Months
Month
Derivation
January (31 days)
from the Roman republican calendar month Januarius, named for Janus, god of beginnings
February (28, 29
from the Roman month Februarius, named for Februa, the festi-
in leap year)
val of purification held on the 15th
March (31)
from the Roman month Martius, named for Mars
April (30)
from the Roman month Aprilis, perhaps derived from the
Greek Aphrodite (the month being sacred to her Roman equivalent, Venus), or from Latin aperire, "to open," for the unfolding of buds and blossoms
May (31)
from the Roman month Maius, probably named for the god¬ dess Maia
June (30)
from the Roman month Junius, probably named for Juno
July (31)
from the Roman month Julius (formerly Quintilis), named for
Julius Caesar in 44 BC
August (31)
from the Roman month Augustus (formerly Sextilis), named for Augustus in 8 BC
September (30)
seventh month of the early Roman republican calendar, from
Latin septem, "seven"
October (31)
eighth month of the republican calendar, from Latin ocfo,
"eight"
November (30)
ninth month of the republican calendar, from Latin novem,
"nine"
December (31)
tenth month of the republican calendar, from Latin decern,
"ten"
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Dayak ► De Forest i 519
Dayak \'dl-,ak\ Any member of a non-Muslim indigenous people of the southern and western interior of the island of Borneo. Dayak is a generic term that has no precise ethnic or tribal significance but distinguishes the indigenous people from the largely Malay population of the coastal areas. Most Dayaks are riverine people who live in small longhouse communi¬ ties. Children live with their parents until marriage, and boys, who usu¬ ally seek brides outside their own village, go to live in their wife’s community. Their subsistence economies rest on the shifting cultivation of hill rice, supplemented by fishing and hunting. They number more than two million.
Dayan \dl-'an\, Moshe (b. May 20, 1915, Deganya, Palestine—d. Oct. 16, 1981, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel) Israeli soldier and statesman. Born of Russian parents in Israel’s first kibbutz, he became a guerrilla fighter against Arab raiders during the period of the British mandate. Although jailed briefly by the British for his involvement with the Hagana organi¬ zation, he lost an eye fighting alongside British forces in Syria during World War II (1939—45). He was a commander in the Israeli army during the first Arab-Israel war (1948-49). He was army chief of staff during the Suez Crisis (1956) and later agriculture minister (1959-64). He was appointed defense minister just before the Six-Day War (1967), and the Israeli victory brought him widespread adulation; he served until 1974. He joined the Likud party government as foreign minister when it came into power in 1977 and helped broker the 1978 Camp David Accords.
Dayananda Sarasvati Xdo-'ya-non-do-.so-ros-'vo-teV orig. Mula Sankara (b. 1824, Tankara, Gujarat, India—d. Oct. 30, 1883, Ajmer, Rajputana) Hindu ascetic and social reformer. A Brahman, he rejected what he considered idol worship at age 14 after seeing mice swarm over an image of Shiva, attracted by offerings placed before it. His religious quest led him to Yoga, and, to escape an arranged marriage, he joined the ascetic Sarasvati order. He spent 15 years traveling in search of religious truth, and in 1863 he began preaching his vision of reinstating a purified Vedic religion. He debated orthodox Hindu scholars and Christian mis¬ sionaries and in 1875 founded Arya Samaj. He opposed child marriage and the ban on remarriage by widows, and he opened Vedic study to all castes.
daylight saving time System for uniformly advancing clocks, espe¬ cially in summer, so as to extend daylight hours during conventional waking time. In the Northern Hemisphere, clocks are usually set ahead one hour in late March or in April and are set back one hour in late Sep¬ tember or in October. In the U.S. and Canada, daylight saving time begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in October.
daylily or day lily Any plant of the genus Hemerocallis, in the lily family, consisting of about 15 species of perennial herbaceous plants dis¬ tributed from central Europe to eastern Asia. Members have long-stalked clusters of funnel- or bell-shaped flowers that range in colour from yel¬ low to red and are each short-lived (hence “day” lily). Day lilies have fleshy roots and narrow, sword-shaped leaves that are grouped at the base of the plant. The fruit is a capsule. Some species are cultivated as orna¬ mentals or for their edible flowers and buds.
Dayr al-Bahrl or Deir al-Bahrl \'dar-el-'ba-re\ Temple site, Egypt. Located on the western bank of the Nile River near the remains of Thebes and opposite the ruins of Karnak, it encompasses the remains of three temples associated with three different Egyptian rulers: the funerary temple of King Mentuhotep II (built c. 1970 bc); a temple built by Thut- mose III (c. 1435 bc); and the terraced temple of Queen Hatshepsut (built c. 1470 bc), much of which has been restored.
Dayton City (pop., 2000: 166,179), southwestern Ohio, U.S. Settled on the Miami River in 1796 by a group of Revolutionary War veterans, it developed as a river port shipping agricultural produce. The 1829 open¬ ing of the Miami and Erie Canal between Dayton and Cincinnati and the 1851 arrival of the railroad stimulated its industrial growth. It was home to Wilbur and Orville Wright and is also their place of burial. The city is a market and distribution centre. It is the site of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (established 1946) and the Air Force Institute of Technology (1947). Home to several colleges and universities, it also has an art insti¬ tute and a symphony orchestra.
Daytona Beach Coastal city (pop., 2000: 64,112), northeastern Florida, U.S. Located south of Jacksonville, it was founded by Mathias Day in 1870 and incorporated in 1876. In 1926 the cities of Seabreeze, Daytona, and Daytona Beach were incorporated as Daytona Beach. The
Ormond-Daytona beach of hard, white sand has been used for automo¬ bile speed trials since 1903. The city is known for the Daytona Interna¬ tional Speedway.
Dazai \da-'zl\, Osamu orig. Shuji Tsushima (b. June 19, 1909, Kanagi, Aomori prefecture, Japan—d. June 13, 1948, Tokyo) Japanese novelist. At the end of World War II he emerged as the literary voice of his time, capturing the period of postwar confusion when traditional val¬ ues were discredited. The son of a wealthy landowner and politician, he often used his background as material in his fiction. Tsugaru (1944) is perhaps his best novel. His postwar works— The Setting Sun (1947), Vil¬ lon’s Wife (1947), and No Longer Human (1948)—were increasingly despairing in tone, reflecting the crisis that led to his suicide at age 38.
DC See direct current
DDT in full dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane Synthetic insecticide belonging to the family of organic halogens. In 1939 its toxicity to a wide variety of insects was discovered (by Paul Hermann Muller, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work) and effectively used against many disease vectors. By the 1960s, many species of insects had developed populations resistant to DDT; meanwhile, this highly stable compound was accumulating along the food chain and having toxic effects on vari¬ ous birds and fishes. During the 1960s it and similar chemicals were found to have severely reduced the populations of certain birds, including the bald eagle.
de or te Vde\ Chinese "virtue" In Daoism, the potentiality of dao that is present in all things; in Confucianism, the virtue of internal goodness and propriety. In both systems it is regarded as the active principle of dao , and it is thus the life or moral principle. In the Daodejing, de is described as the unconscious functioning of the physical self, which can live har¬ moniously with nature. Personal de is thought to flourish when one aban¬ dons ambition and the spirit of contention for a life of naturalness, leading to an awareness of the underlying unity that permeates the universe.