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


Lleida
(city) Capital of Lleida province in Cataluña, northeast Spain, situated on the River Segre, 132 km/82 mi west of Barcelona; population (2001) 112,200. Industries include leather, paper, glass, and cloth production. It has Roman remains and the ruins of a 13th-century cathedra...

Lloyd Webber, Andrew
English composer and theatre owner. His early musicals, with lyrics by Tim Rice, include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1971), and Evita (1978). He also wrote the hugely successful Cats (1981), based on T S Eliot's ...

Llewelyn II ap Gruffydd
Prince of Wales from 1246, grandson of Llewelyn I. In 1277 Edward I of England compelled Llewelyn to acknowledge him as overlord and to surrender southern Wales. His death while leading a national uprising ended Welsh independence

lm
In physics, symbol for lumen, the SI unit of luminous flux, equal to the flux emitted by a 1-candela point source in a 1-steradian solid angle

lobelia
Any of a group of temperate and tropical plants with white to mauve flowers. Lobelias may grow to shrub size but are mostly small annual plants. (Genus Lobelia, family Lobeliaceae.)

Lord Chamberlain
In the UK, chief officer of the royal household who engages staff and appoints retail suppliers. Until 1968 the Lord Chamberlain licensed and censored plays before their public performance. The office is temporary, and appointments are made by the government

Lord Chancellor
UK state official, originally the royal secretary, today a member of the cabinet, whose office ends with a change of government. The Lord Chancellor acts as Speaker of the House of Lords, may preside over the Court of Appeal, and is head of the judiciary. Until the 14th century he was always an ecclesiastic, who also acted as royal chaplain and Kee...

loganberry
Hybrid between a blackberry and a raspberry with large, tart, dull-red fruit. It was developed in 1881 by US judge James H Logan

louse
Parasitic insect that lives on mammals. It has a flat, segmented body without wings, and a tube attached to the head, used for sucking blood from its host. (Order Anoplura.) Some lice occur on humans, including the head louse (Pediculus capitis) and the body louse (P. corporis), a typhus carrier. Pediculosis is...

lorikeet
Any of various small, brightly coloured parrots found in Southeast Asia and Australasia

lory
Any of various small Australasian parrots. Lories are very brightly coloured and characterized by a tongue with a brushlike tip adapted for feeding on pollen and nectar from flowers. (Subfamily Loriinae, order Psittaciformes.)

locust tree
Another name for the carob, a small tree of the Mediterranean region. It is also the name of several North American trees of the legume family (Leguminosae)

locust
Swarming grasshopper with short feelers, or antennae, and hearing organs on the abdomen (rear segment of the body). As winged adults, flying in swarms, locusts may be carried by the wind hundreds of miles from their breeding grounds; on landing they devour all vegetation. Locusts occur in nearly every continent. (Family Acrididae, order Orthopt...

lobster
Any of various large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are grouped with freshwater crayfish in the suborder Reptantia (`walking`), although both lobsters and crayfish can also swim, using their fanlike tails. Lobsters have eyes on stalks and long antennae, and are mainly nocturnal. They scavenge...

loach
Carplike freshwater fish with a long narrow body and no teeth in the small downward-pointing mouth, which is surrounded by barbels (sensitive bristles). Loaches are native to Asian and European waters. (Family Cobitidae.)

loris
Any of a group of small prosimian primates native to Southeast Asia. Lorises are slow-moving, tree-dwelling, and nocturnal. They have very large eyes; true lorises have no tails. They climb without leaping, gripping branches tightly and moving on or hanging below them. (Family Lorisidae.)...

logarithm
The exponent or index of a number to a specified base – usually 10. For example, the logarithm to the base 10 of 1,000 is 3 because 103 = 1,000; the logarithm of 2 is 0.3010 because 2 = 100.3010. The whole-number part of a logarithm is called the characteristic; the fractional p...

locus
(mathematics) In mathematics, traditionally the path traced out by a moving point, but now defined as the set of all points on a curve satisfying given conditions. The locus of points a fixed distance from a fixed point is a circle. The locus of a point equidistant from two fixed points is a s...

loom
Any machine for weaving yarn or thread into cloth. The first looms are thought to have been used to weave sheep's wool in about 5000 BC. A loom is a frame on which a set of lengthwise threads (warp) is strung. A second set of threads (weft), traditionally carried in a shuttle, is inserted at right angles over and under the warp. In most looms t...

locomotive
Click images to enlargeEngine for hauling railway trains. In 1804 Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick built the first steam engine to run on rails. Locomotive design did not radically improve until English engineer George Stephenson built the Rocket in 1829, which featured a multitube boiler and blastpi...

lock and key
Devices that provide security, usually fitted to a door of some kind. In 1778 English locksmith Robert Barron made the forerunner of the mortise lock, which contains levers that the key must raise to an exact height before the bolt can be moved. The Yale lock, a pin-tumbler cylinder design, was invented by US locksmith Linus Yale, Jr, in 1865. ...

lock
Construction installed in waterways to allow boats or ships to travel from one level to another. The earliest form, the flash lock, was first seen in the East in 1st-century-AD China and in the West in 11th-century Holland. By this method barriers temporarily dammed a river and when remov...

LOGO
High-level computer programming language designed to teach mathematical concepts. Developed in about 1970 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it became popular in schools and with home computer users because of its `turtle graphics` feature. This allows the user to write programs that create line drawings on a computer scree...

Lord
In the UK, prefix used informally as a less formal alternative to the full title of a marquess, earl, or viscount, for example `Lord Salisbury` instead of `the Marquess of Salisbury`. Barons are normally referred to as lords, the term baron being used for foreign holders of that rank. `Lord` is also used as a courtesy ...

Loos, Anita
US writer. She was the author of the humorous fictitious diary Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925). She became a screenwriter in 1912 and worked on more than 60 films, including D W Griffith's Intolerance (1916)

Lombard
Member of a Germanic people who invaded Italy in 568 and occupied Lombardy (named after them) and central Italy. Their capital was Monza. They were conquered by the Frankish ruler Charlemagne in 774

logic
Branch of philosophy that studies valid reasoning and argument. It is also the way in which one thing may be said to follow from, or be a consequence of, another (deductive logic). Logic is generally divided into the traditional formal logic of Aristotle and the symbolic logic derived from Friedrich Frege and Bertrand Russell. Aristotle's
Loyola, St, Ignatius
Spanish noble who founded the Jesuit order in 1534, also called the Society of Jesus. His deep interest in the religious life began in 1521, when reading the life of Jesus while recuperating from a war wound. He visited the Holy Land in 1523, studied in Spain and Paris, where he took vows with St Fra...

Lord Advocate
Chief law officer of the crown in Scotland who has ultimate responsibility for criminal prosecutions in Scotland. The Lord Advocate does not usually act in inferior courts, where prosecution is carried out by procurators-fiscal acting under the Lord Advocate's instructions

Louangphrabang
Buddhist religious centre in Laos, on the Mekong River at the head of river navigation; population (2007 est) 52,500. It was the capital of the kingdom of Louangphrabang, incorporated in Laos in 1946, and the royal capital of Laos 1946–75

Long March
In Chinese history, the 10,000-km/6,000-mi trek undertaken from 1934 to 1935 by Mao Zedong and his communist forces from southeast to northwest China, under harassment from the Guomindang (nationalist) army. Some 100,000 communists left Mao's first headquarters in Jiangxi province in October 1934, and only 8,000 lasted the journey t...

Longford
County of the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Leinster; county town Longford; area 1,040 sq km/401 sq mi; population (2002) 31,100. The county is low-lying (the highest point is Carn Clonhugh 279 m/916 ft), and the western border is formed of the River Shannon and part of Lough Ree, one of several lakes. Other rivers...

Lollard
Follower of the English religious reformer John Wycliffe in the 14th century. The Lollards condemned the doctrine of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine of the Eucharist, advocated the diversion of ecclesiastical property to charitable uses, and denounced war and capital punishment. They were active from about 1377; after the passing o...

Loire
(river) Longest river in France, rising in the Cévennes Mountains in the département of Ardèche at 1,350 m/4,430 ft near Mont Gerbier de Jonc, and flowing for over 1,000 km/620 mi north through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes...

Loki
In Norse mythology, the giant-born god and blood-brother of Odin, companion of the Aesir (principal warrior gods), but a source of trickery and evil, and the cause of dissension among the gods. Instrumental in the slaying of Balder, he hastened the coming of Ragnarök, the final battle of the gods. His children by the giantess Angrboda ...

Locke, John
English philosopher. His Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690) maintained that experience is the only source of knowledge (empiricism), and that `we can have knowledge no farther than we have ideas` prompted by such experience. Two Treatises on Government&l...

Loewe, Frederick
German-born US composer. He worked on Broadway from the 1930s and began a collaboration with the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner in 1942. Their joint successes include Brigadoon (1947), Paint Your Wagon (1951), My Fair Lady (1956), Gigi (1958), and Camelot (...

Lochner, Stephan
German painter. Active in Cologne from 1442, where most of his work still remains, notably the Virgin in the Rose Garden (c. 1440; Wallraf-Richartz Museum) and Adoration of the Magi, (1448; Cologne Cathedral). His work combines the indigenous German style with the naturalism of Fl...

Locarno, Pact of
Series of diplomatic documents initialled in Locarno, Switzerland, on 16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December 1925. The pact settled the question of French security, and the signatories – Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany – guaranteed Germany's existing frontiers with France and Belgium. Following the si...

Lorca, Federico García
Spanish poet and playwright. His plays include Bodas de sangre/Blood Wedding (1933), Yerma (1934), and La casa de Bernarda Alba/The House of Bernarda Alba (1936). His poems include the collection Romancero gitano/Gypsy Ballad-book (1928) and the `Lament...

loess
Yellow loam, derived from glacial meltwater deposits and accumulated by wind in periglacial regions during the ice ages. Loess usually attains considerable depths, and the soil derived from it is very fertile. There are large deposits in central Europe (Hungary), China, and North America. It was first described in 1821 in the Rhine area, and takes ...

Londonderry
(city) Historic city and port on the River Foyle, 35 km/22 mi from Lough Foyle, county town of County Londonderry, Northern Ireland; population (2001) 105,100. Industries include engineering, information technology, food processing, clothes manufacturing, and elasthane. History Londond...

loudspeaker
Electromechanical device that converts electrical signals into sound waves, which are radiated into the air. The most common type of loudspeaker is the moving-coil speaker. Electrical signals from, for example, a radio are fed to a coil of fine wire wound around the top of a cone. The coil is pos...

lockjaw
Former name for tetanus, a type of bacterial infection

Lombardy
Click images to enlargeRegion of northern Italy, between the Alps and the River Po, comprising the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Mantua, Milan, Pavia, Sondrio, and Varese; area 23,861 sq km/9,213 sq mi; population (2001 est) 8,922,500. Its capital is Milan. It is the country's chief industr...

Lomé
Capital, port, largest city, and main administrative and commercial centre of Togo, on the Bight of Benin; population (2003 est) 839,000. It is a centre for gold, silver, and marble crafts. Industries include steel production, oil refining, brewing, plastics, cement, textiles, paper manufacturing, and food processing; tourism is growing in ...

Lomond, Loch
Largest freshwater Scottish lake, 37 km/23 mi long, area 70 sq km/27 sq mi. It is overlooked by the mountain Ben Lomond (973 m/3,192 ft) and is linked to the Clyde estuary

London
(UK) Click images to enlargeCapital of England and the United Kingdom, on the River Thames. Since 1965 its metropolitan area has been known as...

London
(Canada) City in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the Thames River, 198 km/123 mi southwest of Toronto and 200 km/124 mi west of the Niagara Falls; seat of Middlesex County; population (2001 est) 336,500; population of metropolitan area 432,500. The centre of a farming dist...

Londonderry
(county) Historic county of Northern Ireland; area 2,070 sq km/799 sq mi. Nationalists know it as Derry, but their attempts to change its name have failed, as this requires an act of Parliament. The principal towns and cities are Londonderry/Derry, Coleraine, Portstewart, and Limav...

Long, Huey
(Pierce) US Democratic politician. As governor of Louisiana 1928–32 and senator for Louisiana 1932–35, he became legendary for his political rhetoric. He was popular with poor white voters for his programme of social and economic reform, which he called the `Share Our Wealth...

longitude
See latitude and longitude

Long Parliament
English Parliament 1640–53 and 1659–60, that continued through the English Civil War. After the Royalists withdrew in 1642 and the Presbyterian right was excluded in 1648, the remaining Rump ruled England until expelled by Oliver Cromwell in 1653. Reassembled in 1659–60, the Long Parliament initiated the negotiations for the Restorat...

Lords, House of
Upper chamber of the UK Parliament. Following the House of Lords Act 1999, the number of hereditary peers (those with an inherited title) sitting in the upper chamber was reduced from 750 to a maximum of 92. In September 2007 there were 735 members of the House of Lords: 92 hereditary peers, 617 ...

Lorrain, Claude
French painter; see Claude Lorrain

Losey, Joseph
(Walton) US film director. Blacklisted in the USA for alleged communist affiliations in 1952, he settled in the UK, where he made a series of subtle if sometimes wilfully mannered studies of personal relationships as shaped and distorted by class and other social factors. These include
Lothair
King of Lotharingia from 855, when he inherited the region from his father, the Holy Roman Emperor Lothair I

Lothian
Former region of Scotland (1975–96), which was replaced by East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, and City of Edinburgh unitary authorities. The new unitary authorities were formerly the four districts of Lothian region (1975–96), which were previously counties in their own right

lottery
Game of chance in which tickets sold may win a prize. State-sponsored lotteries are an effective means of raising revenue, often used for charitable and other public needs

Loughborough
Industrial town in Leicestershire, central England, 18 km/11 mi northwest of Leicester, on the River Soar; population (2001) 55,500. Industries include engineering, bell-founding, children's book publishing, brickmaking, and the manufacture of heavy duty electrical goods and power generators, knitwear, hosiery, pharmaceuticals, and ...

Louis
(I) Holy Roman Emperor from 814, when he succeeded his father Charlemagne

Louis Philippe
King of France 1830–48. Son of Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Orléans 1747–93; both were known as Philippe Egalité from their support of the 1792 Revolution. Louis Philippe fled into exile 1793–1814, but became king after the 1830 revolution with the backing of the rich bourgeoisie. Corruption discredited his regime, an...

Louis XIV
Click images to enlargeKing of France from 1643, when he succeeded his father Louis XIII; his mother was Anne of Austria. Until 1661 France was ruled by the chief minister, Jules Mazarin, but later Louis took absolute power, summed up in his saying L'Etat c'est moi (`I am the state`...

Louis XV
King of France from 1715, with the Duke of Orléans as regent until 1723. He was the great-grandson of Louis XIV. Indolent and frivolous, Louis left government in the hands of his ministers, the Duke of Bourbon and Cardinal Fleury (1653–1743). On the latter's death he attempted to rule alone but became entirely dominated by his mis...

Louis XVIII
King of France 1814–24, the younger brother of Louis XVI. He assumed the title of king in 1795, having fled into exile in 1791 during the French Revolution, but became king only on the fall of Napoleon I in April 1814. Expelled during Napoleon's brief return (the `hundred days`) in 1815, he resumed power after Napoleon's fina...

Lourdes
Click images to enlargeTown in the département of Hautes-Pyrénées in the Midi-Pyrénées region of southwest France, on the Gave de Pau River; population (1999 est) 15,600. Its Christian shrine to St Bernadette has a reputation for miraculous cures from illness, and Lo...

Louth
Smallest county of the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Leinster; county town Dundalk; area 820 sq km/317 sq mi; population (2002) 101,800. It is mainly fertile and low-lying. The chief towns are Dundalk at the north end of Dundalk bay, Drogheda, and Ardee, and the chief rivers are the Fane, Lagan, Glyde, and Dee. There i...

Louvre
French art gallery, former palace of the French kings, in Paris. It was converted to an art gallery in 1793 to house the royal collections. Two of its best-known exhibits are Alexandros of Antioch's sculpture Venus de Milo and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The gallery comprises seven sections: ...

Lovelace, Richard
English poet. Imprisoned in 1642 for petitioning for the restoration of royal rule, he wrote `To Althea, from Prison`, and during a second term in jail in 1648 arranged the publication of his collection Lucasta (1649). His poetry is varied in style and content, some in the `metaphysical` style of conceits, som...

Low Countries
Region of Europe that consists of Belgium, the Netherlands, and the duchy of Luxembourg. The name is more of a political and historic term than a strictly geographical concept. One of the wealthiest ares of medieval and modern Europe, it has also been a chronic theatre of war

Lower Saxony
Administrative region (German Land) in northern Germany, bordered to the north by Schleswig-Holstein and the city-state of Hamburg, to the northeast by Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, to the south by North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, on the east and southeast by Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia respectively, and on the...

Lowry, L(aurence) S(tephen)
English painter. His works depict life in the industrial towns of the north of England. In the 1920s he developed a naive style characterized by matchstick figures, often in animated groups, and gaunt simplified factories and terraced houses, painted in an almost monochrome palette. The Pond (1950; Tate Gallery, London) is an...

Loyalist
Member of approximately 30% of the US population who remained loyal to Britain in the American Revolution. Many Loyalists went to eastern Ontario, Canada, after 1783. Known as Tories, most were crown officials, Anglican clergy, and economically advantaged, although they were represented in every segment of colonial society. The term also refers...

Loyola
Founder of the Jesuits. See Ignatius Loyola

local government
That part of government dealing mainly with matters concerning the inhabitants of a particular area or town, usually financed at least in part by local taxes. In the USA and UK, local government has comparatively large powers and responsibilities. Historically, in European countries such as France, G...

Loos, Adolf
Austrian architect. His buildings include private houses on Lake Geneva (1904) and the Steiner House in Vienna (1910). In his article `Ornament and Crime` (1908) he rejected the ornamentation and curved lines of the Viennese Jugendstil movement (see Art Nouveau). Born at Brno, Loos trained at Dresden, and at Vienna unde...

loosestrife
Any of several plants belonging to the primrose family, including the yellow loosestrife (L. vulgaris), with spikes of yellow flowers, and the low-growing creeping jenny (L. nummularia). The striking purple loosestrife (Lythrum saclicaria) belongs to a different family. (Genus Ly...

loquat
Evergreen tree native to China and Japan, also known as the Japan medlar. The golden pear-shaped fruit has a delicate sweet-sour taste. (Eriobotrya japonica, family Rosaceae.)

lotus
Any of several different plants, especially the water lily (Nymphaea lotus), frequent in Egyptian art, and the pink Asiatic lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), a sacred symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, whose flower head floats erect above the water. Others are those of the...

lobby
Individual or pressure group that sets out to influence government action. The lobby is prevalent in the USA, where the term originated in the 1830s from the practice of those wishing to influence state policy waiting for elected representatives in the lobby of the Capitol. .BTXT: Under the UK lobby system, certain parliamentary journalists are...

Louis VII
King of France from 1137, who led the Second Crusade. He annulled his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine 1152, whereupon Eleanor married Henry of Anjou, later Henry II of England. Louis was involved in a bitter struggle with Henry 1152–74

Louis VIII
King of France from 1223, who was invited to become king of England in place of John by the English barons, and unsuccessfully invaded England 1215–17

Louis IX, St
King of France from 1226, leader of the Seventh and Eighth crusades. He was defeated in the former by the Muslims, spending four years in captivity. He died in Tunis. He was canonized in 1297

Louis XI
King of France from 1461. He broke the power of the nobility (headed by Charles the Bold) by intrigue and military power

Louis XII
King of France from 1498. He was Duke of Orléans until he succeeded his cousin Charles VIII to the throne. His reign was devoted to Italian wars

Louis XIII
King of France from 1610 (in succession to his father Henry IV), he assumed royal power in 1617. He was under the political control of Cardinal Richelieu 1624–42

Louis XVI
King of France from 1774, grandson of Louis XV, and son of Louis the Dauphin. He was dominated by his queen, Marie Antoinette, and French finances fell into such confusion that in 1789 the States General (parliament) had to be summoned, and the French Revolution began. Louis lost his personal popularity in June 1791 when he attempted to flee the co...

Louis XVII
Nominal king of France, the son of Louis XVI. During the French Revolution he was imprisoned with his parents in 1792 and probably died in prison

Lothair I
Holy Roman Emperor from 817 in association with his father Louis I. On Louis's death in 840, the empire was divided between Lothair and his brothers; Lothair took northern Italy and the valleys of the rivers Rhône and Rhine

Lothair II
Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 and German king from 1125. His election as emperor, opposed by the Hohenstaufen family of princes, was the start of the feud between the Guelph and Ghibelline factions, who supported the papal party and the Hohenstaufens' claim to the imperial throne respectively

Loch Ness
Scottish lake; see Ness, Loch

log
(mathematics) In mathematics, abbreviation for logarithm

Lord's
Cricket ground in St John's Wood, London. One of England's test-match grounds and the headquarters of one of cricket's governing bodies, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), since 1788 when the MCC was formed following the folding of the White Conduit Club. It is widely regarded as the Home of Cricket. The ground is named after Yorksh...

Louis, Joe
US boxer, nicknamed `the Brown Bomber`. He was world heavyweight champion 1937–49, a record 11 years and 252 days, and successfully defended his title 25 times (a record for any weight). Louis announced his retirement, undefeated, in 1949, but made a comeback and lost to US boxer Ezzard Charles in a world title fight in 1950. Career ...

Louis III
King of northern France from 879, while his brother Carloman (866–884) ruled southern France. He was the son of Louis II. Louis countered a revolt of the nobility at the beginning of his reign, and his resistance to the Normans made him a hero of epic poems

Louis IV
King of France from 936. His reign was marked by the rebellion of nobles who refused to recognize his authority. As a result of his liberality they were able to build powerful feudal lordships. He was raised in England after his father Charles III the Simple, had been overthrown in 922 by Robert I. After the death of Raoul, Robert's brother-...

Louis
(X) King of France who succeeded his father Philip IV in 1314. His reign saw widespread discontent among the nobles, which he countered by granting charters guaranteeing seignorial rights, although some historians claim that by using evasive tactics, he gave up nothing

Louis
(VI) King of France from 1108. He led his army against feudal brigands, the English (under Henry I), and the Holy Roman Empire, temporarily consolidating his realm and extending it into Flanders. He was a benefactor to the church, and his advisers included Abbot Suger

Lord's Prayer
In the New Testament, the prayer taught by Jesus to his disciples. It is sometimes called `Our Father` or `Paternoster` from the opening words in English and Latin respectively

Lotus Sutra
Scripture of Mahayana Buddhism. The original is in Sanskrit (Saddharmapundarika Sutra) and is thought to date from some time after 100 BC