Tabernacle In Jewish history, the portable sanctuary constructed by Moses as a place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during the period of wandering that preceded their arrival in the Promised Land. Elaborately described in Exodus, it was divided into an outer room, the “holy place,” and an inner room, the Holy of Holies, which housed the Ark of the Cov¬ enant. With the erection of the Temple of Jerusalem, the Tabernacle no longer served a purpose. In modern Roman Catholicism and Eastern Ortho¬ doxy, the tabernacle is the receptacle on the church altar in which the con¬ secrated elements of the Eucharist are stored.
tabla \'ta-bl3\ Pair of small drums, the principal per¬ cussion in Hindustani music of northern India. The higher-pitched daya, played with the right hand, is a roughly cylindrical one-skinned drum, usually wooden, normally tuned to the raga’s tonic. The baya, played with the left hand, is a deep kettledrum usually of copper; its pitch varies with pressure from the heel of the player’s hand. A disk of black tuning paste on the membrane of each drum gives it harmonic overtones.
table Article of furniture used in the Western world since at least the 7th century bc, consisting of a flat slab of stone, metal, wood, or glass supported by trestles, legs, or a pillar. Though tables were used in ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Greece, only during the Middle Ages, with the growing formality of life under feudalism, did tables increasingly take on social significance. Tables with attached legs appeared in the 15th century. The draw top was invented in the 16th century, making it possible to double the table length. Increasing contact with the East in the 18th century led to increas¬ ing specialization in the design of occasional tables.
Table Bay Inlet, Atlantic Ocean, forming the harbour of Cape Town, South Africa. It is 12 mi (19 km) long and 8 mi (12 km) wide. Although less sheltered than other bays along the coast, it became a port of call for ships traveling to India and the East because of the availability of fresh water. The shore was permanently settled by the Dutch in 1652.
table tennis or (trademark) Ping-Pong Game similar to lawn ten¬ nis that is played on a tabletop with wooden paddles and a small, hollow, plastic ball. The object is to hit the ball so that it goes over the net and bounces on the opponent’s half of the table in such a way as to defeat the opponent’s attempt to reach and return it. Both singles and doubles games are played. A match consists of the best of any odd number of games, each game being won by the player or team who first reaches 11 points or who, after 10 points each, gains a two-point lead. Invented in England in the early 20th century, it soon spread throughout the world. Since the mid-1950s, East Asian countries have dominated the sport. It has been an Olympic sport for both men and women since 1988.
taboo Prohibition against touching, saying, or doing something for fear of immediate harm from a supernatural force. The term is of Polynesian origin and was first noted by Capt. James Cook during his 1771 visit to Tonga, but taboos have been present in virtually all cultures. They may include prohibitions on fishing or hunting at certain seasons, eating cer¬ tain foods, interacting with members of other social classes, coming into contact with corpses, and (for women) performing certain activities dur¬ ing menstruation. Although some taboos can be traced to evident risks to health and safety, there is no generally accepted explanation of most oth¬ ers; most authorities agree that they tend to relate to objects and actions that are significant for the maintenance of social order.
Tabriz \ta-'brez\ City (pop., 1996: 1,191,043), northwestern Iran. Earth¬ quakes and invasions by Arabs, Turks, and Mongols have damaged the city numerous times. The Turkic ruler Timur conquered it in 1392. During the next 200 years control passed several times between Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire. During the 18th—19th centuries it passed between the Ottomans and the Russian Empire, and the same powers fought over it in World War I (1914-18). In the 1850s a schismatic Shfite religious leader known as the Bab (“Gateway”) and 40,000 of his followers were executed there. It was damaged during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-90). Notable ancient sites include the 15th-century Blue Mosque, renowned for the splendour of its blue tile decoration, and the remains of the 12-sided tomb of Mongol leader MahmOd Ghazan.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Tabriz school ► Taff Vale case I 1861
Tabriz school School of miniaturist painting founded by the Mongol Il-Khans early in the 14th century. Reflecting the penetration of East Asian traditions into Islamic painting, early Tabriz works were characterized by light, feathery brush strokes, gentle colouring, and an attempt to create the illusion of spatiality. The school reached its peak just as the Il-Khans were being conquered by the Islamic Timurids (1370-1506). It continued to be active in this period, though it was overshadowed by the workshops in Shiraz and Herat.
Tachism Vta-.shi-zomN (from French, tache: “spot”) Style of painting practiced in Paris after World War II and through the 1950s. Like its U.S. equivalent, action painting, it featured the intuitive, spontaneous gesture of the artist’s brush stroke. The Tachists, including Hans Hartung and Georges Mathieu, produced large works of sweeping brush strokes and of drips, blots, stains, and splashes of colour. Tachism was part of the postwar movement known as Art Informel, inspired by U.S. Abstract Expressionism.
tachycardia \,ta-ki-'kar-de-3\ Heart rate over 100 (as high as 240) beats per minute. When it is a normal response to exercise or stress, it is no danger to healthy people, but when it originates elsewhere, it is an arrhyth¬ mia. Symptoms include fatigue, faintness, shortness of breath, and feeling the heart thumping. It may subside within minutes or hours with no last¬ ing ill effects, but in serious heart, lung, or circulatory disease it can pre¬ cede atrial fibrillation or heart attack and demands immediate medical attention. Tachycardias can be treated by an electric shock to the heart, by antiarrhythmic drugs, and by pacemakers.
tachyon \'ta-ke-,an\ Hypothetical subatomic particle whose velocity is always greater than that of light. Its existence appears consistent with the theory of relativity. Just as an ordinary particle such as an electron can exist only at speeds less than that of light, a tachyon can exist only at speeds greater than that of light. At such speeds, its mass would be real and positive. On losing energy, a tachyon accelerates; the faster it trav¬ els, the less energy it has. The existence of tachyons has not been estab¬ lished experimentally.
Tacitus \'ta-s3-tos\ in full Publius Cornelius Tacitus (b. ad 56— d.
c. 120) Roman orator, public official, and historian. After studying rheto¬ ric, he began his career with a minor magistracy, eventually advancing to the proconsulate of Asia, the top provincial governorship (112-113). In 98 he wrote De vita Julii Agricolae, a biographical account of his father- in-law, governor of Britain; and De origine et situ Germanorum (known as the Germania ), describing the people of the Roman frontier on the Rhine. His works on Roman history are the Histories , concerning the empire from ad 69 to 96, and the later Annals, dealing with the empire from ad 14 to 68; the latter effectively diagnoses the decline of Roman political freedom he had described in the Histories. Only parts of each are extant. Tacitus is regarded as perhaps the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists to write in Latin.
Tacoma City and seaport (pop., 2000: 193,556), western Washington, U.S. Located on Puget Sound, Tacoma was settled in 1864 and grew to become a lumbering and port city. Docks and wharves line its waterfront. A boat-building centre, the city also has smelters, foundries, and electro¬ chemical plants. It is a gateway to Mount Rainier National Park and is connected by bridge to the Olympic Peninsula recreation areas. It is the seat of the University of Puget Sound (1888) and Pacific Lutheran Uni¬ versity (1890).