pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
ÁCQUI, one of the provinces into which the continental dominions of the king of Sardinia are divided. It is bounded on the north-east by Alessandria, on the southeast and south by Genoa, on the south-west by Mondovi, on the west by Alba, and on the north-west by Asti. The extent is 534 square miles, or 341∙760 acres. In the north the mountains decline to a fine undulating plain, watered by the rivers Bormido, Orbo, Erro, and Belbo, which in the adjoining province fall into the Tanaro, and then join the Po. The land is productive, and yields wheat, garden vegetables, wine, fruit, chesnuts, and much silk. Some cattle are bred and fattened; but the chief call for labour is in winding and throwing the silk. There are a few mines of iron and of some other minerals, but all inconsiderable. This province, which formerly was Upper Montserrat, contains two cities, 81 towns and villages, and nine hamlets, with a population amounting to 91,535 persons.

Àcqui, a town of Italy, in the duchy of Montferrat, with a bishop’s see and commodious baths. It was taken by the Spaniards in 1745, and retaken by the Piedmontese in 1746; but after this it was taken again and dismantled by the French, who afterwards forsook it. It is seated on the river Bormia, 25 miles north-west of Genoa, and 30 south of Casal. Long. 8. 19. E. Lat. 44. 4. N.
ACQUISITION, in general, denotes the obtaining or procuring something. Among lawyers it is used for the right or title to an estate got by purchase or donation.
ACQUITTANCE, a release or discharge in writing for a sum of money, witnessing that the party has paid the said sum.
ACRA, a considerable country near the eastern extremity of the Gold Coast of Africa. It is fertile, healthy, and the inhabitants are of a more polished and civilized character than the majority of those found upon that coast. While the slave-trade was carried on with activity, there was a great resort of the European nations to Acra, and the factories established by them: Fort James by the English, Crevecoeur by the Dutch, and Christiansborg by the Danes, were the centre of an extensive trade. Aera has now greatly declined; and it may be considered, along with the rest of the coast, as dependent upon Ashantee. Adams considers this country as the boundary of the gold trade on the one side, and the ivory trade on the other; and sharing to a certain degree in both, though not to the same extent with some other districts.

Acra, in Ancient Geography, one of the hills of Jerusalem, on which stood the lower town, which was the old Jerusalem; to which was afterwards added Zion, or the city of David. It was probably called Acra, from the fortress which Antiochus built there in order to annoy the temple, and which Simon Maccabeus took and razed to the ground.

ACRΑ Japygia, in Ancient Geography, called Salentia by Ptolemy; now Capo di Leuca : a promontory in the kingdom of Naples, to the south-east of Otranto.
ACRAGAS, or Agragas, in Ancient Geography, so called by the Greeks, and sometimes by the Romans, but more generally Agrigentum by the latter; a town on the south coast of Sicily. See Agrigentum.
ACRAMAR. See Van.
ACRASIA, among physicians, implies the predominancy of one quality above another, either with regard to artificial mixtures, or the humours of the human body. The word is Greek, and compounded of α privative, and κεξαννυμι, to mix ς q. d. not mixed in a just proportion.
ACRIBEIA, a term purely Greek, literally denoting an exquisite or delicate accuracy; sometimes used in our language, for want of a word of equal signification.
ACRIDOPHAGI, in Ancient Geography, an Ethiopian people, represented as inhabiting near the deserts, and to have fed on locusts. This latter circumstance their name imports, the word being compounded of the Greek ακ%ις, [7:2:128]locust, and φαγω, to eat. Dr Sparrman informs us,^[1. Voyage to the. Cape, vol. i. n. 36. ] that “Locusts sometimes afford a high treat to the more • unpolished and remote hordes of the Hottentots; when, as sometimes happens, after an interval of 8, 10, 15, or 20 years, they make their appearance in incredible , numbers.” The Abbé Poiret, also, in his Memoir on the Insects of Barbary and Numidia, informs us, that the Moors make locusts a part of their food, that they go to hunt them, fry them in oil and butter, and sell them publicly at Tunis, at Bonne, &c. From these accounts, we may see the folly of that dispute among the divines about the nature of St John’s food in the wilderness; some maintaining the original word to signify the fruits of certain trees; others, a kind of birds, &c.: but those who adhered to the literal meaning of the text were at least the most orthodox, although their arguments were perhaps not so strong as they might have been had they had an opportunity of quoting such authors as the above.
ACRISIUS, in fabulous history, king of Argos, being told by the oracle that he should be killed by his grandchild, shut up his only daughter Danae in a brazen tower; but Jupiter coming down in a golden shower, begot Perseus by her. After Perseus had slain the Gorgons, he carried Medusa’s head to Argos; which Acrisius seeing, was turned into a statue.
ACRITAS, in Ancient Geography, a promontory of Messenia, running into the sea, an’i forming the beginning of the bay of Messene; now Capo de Gallo.
ACROAMATIC, or Acroatic, in general denotes a thing sublime, profound, or abstruse.
ACROAMATICI a denomination given to the disciples or followers of Aristotle, &c. who were admitted into the secrets of the inner or acroamatic philosophy.
ACROATIC is a name given to Aristotle’s lectures to his disciples, which were of two kinds, exoteric and acroatic. The acroatic were those to which only his own disciples and intimate friends were admitted; whereas the exoteric were public and open to all. But there are other differences. The acroatic were set apart for the higher and more abstruse subjects; the exoteric were employed in rhetorical and civil speculations. Again, the acroatics were more subtile and exact, evidence and demonstration being here aimed at; the exoterics chiefly aimed at the probable and plausible. The former were the subject of the morning exercises in the Lyceum, the latter of the evening. Besides, the exoterics were published, whereas the acroatics were kept secret, being either entirely concealed, or, if they were published, it was in such obscure terms that few but his own disciples could be the wiser for them. Hence, when Alexander complained of his preceptor for publishing his acroatics, and thus revealing what should have been reserved to his disciples, Aristotle answered, that they were made public and not public; for that none who had not heard them explained by the author viva voce could understand them.
ACROBATES, in antiquity, were rope-dancers, who performed various feats by vaulting or tumbling on a rope; sliding down on a rope from a lofty station with arms and legs extended, in imitation of flying; and running, dancing, and leaping, on a rope stretched horizontally.
ACROBATICA, or Acrobaticum, from ακ%ος, high, and βατεω or βαινω, I go ; an ancient engine whereby people were raised aloft, that they might see more conveniently about them. The acróbatìea among the Greeks amounted to the same with what they call scansorium among the Latins. Authors are divided as to the use of this engine. Turnebus and Barbarus take it to have been of the military kind, raised by besiegers, high enough to overlook the walls and discover the state of things on the other side. Baldus rather supposes it a kind of movable, scaffold, or cradle, contrived íbr raising painters, plasterers, and other workmen, to the tops of houses, trees, &c. Some suspect that it might have been used for both purposes; which is the opinion of Vitruvius and Aquinas, v
ACROCERAUNIA, or Montes Ceraunii, in Ancient Geography, mountains so called from their being often struck by thunder. They are on the western coast of Greece, and terminate at a cape in Lat. 40. 25. N.
ACROCHERISMUS, among the Greeks, a sort of gymnastic exercise, in which the two combatants contended with their hands and fingers only, without closing or engaging the other parts of the body.
ACROCORINTHUS, in Ancient Geography, a high and steep hill hanging over the city of Corinth, on which was built the acropolis, or citadel.
ACROMION, in Anatomy, the upper part of the scapula or shoulder-blade.
ACROMONOGRAMMATICUM, in Poetry, a kind of poem, wherein every subsequent verse begins with the letter wherewith the immediately preceding one terminated.
ACRON, a celebrated physician of Agrigentum, in Sicily, who lived about the middle of the fifth century before Christ. He first thought of lighting large fires, and purifying the air with perfumes, to put a stop to the pestilence that ravaged Athens, and which was attended with success. He wrote two treatises, according to Suidas, in the Doric dialect; the one on physic, and the other on abstinence or diet.

Acron, a considerable kingdom on the Gold Coast of Africa, the principal seaport of which is Apam, where the Dutch have a fort; but both it and the town were nearly destroyed during the Ashantee campaign of 1811, and the trade carried on there is now of little importance.
ACRONIĊAL, Achronycal, or Achronical, in Astronomy, is a term applied to the rising of a star when the sun is set in the evening; but has been promiscuously used to express a star’s rising at sunset, or setting at sunrise.
ACROPOLIS, in Ancient Geography, the citadel and one of the divisions of Athens, called Polis because constituting the first and original city, and the Upper Polis to distinguish it from the lower, which was afterwards built round it in a large open plain, the Acropolis standing on a rock or eminence in the heart of this plain; and hence its name. To the north it had a wall built by the Pelasgi, and therefore called Pelasgic ; and to the south a wall, by Cimon the son of Miltiades, out of the Persian spoils, many ages after the building of the north wall. It had nine gates, and was therefore called Enneapylon ; yet but one principal gate or entrance, the ascent to which was by a flight of steps of white marble, built in a magnificent manner by Pericles.
ACROPOLITA, George, one of the writers in the Byzantine history, was born at Constantinople in the year 1220, and educated at the court of the Emperor John Ducas at Nice. He was employed in the most important affairs of the empire, being sent ambassador to Larissa to establish a peace with Michael of Epirus; and was constituted judge to try Michael Comnenus, who was suspected of engaging in a conspiracy. Theodorus Lascaris, the son of John, whom he had taught logic, appointed him governor of all the western provinces in his empire. In 1255, he was taken prisoner in a war with Michael Angelus; but gaining his liberty in 1260, by means of the Emperor Palaeologus, he was sent by him ambassador to Constantine, prince of Bulgaria; and was employed in several other negotiations. He wrote, a Continuation of the Greek History, from the taking of Constantinople by [7:2:129] the Latins till it was recovered by Michael Palaeologus in 1261, which makes part of the Byzantine history; A ,Treatise concerning Faith, Virtue, and the Soul; An Exposition of the Sermons of St Gregory Nazianzen, and other pieces. Gregory Cyprian, patriarch of Constantinople, in an extravagant encomium upon him, prefixed to Acropolita’s history, says he was equal to Aristotle in philosophy, and to Plato in the knowledge of divine things and Attic eloquence.
ACROSPIRE, a vulgar term for what botanists call the plumes.
ACROSPIRED, in malt-making, is the grain’s shooting both at the root and blade end.
ACROSTIC, in Poetry, a kind of poetical composition, disposed in such a manner that the initial letters of the verses form the name of some person, kingdom, place, motto, &c. The word is compounded of the Greek ακgoς, extremity, and στιχος, verse. The acrostic is considered by the critics as a species of false wit, and is therefore very little regarded by the moderns.
ACROSTICHUM, Rustyback, Wall-rue, or Fork-Fern.
ACROSTOLIUM, in ancient naval architecture, the extreme part of the ornament used on the prows of ships, which was sometimes in the shape of a buckler, helmet, animal, &c. but more frequently circular, or spiral. It was usual to tear them from the prows of vanquished vessels, and fix them to those of the conquerors, as a signal of victory. They were frequently represented on the reverse of ancient medals.
ACROTELEUTIC, among ecclesiastic writers, an appellation given to any thing added to the end of a psalm; as the Gloria Patri, or Doxology.
ACROTERIA, in Architecture, small pedestals, usually without bases, anciently placed at the middle or two extremes of pediments or frontispieces, serving to support the statues, &c. It also signifies the figures placed as ornaments on the tops of churches, and the sharp pinnacles that stand in ranges about flat buildings with rails and balusters.—Among ancient physicians, it signified the larger extremities of the body, as the head, hands, and feet. It has also been used for the tips of the fingers, and sometimes for the eminence or processes of bones.
ACROTHYMION, from ακgos, extreme, and duµoj, thyme; a sort of wart, described by Celsus as hard and rough, with a narrow basis and broad top: the top is of the colour of thyme. It easily splits and bleeds. This tumour is also called thymus.
ACTAE were meadows of remarkable verdure and luxuriancy near the sea-shore, where the Romans used to indulge themselves to a great degree in softness and delicacy of living. The word is used in this sense by Cicero and Virgil; but Vossius thinks it can only be used in speaking of Sicily, as these two authors did.
ACTAEA, Herb-Christopher, or Bane-Berries.
ACTAEON, in fabulous history, the son of Aristaeus and Autonöe; a great hunter. He was transformed by Diana into a stag, because he looked on her while bathing; and was devoured by his own dogs. The effect of impertinent curiosity and expensive pleasures seem to be the moral of the fable.
ACTIAN Games, in Roman antiquity, were solemn games instituted by Augustus, in memory of his victory over Mark Antony at Actium, held every fifth year, and celebrated in honour of Apollo, since called Αctius. Hence Action Years, an era commencing from the battle of Actium, called the Era of Augustus. Virgil insinuates them to have been instituted by Aeneas, from that passage, Aen. iii. V. 280:

Actiaque Iliacis celebramus 1ittora ludis.

But this he only does by way of compliment to Augustus; attributing that to the hero from whom he descended, which was done by the emperor himself; as is observed by Servius.
ACTINIA, in Zoology, a genus belonging to the order of Vermes mollusea, called Animal Flowers and Sea Anemonies.
ACTIONARY, or Actionist, a proprietor of stock in a trading company.
ACTIVE denotes something that communicates action or motion to another; in which acceptation it stands opposed to passive.

Active, in Grammar, is applied to such words as express action, and is therefore opposed to passive. The active performs the action, as the passive receives it. Thus we say, a verb active, a conjugation active, &c. Or an active participle.

ACTIVE Verbs are such as do not only signify doing, or acting, but have also nouns following them, to be the subject of the action or impression. Thus, to love, to teach, are verbs active ; because we can say, to love a thing, to teach a man. Neuter verbs also denote an action, but are distinguished from active verbs, in that they cannot have a noun following them: such are, to sleep, to go, &c. Some grammarians, however, make three kinds of active verbs; the transitive, where the action passes into a subject different from the agent; reflected, where the action returns upon the agent; and reciprocal, where the action returns mutually upon the two agents who produced it.
ACTIVITY, in general, denotes the power of acting, or the active faculty.

Sphere of Activity, the whole space in which the virtue, power, or influence of any object is exerted.
ACTIUM, in Ancient Geography, a town situated on the coast of Acarnania, in itself inconsiderable, but famous for a temple of Apollo, a Safe harbour, and an adjoining promontory of the same name, in the mouth of the Sinus Ambracius, opposite to Nicoolis, on the other side of the bay. It became famous on account of Augustus’s victory over Antony and Cleopatra, and for quinquennial games instituted there, called Actia, or Ludi Actiaci. Hence the epithet Actius, given to Apollo. (Virgil.) Actiaca oera, a computation of time from the battle of Actium.
ACTIUS, in mythology, a surname of Apollo, from Actium, where he was worshipped.
ACTON, a large village in the county of Middlesex and hundred of Ossulton, about five miles from London. It was formerly frequented on account of some saline springs, which have now fallen into disuse. The grand [7:2:133] junction canal, in its way from Uxbridge to London, passes through the parish. It is a rectory in the patronage of the bishop of London. The number of inhabitants 'were, in 1801, 1425; in 1811, 1674; and in 1821, 1929.
ACTOR, in general, signifies a person who acts or performs something.

Actor, among Civilians, the proctor or advocate in civil courts or causes; as Actor ecclesiae has been sometimes used for the advocate of the church, actor dominicus for the lord’s attorney, actor villae for the steward or head bailiff of a village.

Actor, in the Drama, is a person who represents some part or character. See Drama. Actors were highly honoured at Athens: at Rome they were despised, and not only denied all rank among the citizens, but even when any citizen appeared upon the stage, he was expelled his tribe, and deprived of the right of suffrage by censors. The French have in this respect adopted the ideas of the Romans; the English those of the Greeks. Women actors were unknown to the ancients, among whom men always performed the female character; and hence one reason for the use of masks among them. Actresses are by some said not to have been introduced on the English stage till after the restoration of King Charles II. who has been charged with contributing to the corrupting of our manners by importing this usage from abroad. But this can be but partly true, for Prynne, in his Histriomastix, speaks of women actors as prostitutes; which, as the queen of Charles I. sometimes acted in the court dramas, was one occasion of the severe prosecution brought against him for that book. See Bibliography, sect. 6.

Actor, the name of several persons in fabulous history. One Actor among the Aurunci is described by Virgil as a hero of the first rank. (Aen. xii.)
ACTORUM Tabulae, in antiquity, were tables instituted by Servius Tullius, in which the births of children were registered. They were kept in the treasury of Saturn.
ACTUAL, something that is real and effective, or that exists truly and absolutely. Thus, philosophers use the terms actual heat, actual cold, &c. in opposition to virtual or potential. Hence, among physicians, a red-hot iron, or fire, is called an actual cautery, in distinction from cauteries, or caustics, that have the power of producing the same effect upon the animal solids as actual fire, and are called potential cauteries. Boiling water is actually hot; brandy, producing heat in the body, is potentially hot, though of itself cold.

Actual Sin, that which is committed by the person himself, in opposition to original sin, or that which he contracted from being a child of Adam.
ACTUARIAE Naves, a kind of long and light ships among the Romans, thus denominated because they were chiefly designed for swiftness and expedition. They correspond to what the French call brigantines.
ACTUARIUS, a celebrated Greek physician of the thirteenth century, and the first Greek author who has treated of mild purgatives, such as cassia, manna, senna, &c. He is the first also who mentions distilled waters. His works were printed in one volume folio, by Henry Stephens, in 1567.

Actuarius, or Actarius, a notary, or officer, appointed to write the acts or proceedings of a court, or the like. In the eastern empire, the actuarii were properly officers, who kept the military accounts, received the corn from the susceptores, or storekeepers, and delivered it to the soldiers.
ACTUATE, to bring into act, or put a thing in action. Thus an agent is said, by the schoolmen, to actuate a power, when it produces an act in a subject. Thus the mind may be said to actuate the body; and thus a medicine is said, by ancient physicians, to be actuated or brought into action, when by means of the vital heat it is made to produce its effect.
ACTUS, in Ancient Architecture, a measure, in length equal to 120 Roman feet. In Ancient Agriculture the word signified the length of one furrow, or the distance a plough goes before it turns.

Actus Intervicinalis, a space of ground four feet in breadth, left between the lands as a path or way.

Actus Major, or Actus Quadratus, a piece of ground in a square form, whose side was equal to 120 feet, equal to half the jugerum.

Actus Minimus was a quantity of land 120 feet in length and four in breadth.
ACUANITES, in Ecclesiastical History, the same with those called more frequently Manichees. They took the name from Acua, a disciple of Thomas, one of the twelve apostles.
ACULEATE, or Aculeati, a term applied to any plant or animal armed with prickles.
ACULEI, the prickles of animals or of plants.
ACULER, in the Manege, is used for the motion of a horse when, in working upon volts, he does not go far enough forward at every time or motion, so that his shoulders embrace or take in too little ground, and his croupe comes too near the centre of the volt. Horses are naturally inclined to this fault in making demi-volts.
ACUMINA, in Antiquity, a kind of military omen, most generally supposed to have been taken from the points or edges of darts, swords, or other weapons.
ACUNA, Christopher de, a Spanish Jesuit, born at Burgos. He was admitted into the society in 1612, being then but 15 years of age. After having devoted some years to study, he. went to America, where he assisted in making converts in Chili and Peru. In 1640 he returned to Spain, and gave the king an account how far he had succeeded in the commission he had received to make discoveries on the river of the Amazons; and the year following he published, at Madrid, in a quarto volume, a description of this river, entitled Nuevo Descubri-miento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas. He was ten months together upon this river, having had instructions to inquire into every thing with the greatest exactness, that his Majesty might thereby be enabled to render the navigation more easy and commodious. He went aboard a ship at Quito with Peter Texiera, who had already been so far up the river, and was therefore thought a proper person to accompany him in this expedition. They embarked in February 1639, but did not arrive at Para till the December following. It is thought that the revolution of Portugal, by which the Spaniards lost Brazil, and the colony of Para, at the mouth of the river of the Amazons, led to the suppression of Acuna’s narrative; for, as it could not be of any advantage to the Spaniards, they were afraid it might prove of service to the Portuguese, by instructing them in the navigation of that great river. Μ. de Gomberville, the possessor of one of the few copies that escaped, published a French translation at Paris in 1682, in 2 vols. 12mo. Acuna appears to have returned to Peru, and to have died there; but the year of his death is uncertain.
ACUPUNCTURE, the name of a surgical operation among the Chinese and Japanese, which is performed by pricking the part affected with a silver needle. They employ this operation in headachs, lethargies, convulsions, colics, &c.
ACUS, in Ichthyology, the trivial name of a species of Syngnathus.
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