Monumentum Ancyranum Xjnan-yu-'men-tom-.an-sir-'a-nonA (after ad 14) Latin and Greek inscription on the temple of Rome and Augustus at Ancyra (Ankara, Tur.). Known as the Res gestae divi Augusti (“Achievements of the Divine Augustus”), it represents the official account of his reign. It was composed by Augustus himself, who directed in his will that it be engraved on pillars at his mausoleum in Rome. The originals are missing, the copies at Ancyra being two of many.
monzonite \man- , zo- l nIt, 'man-zs-.nflA Type of igneous rock that con¬ tains abundant and approximately equal amounts of plagioclase and pot¬ ash feldspar, as well as other minerals. The type region is Monzoni, Italy, in the Italian Tirol; similar rocks have been described from Montana, Norway, Sakhalin Island, and other localities. Monzonite is not rare, but it generally occurs in rather small, heterogeneous masses mixed with diorites, pyroxenites, or gabbros.
mood or mode In grammar, a category that reflects the speaker’s view of an event’s reality, likelihood, or urgency. Often marked by special verb forms (inflections), moods include the indicative, for factual or neutral situations (e.g., “You did your work”); the imperative, to convey com¬ mands or requests (“Do your work”); and the subjunctive. The subjunc¬ tive’s functions vary widely. It may express doubt, possibility, necessity, desire, or future time. In English it often indicates a condition contrary to fact (e.g., “If he were to work here, he would have to learn to be punc¬ tual”).
Moody, Dwight L(yman) (b. Feb. 5, 1837, East Northfield, Mass., U.S.—d. Dec. 22, 1899, Northfield, Mass.) U.S. Protestant evangelist. Raised on a farm in Massachusetts, he moved first to Boston, where he converted to evangelical Christianity in 1856, and then to Chicago, where he prospered in business. He gave up business in 1860 and engaged in missionary work with the YMCA (1861-73). He founded Moody Church and preached in the slums, emphasizing literal interpretation of the Bible and the need to prepare for the Second Coming. In 1870 he teamed up with the hymn writer Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908), and they began a series of highly popular revival tours in Britain and the U.S. Moody founded the
Northfield School (1879), the Mount Hermon School (1881), and the Chicago Bible Institute (1889; now the Moody Bible Institute).
Moon Sole natural satellite of Earth, which it orbits from west to east at a mean distance of about 238,900 mi (384,400 km). It is less than one- third the size of Earth (diameter about 2,160 mi, or 3,476 km, at its equa¬ tor), about one-eightieth as massive, and about two-thirds as dense. Its surface gravity is about one-sixth that of Earth, and its gravitational pull is largely responsible for Earth’s tides. The Moon shines by reflected sun¬ light, but its albedo is only 7.3%. It rotates on its axis in about 29.5 days, in exactly the time it takes to orbit Earth, and it therefore always presents the same face to Earth. However, that face is lit by the Sun at different angles as the Moon revolves around Earth, causing it to display different phases over the month, from new to full. Most astronomers believe the Moon formed from a cloud of fragments ejected into Earth orbit when a MARS-sized body struck the proto-Earth early in the solar system’s his¬ tory. Its surface has been studied by telescope since Galileo first observed it in 1609 and firsthand by a total of 12 U.S. astronauts during the six successful lunar landing missions of the Apollo program. The dominant process affecting the surface has been impacts, both from micrometeorite bombardment, which grinds rock fragments into fine dust, and from mete¬ orite strikes, which produced the craters profusely scattered over its sur¬ face mostly early in its history, over four billion years ago. The maria (see mare) are huge, ancient lava flows. In the late 1990s unmanned spacecraft found possible signs of water ice near the Moon’s poles. More generally, a moon is any natural satellite orbiting a planet or other nonstellar body.
new moon waxing
crescent
5 © 6 ) full waning
moon gibbous
I c
first waxing
quarter gibbous
» •
last waning
quarter crescent
As the Moon revolves around Earth, the amount of its illuminated half seen from Earth slowly increases and decreases (waxes and wanes). The cycle takes about 29'/2 days.
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Moon, Sun Myung (b. Jan. 6, 1920, Kwangju Sangsa Ri, P’yongan- puk province, Korea) South Korean religious leader. Convinced that he was designated by God as a successor to Jesus, Moon began to preach a new religion, loosely based on Christianity, in North Korea in 1946. After being imprisoned by North Korean authorities, he escaped or was released and went to South Korea, where he founded the Unification Church in 1954 and built a multimillion-dollar business empire. In 1973 he moved his headquarters to Tarrytown, N.Y., U.S., where he became the focus of con¬ troversies over fund-raising techniques, tax evasion, and the indoctrina¬ tion of followers (popularly called Moonies). In 1982 Moon was convicted of tax evasion, sentenced to 18 months in prison, and fined $25,000. He has also suffered from a damaging expose by his daughter- in-law. In the 1990s the church began operations in Brazil, where its pur¬ chase of large tracts of rainforest has been widely criticized.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
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Moor Any member of the Muslim population of Spain, of mixed Arab, Spanish, and Berber origins. North African Muslims (called by their Latin name Mauri—i.e., natives of Roman Mauretania) invaded Spain in the 8th century and, under the Umayyad and Almoravid dynasties, created the great Arab Andalusian civilization in such cities as Cordoba, Toledo, Granada, and Sevilla. The Christian reconquest of Spain under Alfonso VI began in the 11th century; from then until the Moors’ final defeat in 1492 and for another century thereafter, many Moors settled as refugees in North Africa. See also Mudejars.
Moore, Archie orig. Archibald Lee Wright (b. Dec. 13, 1913, Benoit, Miss., U.S.—d. Dec. 9, 1998, San Diego, Calif.) U.S. boxer. Moore began boxing in the 1930s but had difficulty advancing because contending fighters thought him too formidable. In 1952 he defeated Joey Maxim to win the world light-heavyweight championship. He held the crown until 1962, when he was disqualified for failing to meet the lead¬ ing contender, Harold Johnson. From 1936 to 1963 he fought 229 bouts and won 194 of them, 141 by knockouts. He later became a film actor and youth worker.
Moore, Brian (b. Aug. 25, 1921, Belfast, N.Ire.—d. Jan. 10, 1999, Malibu, Calif., U.S.) Irish-born Canadian novelist. Moore immigrated to Canada in 1948 and was a writer for the Montreal Gazette from 1952. He is best known for his first novel, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955; film, 1987), about an aging spinster whose pretensions to gentil¬ ity are gradually dissolved in alcoholism. His later novels include The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960), The Emperor of Ice Cream (1965), The Doctor’s Wife (1976), and The Magician’s Wife (1998). His novels were very different from each other in voice, setting, and incident but alike in their lucid, elegant, and vivid prose.
Moore, Clement Clarke (b. July 15, 1779, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. July 10, 1863, Newport, R.I.) U.S. scholar remembered for the ballad that begins “’Twas the night before Christmas.” Moore cofounded General Theological Seminary and taught Oriental and Greek literature there (1821-50). He is said to have composed “A Visit to St. Nicholas” to amuse his children on Christmas 1822, and it was published anonymously in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel, on Dec. 23, 1823. In 2000 it was determined that the poem was probably the work of Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748-1828).