Iron Curtain Political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent east¬ ern European allies from open contact with the West and other noncom¬ munist areas. Winston Churchill employed the term in a speech in Fulton, Mo., U.S., about the division of Europe in 1946. The restrictions and the rigidity of the Iron Curtain eased slightly after Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, though the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 restored them. The Iron Curtain largely ceased to exist in 1989-90 with the communists’ abandonment of one-party rule in eastern Europe.
iron-deficiency anemia Most common type of anemia, which may develop in times of high iron loss and depletion of iron stores (e.g., rapid growth, pregnancy, menstruation) or in settings of low dietary iron intake or inefficient iron uptake (e.g., starvation, intestinal parasites, gastrec¬ tomy). Much of the world’s population is iron-deficient to some degree. Symptoms include low energy level and sometimes paleness, shortness of breath, cold extremities, sore tongue, or dry skin. In advanced cases, red blood cells are small, pale, and low in hemoglobin, blood iron levels are reduced, and body iron stores are depleted. Treatment with iron usually brings quick improvement.
iron ore, bog See bog iron ore
iron pyrite See pyrite
ironclad Type of warship developed in Europe and the U.S. in the mid- 19th century, characterized by the iron armour that protected the hull. In the Crimean War (1853-56) the French and British successfully attacked Russian fortifications with “floating batteries,” ironclad barges mounting
Irish terrier
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heavy guns. In 1859 the French completed the first iron warship, the Gloire ; its iron plates, 4.5 in. (11 cm) thick, were backed by heavy tim¬ ber. Britain and the U.S. soon followed. Union forces launched armored gunboats on the Mississippi at the start of the American Civil War, and a flotilla captured Fort Henry (1862). The first battle between ironclads was the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack (1862). Later refinements led to the battleship. See also monitor.
French ironclad Gloire, engraving by Smythe after a painting by A.W. Weedon
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; PHOTOGRAPH, J.R. FREEMAN & CO. LTD.
Irons, Jeremy (b. Sept. 19, 1948, Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng.) British actor. He made his London stage debut in Godspell (1973) and appeared on Broadway in The Real Thing (1984, Tony Award). After his screen debut in Nijinsky (1980), he won notice for The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981) and became widely popular in the television series Brides- head Revisited (1980-81). His performances were notable for their sen¬ sitivity and sophistication, and he offered deliciously wicked turns in Dead Ringers (1988) and Reversal of Fortune (1990, Academy Award). His later films include Damage (1992), The Lion King (1994), and Lolita
(1997).
iron weed Any of about 500 species genus Vernonia (family Asteraceae).
Small herbaceous (nonwoody) spe¬ cies are found throughout the world; shrubs and trees are found primarily in tropical regions. Iron weed species have lance-shaped, toothed leaves that alternate along the stem; clusters of flower heads composed only of disk flowers (no ray flowers); and a ring of overlapping bracts below the flower heads. Some autumn¬ blooming species are cultivated as border plants for their attractive white, purple, or pink flower clus¬ ters.
iron wood Any of numerous trees and shrubs, found worldwide, that have exceptionally tough or hard wood useful for timber, fence posts, and tool handles. Species include the eastern, or American, hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana ), a small tree of northern Iran (. Parrotia persica ), and Ceylon ironwood (Mesua ferrea). Though these trees belong to different plant orders, all have bright yellow to orange and scarlet autumn foliage.
irony Language device in which the real intent is concealed or contra¬ dicted by the literal meaning of words or a situation. Verbal irony, either spoken or written, arises from an awareness of contrast between what is and what ought to be. Dramatic irony, an incongruity in a theatrical work between what is expected and what occurs, depends on the structure of a play rather than its use of words, and it is often created by the audience’s awareness of a fate in store for the characters that they themselves do not suspect. See also figure of speech.
Iroquoian Vir-o-.kwoi-onX languages Family of about 16 North American Indian languages aboriginally spoken around the eastern Great Lakes and in parts of the Middle Atlantic states and the South. Aside from the languages of the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, all originally spoken in New York, along with Tus- carora, originally spoken in North Carolina) and Cherokee (originally spoken in the southern Appalachians), the Iroquoian languages are extinct, and with the exception of Huron and Wyandot, the extinct languages are poorly documented. Iroquoian languages are remarkable for their gram¬ matical intricacy. Much of a sentence’s semantic content is bound around a verbal base, so a single very long word may constitute a fairly complex utterance.
Iroquois \'ir-3-,kw6i\ Any of six North American members of the Iro¬ quois Confederacy living mostly in southern Ontario and Quebec, Can., and in New York, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Oklahoma, U.S. The name Iro¬ quois is a French derivation of Irinakhoiw, meaning “Rattlesnakes,” their Algonquian enemy’s epithet. They call themselves Hodenosaunee, mean¬ ing “People of the Longhouse.” The Iroquois were semi sedentary, prac¬ ticed agriculture, palisaded their villages, and dwelled in longhouses that lodged many families. Women worked the fields and, when they became clan elders, helped determine the makeup of village councils. Men built houses, hunted, fished, and made war. Iroquoian mythology was largely preoccupied with supernatural aggression and cruelty, sorcery, torture, and cannibalism. Their formal religion consisted of agricultural festivals. War¬ fare was ingrained in Iroquois society, and war captives were often tor¬ tured for days or made permanent slaves. All together the various Iroquois tribes number about 70,000 members, with the Mohawk making up more than half that figure.
Iroquois Confederacy or League of the Iroquois Confedera¬ tion of five (later six) Indian tribes across upper New York that in the 17th—18th century played a strategic role in the struggle between the French and British for supremacy in North America. The five original nations were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca; the Tuscarora, a non-voting member, joined in 1722. According to tradition, the confederacy was founded between 1570 and 1600 by Dekanawidah, bom a Huron (see Wyandot), carrying out the earlier ideas of Hiawatha, an Onondaga. Cemented mainly by their desire to stand together against invasion, the tribes united in a common council composed of 50 sachems; each original tribe had one vote, and unanimity was the rule. At first the confederacy barely withstood attacks from the Huron and Mahican, but by 1628 the Mohawk had defeated the Mahican and established them¬ selves as the region’s dominant tribe. When the Iroquois destroyed the Huron in 1648-50, they were attacked by the Huron’s French allies. Dur¬ ing the American Revolution, the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the American colonists while the rest of the league, led by Joseph Brant, fought for the British. The loyalist Iroquois were defeated in 1779 near Elmira, N.Y., and the confederacy came to an end.