OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Prime, Primer and Priming

See also prime, primer and priming on Wiktionary; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PRIME, PRIMER AND PRIMING. These three words are to be referred to Lat. primus, first, “prime,” in O. Eng. prim, occurs first in the ecclesiastical sense of the Latin prima hora, the first hour, one of the lesser canonical hours of the Roman Church (see Breviary). Hence the word “primer” (Med. Lat. primarius), i.e. a book of hours. This was a book for the use of the laity and not strictly a service book. These books originally contained parts of the offices for the canonical hours, the penitential and other psalms, the Litany, devotional prayers and other matter. There were several “Primers” printed in the reign of Henry VIII.; the King's Primer of 1545 contained the Calendar, the Commandments, Creed, Lord's Prayer, the penitential psalms, Litany and prayers for special occasions. The primer of William Marshall, the printer and reformer, 1534, is entitled The Prymer in Englyshe, with certeyn prayers and godly meditations, very necessary for all people that understande not the Latyne Tongue. Later these primers contained the Catechism, graces before and after meals, and the A. B. C. They were published for children, like the earlier Sarum Primer (1537), and became educational in purpose, as reading books. The earlier primers were also used in this way, as is shown by the “litel child” of Chaucer's Prioress's Tale, who sitting “at his prymer, redemptorie herde synge.” Thus “primer” or “primmer” became the regular name for an elementary book for learners. For the type known as “great primer” and “long primer,” see Typography.
Apart from the use of “prime” as the period of greatest vigour of life, the first of the guards in fencing, and for those numbers which have no divisors except themselves and unity (see Arithmetic), the principal use is that of the verb, in the sense of to insert in the pan of an old-fashioned small arm, the “primer,” containing powder which, on explosion by percussion, fires the charge. This use seems to be due to “priming” being the first stage in the discharge of the weapon. Finally “priming” is the first coat of size or colour laid on a surface as a preparation for the body colour.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Primero

See also Primero on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PRIMERO (Span. first), a card game of Spanish origin, which Strutt calls “the oldest game of cards played in England.” It is described as having a close resemblance to Ombre (q.v.), by which it had been superseded. In both games the spadillo or ace of spades was the best card, but Primero was played with six cards and Ombre with nine. The exact method of play is uncertain.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Primage

See also our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PRIMAGE (adopted from the Fr. primage, from prime, recompense, Lat. praemium, reward), a commercial term ​signifying originally a small customary payment over and above the freight made to the master of the ship for his care and trouble. It is now generally included in the freight, as an additional percentage. It varies according to the usages of different ports and particular trades.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Soot

See also Soot on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SOOT (O. Eng. sot, cf. Icel. sot, Dan. sod; possibly from root sed, to sit), the black substance produced in the process of the combustion of fuel and deposited in finely granulated particles on the interior of chimneys or pipes through which the smoke passes. Soot is a natural nitrogenous manure (q.v.), and its value depends on the ammonia salts contained in it.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Soprano

See also Soprano on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SOPRANO (a variant of Ital. sovrano, supreme, sovereign, Late Lat. superanus, from super, above), the term applied in music to the highest natural range of the human voice, and often restricted to that range in the female voice, "treble" being used of a boy's voice. Male soprani, either natural or artificially produced, as formerly in the castrati of the papal choirs (see Eunuch), are also found. The female voice whose range is intermediate between that of a soprano or a contralto is termed "mezzo-soprano."
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sophia Dorothea

See also Sophia Dorothea of Celle on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SOPHIA DOROTHEA (1666-1726), wife of George Louis, elector of Hanover (George I. of England), only child of George William, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, by a Huguenot lady named Eleanore d'Olbreuze (1639-1722), was born on the 15th of September 1666. George William had undertaken to remain unmarried, but his desire to improve the status of his mistress (whom in spite of his promise he married in 1676) and of his daughter greatly alarmed his relatives, as these proceedings threatened to hinder the contemplated union of the Lüneburg territories. However, in 1682, this difficulty was bridged over by the marriage of Sophia Dorothea with her cousin George Louis, son of Duke Ernest Augustus, who became elector of Hanover in 1692. This union was a very unhappy one. The relatives of George Louis, especially his mother, the electress Sophia, hated and despised his wife, and this feeling was soon snared by the prince himself. It was under these circumstances that Sophia Dorothea made the acquaintance of Count Philipp Christoph von Königsmark (q.v.), with whom her name is inseparably associated. Königsmark assisted her in one or two futile attempts to escape from Hanover, and rightly or wrongly was regarded as her lover. In 1694 the count was assassinated, and the princess was divorced and imprisoned at Ahlden, remaining in captivity until her death on the 23rd of November 1726. Sophia Dorothea is sometimes referred to as the “princess of Ahlden.” Her two children were the English king, George II., and Sophia Dorothea, wife of Frederick William I. of Prussia, and mother of Frederick the Great. Sophia's infidelity to her husband is not absolutely proved, as it is probable that the letters which purport to have passed between Königsmark and herself are forgeries.
See Briefwechsel des Grafen Königsmark und der Prinzessin Sophie Dorothea von Celle, edited by W. F. Palmblad (Leipzig, 1847); A. F. H. Schaumann, Sophie Dorothea Prinzessin von Ahlden, and Kurfürstin Sophie von Hannover (Hanover, 1878); C. L. von Pöllnitz, Histoire secrette de la duchesse d'Hanovre (London, 1732); W. H. Wilkins, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen (London, 1900); A. Köcher, “Die Prinzessin von Ahlden,” in the Historische Zeitschrift (Munich, 1882); Vicomte H. de Beaucaire, Une Mésalliance dans la maison de Brunswick (Paris, 1884); and A. D. Greenwood, Lives of the Hanoverian Queens of England (1909), vol. i.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sophron

See also Sophron on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SOPHRON, of Syracuse, writer of mimes, flourished about 430 B.C. He was the author of prose dialogues in the Doric dialect, containing both male and female characters, some serious, others humorous in style, and depicting scenes from the daily life of the Sicilian Greeks. Although in prose, they were regarded as poems; in any case they were not intended for stage representation. They were written in pithy and popular language, full of proverbs and colloquialisms. Plato is said to have introduced them into Athens and to have made use of them in his dialogues; according to Suïdas, they were Plato's constant companions, and he even slept with them under his pillow. Some idea of their general character may be gathered from the 2nd and 15th idylls of Theocritus, which are said to have been imitated from the, Ἀκέστριαι and Ἰσθμιάζουσαι of his Syracusan predecessor. Their influence is also to be traced in the satires of Persius. The fragments will be found in H. L. Ahrens's De graecae linguae dialectis (1843), ii. (app.). Latest edition by C. J. Botzon (1867); see also his De Sophrone et Xenarcho mimographis (1856).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sophomore

See also Sophomore on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SOPHOMORE, the name in American universities (corresponding to "sophister" at Cambridge, England, and Trinity College, Dublin) for a student who has completed his first year of academic studies. It is a corruption of the earlier "sophimore," due to a supposed derivation from σοφός, wise, and μῶρος, foolish, alluding to the air of wisdom assumed by students after their freshman's year was concluded. The earlier word "sophomore" (cf. "Laws of Yale Coll., 1774," in Hall's College Words) represents "sophismer," a doublet of "sophister," and means an arguer or debater (cf. the Cambridge use of "wrangler"), and is formed from the Greek σόφισμα, sophism, an ingenious or captious argument.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sophronius

See also Sophronius on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​SOPHRONIUS, Greek "sophist" and theological writer, was born at Damascus. For many years he was a monk in the monastery of Theodosius, near Jerusalem, removed to Alexandria, whence he was driven out by the advance of the Persians, and finally settled in Palestine, where he became (634) successor of Modestus in the patriarchate of Jerusalem. After his elevation he showed himself a staunch supporter of orthodox principles and one of the most determined opponents of the Monothelites. In 636, when Jerusalem surrendered to the Arabs under Omar, he succeeded in obtaining important concessions for the Christians in the exercise of their worship. He did not long survive the capture of the city, and after his death the see remained unfilled for 29 years. Sophronius was a prolific writer, both in prose and verse, in various departments of literature. His chief work is a long account of the Egyptian saints and martyrs Cyrus and John, and of the miraculous cures effected by them, valuable for its information concerning the topography of Egypt. The Life of Mary of Egypt, who abandoned immorality for a life of the strictest penance in Palestine for 48 years, is generally attributed to him. He was also the author of anacreontic odes, hymns, and epigrams.
Works in J. P. Migne, Patrologia graeca, lxxxvii., and list in Fabricius, Bibliotheca graeca, ix. 162; see also L. de St Aignan, Vie de Sophronius (Orleans, 1884); C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897); and for Sophronius and Omar, Gibbon, ch. 51.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vegetable Marrow

See also Marrow (vegetable) on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VEGETABLE MARROW, Cucurbita Pepo, var. ovifera, the most important of the gourds (q.v.), used as an esculent, furnishing in good seasons a very large supply for the table. They are best when eaten quite young and not over-boiled, the flesh being then tender, and the flavour sweet and nutty. The Custard Marrow, or crown gourd, bears a peculiar-looking flattened fruit with scalloped edges, which has a sweeter and less nutty flavour than the true marrow. A very distinct form known as Pen-y-Byd has a delicate creamy white nearly globular fruit, with a firm flesh. The bush marrows are more bushy in habit and taller and more sturdy in growth.
Vegetable marrows require a warm situation and a rich soil free from stagnant moisture. They do well on a rubbish or old-dung heap, or in a warm border on little hillocks made up with any fermenting material, to give them a slight warmth at starting. The seeds should be sown in a warm pit in April, and forwarded under glass, but in a very mild heat; the plants must be shifted into larger pots, and be gradually hardened previous to being planted out, when the mild weather sets in in May or June. The use of hand-glasses makes it possible to transplant earlier than would otherwise be advisable. The seeds may be sown early in May in pots under a hand-glass, or towards the end of May in the open ground, if heat is not at command. The true vegetable marrow bears fruit of an oblong-elliptical shape, about 9 in. long, pale-greenish while young, with whitish flesh, and scarcely any indication of ribs; when mature it is of a pale yellow colour. There is a variety which is more oblong, grows to 15 or 18 in., and has the surface slightly marked by irregular longitudinal obtuse ribs. The shoots may be allowed to run along the surface of the ground, or they may be trained against a wall or paling, or on trellises. As the gourds cross readily, care is necessary to keep any particular variety true. One of the best vegetable marrows is called Moore’s Vegetable Cream.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Veglia

See also Krk on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VEGLIA (Slavonic, Krk), an island in the Adriatic Sea, off the west coast of Croatia, from which it is separated by the Canale della Morlacca. It is situated in the Gulf of Quarnero, and is separated from the island of Cherso, lying on the S.W., by the Canale di Mezzo. Together with Cherso and Lussin, the three principal islands of the Quarnero group, it forms the administrative district of Lussin, belonging to the Austrian crownland of Istria. Veglia is the largest island of the Quarnero group, having an area of 146 sq. It is 24 m. long and about 14 m. across at its widest part. The surface is mostly rugged and mountainous; but the central, southern and western districts are fertile. The principal town is Veglia. (pop. 2074), ​situated on the south-west coast, with a good harbour and an interesting cathedral.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vegetable

See also Vegetable on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VEGETABLE (Late Lat. vegetabilis, full of life, animating, from vegetare, frequentative of vegere to quicken, arouse, vegetus, vigorous, active, cf. vigor, strength, vigour, &c.), a word used as a general term for plants (q.v.), and specifically, in popular language, of such plants as can be eaten by man or animals, whether cooked or raw, and whether the whole of such plants are edible, or only the leaves or the roots or tubers. Among such edible or culinary plants or portions of plants, a further distinction is made popularly between “fruits” and “vegetables,” for which see Fruit.
For the botany and cultivation of vegetables see under the specific names, e.g. Potato, Turnip, &c. &c., and generally, Horticulture.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Veil

See also Veil on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VEIL (O.Fr. veile, mod. voile, from Lat. velum, cloth, awning, sail), a cloth or piece of other fabric used as a means of concealing something from the view, as in the veils of the Jewish tabernacle, which hung before the Holy Place, and before the Most Holy Place. The word is, however, chiefly used of a covering for the face and head, as worn by women. The veiling of the face by women is a practice, among the Mohammedan races of the East and among those peoples which have come under the influence of Islam. It is observed only when outside the harem and not by slaves or by the very poor, and rarely by the Bedouin women. The face-veil (burka') is a long strip of white muslin covering the whole of the face except the eyes and reaching nearly to the feet., Among the poorer classes the burka' is made of coarse black crêpe, or the tarhah, the head-veil, is drawn round the lower part of the face. There is also the double veil or yashmak, serving as a head- and face-veil (see India, § Indian Costume). In European countries the veil has played a large part in the head-dress of women. It took many shapes in the early middle ages and could be brought over the face as a covering or protection. Later it became a mere ornamental appendage, hanging down from the high, peaked and elaborate head-dresses then worn. In modern times it has become a piece of gauze, lace or net attached to the hat or bonnet and used as a protection against dust, light or wind.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Visor

See also Visor on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VISOR (also spelled viser, vizor, vizard or visard), a term now used generally of the various forms of movable face-guards in the helmet of medieval and later times. It meant properly a mask for the face, and is an adaptation of the O.Fr. visiere, mod. visière, as is seen by the M.E. forms viser, visere. It is thus to be referred to the Fr. vis, face, Lat. visus, from videre, to see. In this sense the word “visor” is modern, the movable guard for the upper part of the face being known as an “aventail” or “ventail,” and that for the lower part a “beaver” (see Helmet).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vitalianus

See also Pope Vitalian on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VITALIANUS, bishop of Rome from 657 to 672, succeeded Eugenius I. and was followed by Adeodatus. In the monothelite controversy then raging he acted with cautious reserve, refraining at least from express condemnation of the Typus of Constans II. The chief episode in his uneventful pontificate was the visit of Constans to Rome; the pope received him “almost with religious honours,” a deference which he requited by stripping all the brazen ornaments of the city—even to the tiles of the Pantheon—and sending them to Constantinople. Archbishop Theodore was sent to Canterbury by Vitalian.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vishnu

See also Vishnu on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VISHNU (Sanskrit, "the worker," from root vish, "to work"), a solar deity, in later Hindu mythology a god of the first importance, one of the supreme trinity with Brahma and Siva, but in the Rig Veda only a minor deity. In the Vedic scriptures his only anthropomorphic characteristics are the frequently mentioned strides that he takes, and his being a youth vast in body. His essential feature is the three strides (vi-kram) with which he traverses the universe. Two of these steps are visible to men, but the third or highest is beyond mortal sight. These steps are symbolic of the rising, culminating and setting of the sun, or alternatively the course of the solar deity through the three divisions of the universe. To-day Vishnu is adored by the Vishnavite sects as the equal or even the superior of Brahma, and is styled the Preserver. He is represented with four arms, and black in colour; in one hand he holds a club and in the others a shell, a discus and a lotus respectively. He rides on the Garuda, half man and half bird, having the head, wings, beak and talons of an eagle, and human body and limbs, its face being white, its wings red and its body golden. In his character as preserver of men Vishnu has from time to time become incarnate to rid the world of some great evil (see also Brahmanism and Hinduism).
See A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Strassburg, 1897); Sir W. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, iv. 63-298; Sir M. Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, iii. v. vi.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Visiting Cards

See also Visiting card on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VISITING CARDS. The use of cards of personal identification for social purposes is generally supposed to have had its origin at the court of Louis XIV. of France, that centre of the etiquette of the 17th century. But there appears to be little doubt that, in a rougher and ruder form, this mark of intercourse dates from much earlier times, and that the Chinese, and possibly other Oriental nations also, had in bygone ages employed such mediums of communication on calling at the houses of absent friends. When and where visiting cards first came into vogue in Europe is a matter of some uncertainty. It is probable, however, that they were first used in Germany—and as early as the 16th century. A German visiting card recently discovered in Venice bears this inscription: Johannes Westerholt Westphalus scribebat, Patavii, 4 Martii 15 x 60. Concerning this, Professor Dr Kirmis (Daheim, September 30th, 1905) remarks that the German students in Padua were wont, on quitting the university, to pay farewell calls at the houses of the professors, and, in the event of not finding them within, to leave their names on paper billets; and he adds that the custom must, until that time, have been unknown in Italy, for this card of the student Westerholt was sent by Professor Giacomo Contarini on the 15th of January 1572 to Venice as a curiosity. Under the reign of Louis XIV., however, the fashion appears to have become firmly established in France. Small strips of paper were at first employed for the purpose of the communication, but gradually they attained a more elaborate finish and execution. Ladies especially seem to have been the pioneers in this direction, and to have embellished their cards with hand drawings, sometimes taking the form of “hearts” and other amorous tokens of affection. Under Louis XV., the reign of exquisite extravagance ​and refined taste, visiting cards were furnished with delicate engravings, frequently masterpieces of that art, showing some fanciful landscape, or a view of the town or place where the person resided. A further stage in the development of this custom was the autograph signature at the foot of the card beneath the engraved view. England followed the lead of France, and visiting cards became a universal fashion in Europe towards the close of the 18th century. But though in almost every European country there are variations in the size and shape of the card and the way of describing the quality of the person whom it represents, the modern tendency is everywhere in favour of simplicity and the avoidance of ostentation.
A valuable collection of visiting cards is that of the Gabinetto della Stampe in Rome and the Museo Civico in Venice.