quicksilver See mercury
Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur (Thomas) (b. Nov. 21, 1863, Bodmin, Cornwall, Eng.—d. May 12, 1944, Fowey, Cornwall) English poet, nov¬ elist, and anthologist. Educated at Oxford, he worked as a journalist and editor in London before settling in his native Cornwall. He taught at Cambridge from 1912. He is noted for compiling The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (1900; revised 1939) and The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910). His works, written in a clear and apparently effortless style, include many novels and short stories, verse, and criticism, includ¬ ing On the Art of Writing (1916) and On the Art of Reading (1920).
quilombo \ke-Tom-bo\ ormocambo In colonial Brazil, a community organized by fugitive slaves. Quilombos were located in inaccessible areas and usually consisted of fewer than 100 people who survived by farming and raiding. The largest and most famous was Palmares, which grew into an autonomous republic and by the 1690s had 20,000 inhabitants. It owed its prosperity to abundant irrigated land and the abduction of slaves from Portuguese plantations. The abducted slaves were kept in bondage by the runaways. Several Portuguese and Dutch slave-hunting expeditions ( ban- deira ) attempted to destroy Palmares; one of these finally succeeded in
quilting Process of stitching together two layers of fabric, usually with a soft, thick substance placed between them. The layer of wool, cotton, or other stuffing provides insulation; the stitching keeps the stuffing evenly distributed and also provides opportunity for artistic expression. Quilting has long been used for clothing in many parts of the world, especially in the Far and Middle East and the Muslim regions of Africa. It reached its fullest development in the U.S., where it was at first popularly used for petticoats and comforters. By the end of the 18th century the U.S. quilt had distinctive features, such as coloured fabric sewn on the outer layers (applique) and stitching that echoed the applique pattern. Patchwork pat¬ terns proliferated in the 19th and 20th centuries.
quince Any of the fruit shrubs and small trees that make up the genus Cydonia, in the ROSE family. Com¬ mon quince (C. oblonga) is native to Iran, Turkey, and perhaps Greece and the Crimea. The raw golden-yellow fruit has a strong fragrant aroma and astringent taste; it takes on a pink colour when cooked and makes an excellent preserve. The Japanese quince ( Chaenomeles species) is an ornamental shrub widely used for its flowers, which appeal' on the tightly branched stems before the leaves open fully in late winter and early spring.
Quincey, Thomas De See Tho¬ mas De Quincey
Quine, W(illard) V(an) O(rman) (b. June 25, 1908, Akron, Ohio, U.S.—d. Dec. 25, 2000, Boston, Mass.) U.S. logician and philosopher. He completed his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1932 and joined the fac¬ ulty there in 1936. From 1942 to 1945 he served as a naval intelligence
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Quetzalcoatl, limestone figure of the Huastec culture, Mexico, ad 900-1250; in The Brooklyn Museum, New York.
COURTESY OF THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM, NEW VORK, HENRY L BATTERMAN AND FRANK S. BENSON FUNDS
Quince (Cydonia oblonga ).
WALTER CHANDOHA
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1578 I quinine ► quoits
officer in Washington, D.C. Promoted to full professor at Harvard in 1948, he remained there until 1978, when he retired. He produced highly origi¬ nal and important work in several areas of philosophy, including episte¬ mology, logic, ontology, and the philosophy of language. He was known for rejecting epistemological foundationalism in favour of what he called “naturalized epistemology,” whose modest task is merely to give a psy¬ chological account of how scientific knowledge is obtained. Though influ¬ enced by the logical positivism of Rudolf Carnap and other members of the Vienna Circle, he famously rejected one of their cardinal doctrines, the analytic-synthetic distinction. In ontology he rejected the existence of prop¬ erties, propositions, and meanings as ill-defined or scientifically useless. He was also known for his behaviourist account of language learning and for his thesis of the “indeterminacy of translation,” according to which there can be no “fact of the matter” about which of indefinitely many pos¬ sible translations of one language into another is correct. His many books include Word and Object (1960), The Roots of Reference (1974), and an autobiography. The Time of My Life (1985).
quinine VkwI-.nlnV Alkaloid found in the bark of cinchona trees and shrubs. The chemical structure of this heterocyclic compound is large and complex, with several rings. For the 300 years preceding the 1940s, when newer antimalarials were developed, quinine was the only drug known to Western medicine for the prevention and treatment of malaria. The first chemical compound ever used successfully against an infectious disease, it has benefited more people than any other such drug in history and is still used to treat malaria, often in combination with other drugs. Quinine is also a flavouring agent in some carbonated beverages, including tonic water.
Quinn, Anthony (Rudolph Oaxaca) (b. April 21, 1915, Chihua¬ hua, Mex.—d. June 3, 2001, Boston, Mass., U.S.) Mexican-born U.S. film actor. He began appearing in movies in 1936, initially playing bit parts as American Indians or ethnic characters. After appearing on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire, he returned to Hollywood, where he won Academy Awards for his supporting roles in Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956). He was noted for his earthy masculinity and acted in over 100 other films, notably Federico Fellini’s La strada (1954), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), and Zorba the Greek (1964). Quinn was also a successful artist and sculptor.
quinone \kwi-'non\ Any member of a class of cyclic organic com¬ pounds comprising a six-membered unsaturated ring (see saturation) to which two oxygen atoms are bonded as carbonyl groups (—C=0; see functional group). This structure plays an important role in theories of chemical structure and colour, since quinones occur as pigments in bacte¬ ria, fungi, and certain higher plants; animals containing quinones obtain them from plants they eat. The K vitamins (see vitamin K) are naphtho¬ quinones. The term quinone often specifically denotes para-benzoquinone (C 6 H 4 0 2 ), a bright yellow solid with a sharp odour used in manufactur¬ ing dyes and fungicides and in photography.
Quintana Roo \ke-'ta-na-'ro\ State (pop., 2000: 874,963), eastern Yucatan Peninsula, southeastern Mexico. It has an area of 19,397 sq mi (50,212 sq km), and its capital is Chetumal. The region was used as a place of exile for political prisoners for many years. Originally created as a ter¬ ritory from parts of YucatAn and Campeche states, it became a state in 1974. It is the site of many Maya ruins. Its main products are chicle (for chew¬ ing gum) and a small amount of copra (for producing coconut oil); the latter is produced on the coast near the island of Cozumel (where Hernan Cortes landed in 1519), which is now a popular tourist destination.
Quinte Vkwin-te\, Bay of Arm of Lake Ontario, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It extends for 75 mi (121 km) from its entrance near Amherst Island to Murray Canal at the western end. A resort area, it is a scenic, naiTOw bay with many small inlets. Among the major settlements around the bay are Trenton, Belleville, Deseronto, and Picton. The bay’s name was derived from Kente, an Indian village on the bay’s western shore.
Quintero \ken-'ter-6\, Jose (Benjamin) (b. Oct. 15, 1924, Panama City, Pan.—d. Feb. 26,1999, New York, N. Y., U.S.) Panamanian-born U.S. theatrical director. After studying theatre at theUniversity of Southern Cali¬ fornia, he directed his first play in 1949. He was a founder of the Off- Broadway theatre Circle in the Square, where he directed regularly from 1950, establishing the house as a major centre for serious theatre. His direc¬ tion of Tennessee Williams’s Summer and Smoke (1952) confirmed his repu¬ tation and made a star of Geraldine Page. He was best known for his productions of 20th-century plays, especially those of Williams and Eugene