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


Hill, Rowland
English Post Office official who reformed the postage system with the introduction of adhesive stamps. His pamphlet Post Office Reform (1837) prompted the introduction of the penny prepaid post in 1840 (previously the addressee paid, according to distance, on receipt)

hijacking
Illegal seizure or taking control of a vehicle and/or its passengers or goods. The term dates from 1923 and originally referred to the robbing of freight lorries. Subsequently it (and its derivative `skyjacking`) has been applied to the seizure of aircraft, usually in flight, by an individual or group, often with some political aim. I...

Highlands
Click images to enlargeOne of the three geographical divisions of Scotland, lying to the north of a geological fault line that stretches from Stonehaven in the North Sea to Dumbarton on the Clyde. It is a mountainous region of hard rocks, shallow infertile soils, and high rainfall

high commissioner
Representative of one independent Commonwealth country in the capital of another, ranking with ambassador. Also a high administrative officer in a dependency or protectorate

Highland
Click images to enlargeUnitary authority in northern Scotland, created from the region bearing the same name in 1996. Area 26,157 sq km/10,100 sq mi (one-third of Scotland) Towns Inverness (administrative headquarters), Thurso, Wick, Fort William, Aviemore Physical mainland Highland consists of a series of glaciat...

hieroglyphic
Click images to enlargeEgyptian writing system of the mid-4th millennium BC–3rd century AD, which combines picture signs with those indicating letters. The direction of writing is normally from right to left, the signs facing the beginning of the line. It was deciphered in 1822 by the French Egyptologist J F Cham...

Hiawatha
16th-century American Indian teacher and Onondaga chieftain. He is said to have welded the Five Nations (later joined by a sixth) of the Iroquois into the league of the Long House, as the confederacy was known in what is now upper New York State. The hero of H W Longfellow's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855) is an unr...

Hipparchus
Greek astronomer and mathematician. He invented trigonometry and calculated the lengths of the solar year and the lunar month, discovered the precession of the equinoxes, made a catalogue of 850 fixed stars, and advanced Eratosthenes' method of determining the situation of places on the Earth's surface by lines of latitude and longitude

Hindemith, Paul
German composer and teacher. His operas Cardillac (1926, revised 1952) and Mathis der Maler/Mathis the Painter (1933–35) are theatrically astute and politically aware; as a teacher in Berlin 1927–33 he encouraged the development of a functional modern repertoire (`Gebrauchsmusik`/...

Himmler, Heinrich
German Nazi leader, head of the SS elite corps from 1929, the police and the Gestapo secret police from 1936, and supervisor of the extermination of the Jews in Eastern Europe. During World War II he replaced Hermann Goering as Hitler's second-in-command. He was captured in May 1945 and committed suicide. Born in Munich, he joined the N...

Hilliard, Nicholas
English miniaturist and goldsmith. Court artist to Elizabeth I and James I, he painted many leading figures of Tudor and Stuart society, including Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, and Mary Queen of Scots, as well as several portraits of Elizabeth I herself. Some of his minatures, in particular An Unknown Young Man Amid Roses (
Hillary, Edmund
(Percival) New Zealand mountaineer. In 1953, with Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay (1914–1986), he reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the first to climb the world's highest peak. As a member of the Commonwealth Transantarctic Expedition 1957–58, he was the fi...

highwayman
In English history, a thief on horseback who robbed travellers on the highway (those who did so on foot were known as footpads). With the development of regular coach services in the 17th and 18th centuries, the highwaymen's activities became notorious, and the Bow Street Runners were organized to suppress them. Highwaymen continued to flourish...

hippie
Member of a youth movement of the late 1960s, also known as flower power, which originated in San Francisco, California, and was characterized by nonviolent anarchy, concern for the environment, and rejection of Western materialism. The hippies formed a politically outspoken, anti-war, artistically prolific counterculture in North America and E...

hi-fi
Faithful reproduction of sound. Advances in mechanical equipment and electronics, such as digital recording techniques and compact discs, have made it possible to eliminate many distortions in sound-reproduction processes

higher education
In most countries, education beyond the age of 18 leading to a university or college degree or similar qualification

historical novel
Genre of fictional prose narrative set in the past. Literature set in the historic rather than the immediate past has always abounded, but in the West, English writer Walter Scott began the modern tradition by setting imaginative romances of love, impersonation, and betrayal in a past based on known fact; his use of historical detail, and subse...

Hitler–Stalin pact
Another name for the Ribbentrop–Molotov pact

Hillsborough Agreement
Another name for the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)

Highland Games
Traditional Scottish outdoor gathering that includes tossing the caber, putting the shot, running, dancing, and bagpipe playing

High Church
Group in the Church of England that emphasizes aspects of Christianity usually associated with Catholics, such as ceremony and hierarchy. The term was first used in 1703 to describe those who opposed Dissenters, and later for groups such as the 19th-century Oxford Movement

histology
(medicine) In medicine, the laboratory study of cells and tissues

Hijrah
The flight from Mecca to Medina of the prophet Muhammad, which took place in AD 622 as a result of the persecution of the prophet and his followers. The Muslim calendar dates from this event, and the day of the Hijrah is celebrated as the Muslim New Year

Hinayana
Mahayana Buddhist name for Theravada Buddhism

Hindustan
The whole of India, but more specifically the plain of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, or that part of India north of the Deccan

Hilbert, David
German mathematician, philosopher, and physicist whose work was fundamental to 20th-century mathematics. He founded the formalist school with Grundlagen der Geometrie/Foundations of Geometry (1899), which was based on his idea of postulates. Hilbert attempted to put mathematics on a logical foundation through defining it ...

Highland Clearances
Forced removal of tenants from large estates in Scotland during the early 19th century, as landowners `improved` their estates by switching from arable to sheep farming. It led ultimately to widespread emigration to North America

Hipparcos
Satellite launched by the European Space Agency to orbit the Earth from 1989 to 1993. Named after the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, it was the world's first astrometry satellite, mapping the precise positions, distances, colours, brightnesses, and apparent motions of stars. This resulted in a catalogue of more than 2.5 million stars, published i...

HIV
Infectious agent identified as the cause of AIDS. It was first discovered in 1983 by Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, who called it lymphocyte-associated virus (LAV). Independently, US scientist Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, claimed its discovery in 1984 and named it human T-lymphocyto...

high-tech
In architecture, an approach to design, originating in the UK in the 1970s, which concentrates on technical innovation, often using exposed structure and services as a means of creating exciting forms and spaces. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong (1986), designed by Norman Foster, is a maste...

Hitchcock, Alfred
(Joseph) English film director, a US citizen from 1955. A master of the suspense thriller, he was noted for his meticulously drawn storyboards that determined his camera angles and for cameo walk-ons in his own films. His ...

Higher
In Scottish education, a public examination taken at the age of 17, one year after the Scottish O grade. Highers are usually taken in four or five subjects and qualify students for entry to higher education. About 90% of Scottish undergraduates choose to study in Scotland

high-definition television
Type of digital television system offering a significantly greater number of scanning lines, and therefore a clearer picture, than that provided by conventional systems. Typically, HDTV has about twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of current 525-line (such as the American standard, NTSC) or 625-line standards (such as the British ...

high-level language
In computing, a programming language designed to suit the requirements of the programmer; it is independent of the internal machine code of any particular computer. High-level languages are used to solve problems and are often described as problem-oriented languages; for example, BASIC was designed to be easily learnt by first-t...

high-tech industry
Any industry that makes use of advanced technology. The largest high-tech group is the fast-growing electronics industry and especially the manufacture of computers, microchips, and telecommunications equipment. The products of these industries have low bulk but high value, as do their components. Silicon Valley in the USA and Silicon Glen ...

high-yield variety
Crop that has been specially bred or selected to produce more than the natural varieties of the same species. During the 1950s and 1960s, new strains of wheat and maize were developed to reduce the food shortages in poor countries (the Green Revolution). Later, IR8, a new variety of rice that increased yields by up to six times, was developed in th...

high jump
Field event in athletics in which competitors leap over a horizontal crossbar held between rigid uprights at least 3.66 m/12 ft apart. The bar is placed at increasingly higher levels. Elimination occurs after three consecutive failures to clear the bar

Hill,
(Norman) English motor-racing driver. He won the Dutch Grand Prix in 1962, progressing to the Formula 1 World Drivers' Champion in 1962 and 1968. In 1972 he became the first Formula 1 World Champion to win the Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance (Le Mans 24-Hour Race). He was also t...

Hispania
Roman provinces of Spain and Portugal. The republican provinces were Hispania Citerior (`Nearer`, the Ebro region), and Ulterior (`Farther`, the Guadalquivir region). Under the empire the peninsula was divided into three administrative areas: Lusitania in the west, Baetica in the south, and Tarraconensis. The Roman emperors ...

historical materialism
The application of the principles of dialectical materialism to history and sociology. This decrees that the social, political, and cultural superstructure of a society is determined by its economic base and that developments are therefore governed by laws with no room for the influence of individuals. In this theory, change occurs through the meet...

Higgs boson
Postulated elementary particle whose existence would explain why particles have mass. The current theory of elementary particles, called the standard model, cannot explain how mass arises. To overcome this difficulty, Peter Higgs of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Thomas Kibble of Imperial College, London, England, proposed in 1964 a new...

history painting
Painting genre depicting scenes taken from classical sources, mythology, the Bible, and literary classics, such as Dante's Divine Comedy. From the early Renaissance, when Alberti first documented the style, until the decline of the academic tradition in the 19th century, history painting was regarded as the highest form of pa...

Hill, Damon
English racing driver. He won his first Grand Prix in Hungary in 1993. In both 1994 and 1995 he finished as runner-up to Michael Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship. He won the 1996 Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship, leading the competition from start to finish, winning eight races and finishing 19 points ahead of his nearest ri...

Hingis, Martina
Czech-born Swiss tennis player. In 1996 she became the youngest-ever winner of a Grand Slam title when she won the Wimbledon women's doubles title at the age of 15 years 282 days. Hingis was the youngest player to be ranked as number one in the world since the women's official rankings began. In 1997, at 16 years 279 days she became...

Hill, Susan Elizabeth
English novelist, short-story writer, and radio dramatist. Her works, which explore the nature of loss, isolation, and grief, include her first novel The Enclosure (1961), A Change for the Better (1969), I'm the King of the Castle (1970), and The Bird of Night (1972...

Hill, David Octavius
Scottish landscape painter and photographer. He collaborated with fellow Scottish photographer Robert Adamson. See Hill and Adamson

highlight
In painting and drawing, the lightest part of an artwork or the subject being viewed. Highlights in a picture represent light reflecting off the subject, and can bring an image to life, making the work more three-dimensional and realistic. Tones used may be white, or light shades of other colours such as pale blues, yellows, and pinks. The high...

Hindu scriptures
The sacred writings of Hinduism, an oral tradition for many centuries before being written in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. The most sacred are the sruti, transmitted directly from God, which include the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Brahmanas. The smriti, containing memories of God's words, include epic stories like the ...

Hims
Alternative name for Homs, a city in west Syria

Hinton, Nigel
English novelist. His experience as a teacher gave him insight into the minds and interests of young teenagers, and most of his work has been aimed at this age group. His book Buddy (1983) is the story of a teenage boy confused by the separation of his parents. The popularity of the novel resulted in its serialisation for televis...

Hindu ethics
Questions of right and wrong considered according to Hinduism. Hindu ethics are taught by guidance from leaders and teachers (see guru), wandering holy men (sadhus), and sages (rishis). Some gurus are venerated, and may work miracles. Sacred scriptures also give guidance. Morality is taught through Hindu scriptures, for example the Ramayan...

Hmong
Member of a Southeast Asian highland people. They are predominantly hill farmers, rearing pigs and cultivating rice and grain, and many are involved in growing the opium poppy. Estimates of the size of the Hmong population vary between 1.5 million and 5 million, the greatest number being in China. Although traditional beliefs, which have many Taois...

horse chestnut
Any of a group of trees, especially A. hippocastanum, originally from southeastern Europe but widely planted elsewhere. Horse chestnuts have large palmate (five-lobed) leaves, showy upright spikes of white, pink, or red flowers, and large, shiny, inedible seeds (conkers) in prickly green capsules. The horse chestnut is not re...

horehound
Any of a group of plants belonging to the mint family. The white horehound (M. vulgare), found in Europe, North Africa, and western Asia and naturalized in North America, has a thick hairy stem and clusters of dull white flowers; it has medicinal uses. (Genus Marrubium, family Labiatae.)

honeysuckle
Vine or shrub found in temperate regions of the world. The common honeysuckle or woodbine (L. periclymenum) of Europe is a climbing plant with sweet-scented flowers, reddish and yellow-tinted outside and creamy white inside; it now grows in the northeastern USA. (Genus ...

hops
Female fruit heads of the hop plant Humulus lupulus, family Cannabiaceae; these are dried and used as a tonic and in flavouring beer. In designated areas in Europe, no male hops may be grown, since seedless hops produced by the unpollinated female plant contain a greater propor...

hollyhock
Tall flowering plant belonging to the mallow family. A. rosea, originally a native of Asia, produces spikes of large white, yellow, pink, or red flowers, 3 m/10 ft high when cultivated as a biennial; it is a popular cottage garden plant. (Genus Althaea, family Malvaceae.)

holly
Any of a group of trees or shrubs that includes the English Christmas holly (I. aquifolium), an evergreen with spiny, glossy leaves, small white flowers, and poisonous scarlet berries on the female tree. Leaves of the Brazilian holly (I. paraguayensis) are used to make the tea yerba maté...

Hooch, Pieter de
Dutch painter. He painted harmonious domestic interiors and courtyards, his style influenced by Jan Vermeer. The Courtyard of a House in Delft (1658; National Gallery, London) is a typical work. Hooch was born near Rotterdam and was a pupil of Berchem, probably in Haarlem. He worked mainly in Delft, where he first came under ...

Holinshed, Raphael
English historian. He published two volumes of the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1578), which are a mixture of fact and legend. The Chronicles were used as a principal source by Elizabethan dramatists for their plots. Nearly all Shakespeare's English history plays, as well as Macbet...

Hoxha, Enver
Albanian communist politician, the country's leader from 1954. He founded the Albanian Communist Party in 1941, and headed the liberation movement 1939–44. He was prime minister 1944–54, also handling foreign affairs 1946–53, and from 1954 was first secretary of the Albanian Party of Labour. In policy he was a Stalinist and indep...

howitzer
Cannon, in use since the 16th century, with a particularly steep angle of fire. It was much developed in World War I for demolishing the fortresses of the trench system. The multinational NATO FH70 field howitzer is mobile and fires, under computer control, three 43 kg/95 lb shells at 32 km/2...

Howe,
(Richard Edward) British Conservative politician, member of Parliament for Surrey East. As chancellor of the Exchequer 1979–83 under Margaret Thatcher, he put into practice the monetarist policy that reduced inflation at the cost of a rise in unemployment. In 1983 he became foreign secret...

Howe, William
British general. During the American Revolution he won the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, and as commander-in-chief in America 1776–78 captured New York and defeated Washington at Brandywine and Germantown. He resigned in protest at lack of home government support

Howard, Ebenezer
English town planner. Aiming to halt the unregulated growth of industrial cities, he pioneered the ideal of the garden city through his book Tomorrow (1898; republished as Garden Cities of Tomorrow in 1902). He also inspired and took an active part in building the garden cities of Letchworth and Welwyn. His...

Howard, John
English philanthropist whose work to improve prison conditions is continued today by the Howard League for Penal Reform (a charity formed in 1921 by the amalgamation of the Prison Reform League and the Howard Association). On his appointment as high sheriff for Bedfordshire in 1773, he undertook a tour of English prisons which led to two acts of Pa...

Howard, Catherine
Queen consort of Henry VIII of England from 1540. In 1541 the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, accused her of being unchaste before marriage to Henry and she was beheaded in 1542 after Cranmer made further charges of adultery

Howard, Charles
English admiral, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I. He commanded the fleet against the Spanish Armada while Lord High Admiral (1585–1618)

Houston, Sam
(Samuel) US general who won independence for Texas from Mexico in 1836 and was president of the Republic of Texas 1836–45. The city of Houston, Texas, is named after him. In his early life he lived among the Cherokee in Tennessee. He enlisted in the army 1813, and served until 1818, notab...

Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)
English poet and classical scholar. His A Shropshire Lad (1896), a series of deceptively simple, nostalgic, ballad-like poems, has been popular since World War I. This was followed by Last Poems (1922), More Poems (1936), and Collected Poems (1939). As a scholar his gre...

housing
Provision of residential accommodation. All countries have found some degree of state housing provision or subsidy essential, even in free-enterprise economies such as the USA. In the UK, flats and houses to rent (intended for people with low incomes) are built by local authorities or housing ass...

housefly
Fly found in and around human dwellings, especially M. domestica, a common worldwide species. Houseflies are grey and have mouthparts adapted for drinking liquids and sucking moisture from food and manure. (Genus Musca.)

Houphouët-Boigny, Félix
Côte d'Ivoire right-wing politician, president 1960–93. He held posts in French ministries, and became president of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire on independence in 1960, maintaining close links with France, which helped to boost an already thriving economy and encourage political stability. Pro-Western and opposed to...

Hottentot
South African term for a variety of different African peoples; it is non-scientific and considered derogatory by many. The name Khoikhoi is preferred

Houdini, Harry
US escapologist and conjuror. He was renowned for his escapes from ropes and handcuffs, from trunks under water, from straitjackets, and from prison cells. Born in Budapest, he was the son of a rabbi. He wrote books and articles on magic and was deeply interested in spiritualism, and campaigned against fraudulent mindreaders and mediums

hospice
Residential facility specializing in palliative care for terminally ill patients and their relatives. The aim of hospices is to control the pain of the patients, and enable them to die with dignity

hostage
Person taken prisoner as a means of exerting pressure on a third party, usually with threats of death or injury. In 1979, 63 staff members of the US embassy in Tehran were taken by the Iranians. Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait August 1990, about 9,000 Westerners were held in Kuwait and Iraq; they were gradually released later that year. ...

horoscope
In Western astrology, a chart of the position of the Sun, Moon, and planets relative to the zodiac at the moment of birth, used to assess a person's character and forecast future influences. In casting a horoscope, the astrologer draws a circular diagram divided into 12 sections, or houses, with the 12 signs of the zodiac around the perimeter a...

Horn, Cape
Southernmost point of South America, in Magallanes region, Chile; situated on Horn Island to the south of Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The cape is notorious for gales and heavy seas, and was virtually the only sea route between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Cape Horn was discovered in 1616 b...

horn
(music) Member of a family of lip-reed wind instruments used for signalling and ritual, and sharing features of a generally conical bore (although the orchestral horn is of part conical and part straight bore) and curved shape, pr...

horizon
(earth science) Limit to which one can see across the surface of the sea or a level plain, that is, about 5 km/3 mi at 1.5 m/5 ft above sea level, and about 65 km/40 mi at 300 m/1,000 ft

Hormuz
Small island in the Strait of Hormuz belonging to Iran; area 41 sq km/16 sq mi; population (1996 est) 2,800. It is strategically important because oil tankers leaving the Gulf for Japan and the West have to pass through the strait to reach the Arabian Sea. It was occupied by the Portuguese from 1515 to 1622

Hopper, Edward
US painter, printer, and illustrator. One of the foremost American realists, and the most famous exponent of New Realism in the 20th century, he is often associated with American Scene painting. His views of New York City and New England in the 1930s and 1940s, painted in rich colours with stark light, convey a brooding sense of emptiness and solit...

Hopkins, Frederick Gowland
English biochemist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for his discovery of trace substances, now known as vitamins, that stimulate growth. His research into diets revealed the necessity of these vitamins for the maintenance of health. Hopkins shared the prize with Christiaan Eijkman, who had arrived at similar conclusi...

Hopkins, Gerard Manley
English poet and Jesuit priest. His works are marked by originality of diction and rhythm and include `The Wreck of the Deutschland` (1876), and `The Windhover` and `Pied Beauty` (both 1877). His collected works were published in 1918 (after the author's death) by his friend, the poet Robert Bridges. His employment...

Hopewell
Member of a prehistoric American Indian people of the Ohio River Valley and central USA who flourished between 200 BC and AD 500. One of the Moundbuilder cultures, they built cone-shaped burial mounds up to 12 m/40 ft high. The Hopewell were farmers and skilled artisans, known for their silver and copper metalwork, distinctive pottery incis...

Hopei
Alternative transcription of Hebei, a province of China

Hoover, Herbert
(Clark) 31st president of the USA 1929–33, a Republican. He was secretary of commerce 1921–28. Hoover lost public confidence after the stock-market crash of 1929, when he opposed direct government aid for the unemployed ...

Hood, Samuel
English admiral. A masterly tactician, he defeated the French at Dominica in the West Indies in 1783, and in the Revolutionary Wars captured Toulon and Corsica. He was made a baronet in 1779 and a viscount in 1796

Hooghly
River and city in West Bengal, India; population (1991) 151,800. The river is the western and most commercially important stream of the Ganges delta, providing access to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta); length 320 km/198 mi. The city is on the site of a factory set up by the East India Company in 1640, which was moved to Kolkata, 40 km/...

Honshu
Click images to enlargePrincipal island of Japan, lying between Hokkaido to the northeast and Kyushu to the southwest. Its land mass comprises approximately four-fifths of the country total area; area 231,100 sq km/89,228 sq mi, including 382 smaller islands; population (2000 est) 102,318,000. The capital ...

honours list
Military and civil awards approved by the sovereign of the UK and published on New Year's Day and on her official birthday in June. Many Commonwealth countries, for example, Australia and Canada, also have their own honours list. The Political Honours Scrutiny Committee is a group of privy councillors established after Lloyd George's extrav...

Hong Kong
Click images to enlargeSpecial administrative region directly under the central government in the southeast of China, comprising Hong Kong Island, the mainland Kowloon Peninsula and New Territories, and many small islands, of which the largest is Lantau; area 1,070 sq km/413 sq mi; population (2001 est) 6,708,...

Honan
Alternative name of Henan, a province of China

Honegger, Arthur
Swiss composer. He was one of the group of composers known as Les Six. His work was varied in form, for example, the opera Antigone (1927), the ballet Skating Rink (1922), the dramatic oratorio Le Roi David/King David (1921), programme music (Pacific 231
homoeopathy
Variant spelling of homeopathy

homosexuality
Sexual preference for, or attraction to, persons of one's own sex; in women it is referred to as lesbianism. Both sexes use the term `gay`. Men and women who are attracted to both sexes are referred to as bisexual. The extent to which homosexual behaviour is caused by biological or psychological factors is an area of disagreement ...

home rule, Irish
Movement to repeal the Act of Union of 1801 that joined Ireland to Britain, and to establish an Irish parliament responsible for internal affairs. In 1870 Isaac Butt formed the Home Rule Association and the movement was led in Parliament from 1880 by Charles Stewart Parnell. After 1918 the demand for an independent Irish republic replaced that for ...

Home Counties
Those counties in close proximity to London, England: Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, and formerly Berkshire and Middlesex

Home Guard
Unpaid force formed in Britain in May 1940 to repel the expected German invasion, and known until July 1940 as the Local Defence Volunteers. It consisted of men aged 17–65 who had not been called up, formed part of the armed forces of the Crown, and was subject to military law. Over 2 million st...