woolly bear or wooly bear Caterpillar of a tiger moth. The larva of the Isabella tiger moth (Isia isabella ), known as the banded woolly bear, is brown in the middle and black at both ends. The width of the black bands is purported to predict the severity of the coming winter: the nar¬ rower the bands, the milder the weather will be.
Woolworth Co. Historic U.S. merchandising company. F.W. Wool- worth (1852-1919) founded his first “five- and ten-cent” store in 1879. By 1904 there were 120 stores in 21 states. The company’s New York headquarters, the Woolworth building (completed 1913), was the world’s tallest skyscraper from 1913 to 1930. By 1929 Woolworth had about 2,250
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wootz ► Workers' Opposition I 2075
outlets. Its stores continued to proliferate in the U.S. and Britain, and it acquired other chains dealing in sportswear, shoes, and children’s wear. From 1992 it began closing hundreds of stores and selling off subsidiar¬ ies; in 1998 it changed its name to Venator Group, Inc., and announced its intention to focus on sporting goods. In 2001 the company name was changed to Foot Locker, Inc.
wootz (steel) Vwiits\ Steel produced by a method known in ancient India. The process involved preparation of porous iron, hammering it while hot to release slag, breaking it up and sealing it with wood chips in a clay container, and heating it until the pieces of iron absorbed car¬ bon from the wood and melted. The steel thus produced had a uniform composition of 1-1.6% carbon and could be heated and forged into bars for later use in fashioning articles, such as the famous medieval Dam¬ ascus swords. See also bloomery process.
Worcester Vwus-tarV City (pop., 2000: 172,648), central Massachusetts, U.S. On the Blackstone River, the original settlement (1673) of Worcester was disbanded during King Philip's War (1675-76) and a later settlement was established in 1713. Textile manufacturing began in 1789; the first corduroy cloth in the U.S. was produced there. Industrial development occurred after the opening (1828) of the Blackstone Canal. An early abo¬ litionist centre, Worcester became an important stop on the Underground Railroad. It is a commercial and industrial centre and the state’s second largest city. Among its institutions of higher education are College of the Holy Cross and Clark University (1887).
Worcester City and administrative district (pop., 2001: 93,358), admin¬ istrative and historic county of Worcestershire, west-central England. Located on the River Severn, it was settled before ad 680. During the Middle Ages it was an important wool town and also became known for its glove making. Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarian army routed Charles II and his Scottish army in the Battle of Worcester, effecting an end to the English Civil Wars. In 1751 John Wall founded the porcelain industry for which the town became famous, and in 1838 the condiment known as Worcestershire sauce was introduced there by Lea & Perrins. The town’s noted cathedral (11th-14th century) contains the tombs of King John and Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII. Cathedral Grammar School and Royal Grammar School were founded in the 16th century.
word processing Preparation of textual documents on computer. A word-processing system typically consists simply of a personal computer linked to a computer printer, but it may instead employ a terminal linked to a mainframe computer. Word processing differs from typewriter typing in numerous ways. Electronic text can be moved around at will; mis¬ spelled terms can be corrected throughout the document by means of a single command; spelling and grammar checkers can automatically alert the user to apparent errors of spelling, punctuation, and syntax; and the document’s format, layout, and type fonts and sizes can be changed repeatedly until a satisfactory design is achieved. Since all editing ideally occurs on-screen, word processing can result in decreased paper usage and simplified editing. When the final draft is ready, the document can be printed out (in multiple copies if necessary), sent as an e-mail attachment, shared on a computer network, or simply stored as an electronic file.
Worde Vword\, Wynkyn de orig. Jan van Wynkyn (b.
Alsace—d. 1534/35) Alsatian-born British printer. He was employed at William Caxton’s press from its founding in 1476 until Caxton’s death, when he took over the concern. Unlike Caxton and many other contem¬ porary printers, he did not edit or translate. An astute businessman, he published at least 600 titles after 1501, and he was the first printer in England to use italic type (1524).
Wordsworth, Dorothy (b. Dec. 25, 1771, Cockermouth, Cumber¬ land, Eng.—d. Jan. 25, 1855, Rydal Mount, Westmorland) English writer. An inspiring influence on her brother William Wordsworth, she lived with him from 1795 onward. Her Alfoxden Journal 1798 (1897)—from the period when he and Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced Lyrical Ballads (1798)—and Grasmere Journals 1800-03 (1897) are intimate records of their lives. Both are appreciated for their imaginative descriptions of nature, their perfection of style, and their revelation of her personality as well as for the light they throw on her brother. In 1829 severe illness left her an invalid, and her mind was clouded in her last 20 years.
Wordsworth, William (b. April 7, 1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland, Eng.—d. April 23, 1850, Rydal Mount, Westmorland) English poet. Orphaned at age 13, Wordsworth attended Cambridge University, but he
remained rootless and virtually penniless until 1795, when a legacy made possible a reunion with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. He became friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom he wrote Lyrical Ballads (1798), the collection often considered to have launched the English Romantic movement. Wordsworth’s contributions include “Tintern Abbey” and many lyrics controversial for their common, everyday lan¬ guage. About 1798 he began writing The Prelude (1850), the epic auto¬ biographical poem that would absorb him intermittently for the next 40 years. His second verse collection. Poems, in Two Volumes (1807), includes many of the rest of his finest works, including “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.” His poetry is perhaps most original in its vision of the organic relation between man and the natural world, a vision that culmi¬ nated in the sweeping metaphor of nature as emblematic of the mind of God. The most memorable poems of his middle and late years were often cast in elegaic mode; few match the best of his earlier works. By the time he became widely appreciated by the critics and the public, his poetry had lost much of its force and his radical politics had yielded to conservatism. In 1843 he became England’s poet laureate. He is regarded as the central figure in the initiation of English Romanticism.
work In economics and sociology, the activities and labour necessary for the survival of society. As early as 40,000 bc, hunters worked in groups to track and kill animals, while younger or weaker members of the tribe gathered food. When agriculture replaced hunting and gathering, the resulting surplus of food allowed early societies to develop and some of its members to pursue crafts such as pottery, weaving, and metallurgy. Historically, rigid social hierarchies caused nobles, clergy, merchants, arti¬ sans, and peasants to pursue occupations defined largely by hereditary social class. Craft guilds, influential in the economic development of medi¬ eval Europe, limited the supply of labour in each profession and controlled production. The establishment of towns led to the creation of new occu¬ pations in commerce, law, medicine, and defense. The coming of the Industrial Revolution, spurred by technological advances such as steam power, changed working life profoundly. Factories divided the work once done by a single craftsman into a number of distinct tasks performed by unskilled or semiskilled workers (see division of labour). Manufacturing firms grew larger in the 19th century as standardized parts and machine tools came into use, and ever-more-specialized positions for managers, supervisors, accountants, engineers, technicians, and salesmen became necessary. The trend toward specialization continued into the 21st cen¬ tury, giving rise to a number of disciplines concerned with the manage¬ ment and design of work, including production management, industrial relations, personnel administration, and systems engineering. By the turn of the 21st century, automation and technology had spurred tremendous growth in service industries.