeth, tongue, feet, or beak to clean fur or feathers. Grooming also helps to spread essential oils for waterproofing. In many social species, notably monkeys and apes, grooming of other individuals is used to reinforce social relationships

grass of Parnassus
Plant, unrelated to grasses, found growing in marshes and on wet moors in Europe and Asia. It is low-growing, with a rosette of heart-shaped stalked leaves, and has five-petalled white flowers with conspicuous veins growing singly on stem tips in late summer. (Parnassia palustris, family Parnassiaceae.)

grafting
In medicine, the operation by which an organ or other living tissue is removed from one organism and transplanted into the same or a different organism. In horticulture, it is a technique widely used for propagating plants, especially woody species. A bud or shoot on one plant, termed the scion, is i...

griffon
Small breed of dog originating in Belgium. Red, black, or black and tan in colour and weighing up to 5 kg/11 lb, griffons are square-bodied and round-headed. There are rough- and smooth-coated varieties. The name is also applied to several larger breeds of hunting dogs with rough coats, including two bred in northern France to p...

graph
Click images to enlargePictorial representation of numerical data, such as statistical data, or a method of showing the mathematical relationship between two or more variables by drawing a diagram. There are often two axes, or reference lines, at right angles intersecting at the origin – the zero point, from which va...

Gramsci, Antonio
Italian Marxist who attempted to unify social theory and political practice. He helped to found the Italian Communist Party in 1921 and was elected to parliament in 1924, but was imprisoned by the Fascist leader Mussolini from 1926; his Quaderni di carcere/Prison Notebooks were published posthumously in 1947. Gramsci beli...

gravimetry
Measurement of the Earth's gravitational field. Small variations in the gravitational field (gravimetric anomalies) can be caused by varying densities of rocks and structure beneath the surface. Such variations are measured by a device called a gravimeter (or gravity-meter), which consists of...

grammar
The rules for combining words into phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs. The standardizing impact of print has meant that spoken or colloquial language is often perceived as less grammatical than written language, but all forms of a language, standard or otherwise, have their own grammatical systems. People often acquire several overlapping ...

Greek language
Member of the Indo-European language family, which has passed through at least five distinct phases since the 2nd millennium BC: ancient Greek 14th–12th centuries BC; Archaic Greek, including Homeric epic language, until 800 BC; classical Greek until 400 BC; hellenistic Greek, the common language of Greece, Asia Minor, West...

Greer, Germaine
Australian academic and feminist, author of The Female Eunuch (1970). The book is a polemical study of how patriarchy – through the nuclear family and capitalism – subordinates women by forcing them to conform to feminine stereotypes that effectively `castrate` them. With its publication, Greer became identifi...