gymnostome: …of various animals; the genus Bütschlia, for example, lives in cattle. Free-living genera that feed on animal matter often have stiff rods (known as nematodesmata, sometimes called trichites) embedded in the gullet wall; the plant feeders (e.g., Chilodonella) have trichites fused into pharyngeal baskets. The genus Didinium, a predator of…

United Kingdom: Labour interlude (1964–70): …of moderation known as “Butskellism” (derived by combining their last names), a slightly left-of-centre consensus predicated on the recognition of the power of trade unionism, the importance of addressing the needs of the working class, and the necessity of collaboration between social classes. Although Wilson was thought to be…

butsudan, in Japanese households, the Buddhist family altar; historically, it was maintained in addition to the kamidana (“god-shelf”). The Buddhist altar generally contains memorial tablets for dead ancestors and, in accordance with sect affiliation, representations of various Buddhist divinities.

Takuma Shōga, original name Takuma Tamemoto: …specialized in Buddhist paintings (butsuga), creating a new style of religious painting that incorporated features of Chinese Southern Sung art.

Dame Clara Butt was an English contralto known for her concert performances of ballads and oratorios. After studying at the Royal College of Music, Butt made her debut in 1892 as Ursula in Sir Arthur Sullivan’s cantata The Golden Legend. She possessed a powerful contralto voice and a commanding

Dame Clara Butt was an English contralto known for her concert performances of ballads and oratorios. After studying at the Royal College of Music, Butt made her debut in 1892 as Ursula in Sir Arthur Sullivan’s cantata The Golden Legend. She possessed a powerful contralto voice and a commanding

Günter Grass: …Vietnam War; Der Butt (1977; The Flounder), a ribald fable of the war between the sexes from the Stone Age to the present; Das Treffen in Telgte (1979; The Meeting at Telgte), a hypothetical “Gruppe 1647” meeting of authors at the close of the Thirty Years’ War; Kopfgeburten; oder, die…

Isaac Butt was a lawyer and Irish nationalist leader who, if not the originator of the term Home Rule, was the first to make it an effective political slogan. He was the founder (1870) and first chief of the Home Government Association and president (1873–77) of the Home Rule Confederation of Great

wandering Jew: …story named the culprit as Giovanni Buttadeo (“Strike God”).

butte, flat-topped hill surrounded by a steep escarpment from the bottom of which a slope descends to the plain. The term is sometimes used for an elevation higher than a hill but not high enough for a mountain. Buttes capped by horizontal platforms of hard rock are characteristic of the arid

Butte, city, seat (1881) of Silver Bow county, southwestern Montana, U.S., on the western slope of the Continental Divide. Butte was laid out in 1886 and was named for Big Butte, a nearby conical peak locally called “the richest hill on earth.” The rich mineral deposits of the area attracted

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Childhood and education: …his own studio in the Montmartre district of Paris and concerned himself, for the most part, with doing portraits of his friends.

Butte, city, seat (1881) of Silver Bow county, southwestern Montana, U.S., on the western slope of the Continental Divide. Butte was laid out in 1886 and was named for Big Butte, a nearby conical peak locally called “the richest hill on earth.” The rich mineral deposits of the area attracted

Olivia Wilde: Acting career: House, Rush, and Babylon: …Garner and Hugh Jackman in Butter, a dramedy about a butter-carving contest. Wilde’s credits from 2013 include Spike Jonze’s technological romance Her and Rush, Ron Howard’s sports biopic about race-car drivers. In Better Living Through Chemistry (2014), she played a married woman who has a drug-fueled affair with a

butter, a yellow-to-white solid emulsion of fat globules, water, and inorganic salts produced by churning the cream from cows’ milk. Butter has long been used as a spread and as a cooking fat. It is an important edible fat in northern Europe, North America, and other places where cattle are the

buttercup: Major species: …North American wetlands; and the Eurasian creeping buttercup, or butter daisy (R. repens), widely naturalized in America. Both the pond crowfoot (R. peltatus) and the common water crowfoot (R. aquatilis) have broad floating leaves and finely dissected submerged leaves.

tallow tree: …tree of Sierra Leone is Pentadesma butyracea, of the family Guttiferae (also called Clusiaceae).

history of publishing: Britain: …newspaper was a translation by Nathaniel Butter, a printer, of a Dutch coranto called Corante, or newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France, dated September 24, 1621. Together with two London stationers, Nicholas Bourne and Thomas Archer, Butter published a stream of corantos and avisos (Spanish: “warnings” or “announcements”),…

butter-and-eggs, (Linaria vulgaris), perennial herbaceous plant of the Plantaginaceae family, native to Eurasia. The plant is widely naturalized in North America, where it is considered an invasive species. Butter-and-eggs grows up to 1 metre (3.3 feet) tall, bears narrow flax-like leaves, and

buttercup, (genus Ranunculus), genus of about 300 species of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Buttercups are distributed throughout the world and are especially common in woods and fields of the north temperate zone. Most buttercups have tuberous or fibrous roots. The

Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family (order Ranunculales), comprising about 2,252 species in 62 genera of flowering plants, mostly herbs, which are widely distributed in all temperate and subtropical regions. In the tropics they occur mostly at high elevations. The leaves are usually alternate and

Ranunculales, the buttercup order of flowering plants, containing 7 families, nearly 164 genera, and around 2,830 species. Members of the order range from annual and perennial herbs to herbaceous or woody vines, shrubs, and, in a few cases, trees. They include many ornamentals which are grown in

Cochlospermum: The buttercup tree (C. vitifolium), found in Central America and the West Indies, has bright-yellow, cup-shaped flowers about 10 cm (4 inches) across. In some areas rope is made of its bark. Several species yield dye. The seeds of C. angolense, an African species, yield a…

winter hazel: …the creamy flowers of the buttercup winter hazel (C. pauciflora), which appear in clusters of two or three on the densely branched shrubs up to 2 m (6 feet) tall. Spike winter hazel (C. spicata), about the same height, blooms about the same time but bears lemon-yellow flowers. The fragrant…

butterfat, natural fatty constituent of cows’ milk and the chief component of butter. Clear butterfat rises to the top of melted butter and may be poured off, leaving the albuminous curd and water that favour the growth of organisms promoting rancidity; thus, anhydrous butterfat does not become

Daniel Mann: Mann then helmed Butterfield 8 (1960), which won Elizabeth Taylor her first Academy Award, for her portrayal of a New York call girl. Despite her performance, the melodrama, a bowdlerized version of the John O’Hara novel, was widely dismissed by critics. It was a box-office success, however, partly…

Pony Express: Early mail delivery: ) The Butterfield Overland Mail Company—a consortium of four express companies: Adams, American, National, and Wells, Fargo & Company—signed a six-year contract with the U.S. government on September 15, 1857. The Butterfield (or Oxbow) Route went from St. Louis, Missouri, south to Little Rock, Arkansas, through El…

Watergate scandal: The Ervin hearings: …his aides—until, on July 16, Alexander P. Butterfield, formerly of the White House staff, disclosed that all conversations in the president’s offices had secretly been recorded on tape.

Deborah Butterfield is an American sculptor known for her semiabstract elegant sculptures of horses, made initially from natural and found materials. Butterfield’s passion for horses began during her childhood. When she attended the University of California (UC), Davis, she found it difficult to

Deborah Butterfield is an American sculptor known for her semiabstract elegant sculptures of horses, made initially from natural and found materials. Butterfield’s passion for horses began during her childhood. When she attended the University of California (UC), Davis, she found it difficult to

Stewart Butterfield is a Canadian entrepreneur who cofounded both Flickr (2004), a photo-sharing site, and Slack Technologies, Inc. (2009), a dot-com enterprise that provided organizations with Slack, an internal-messaging service that facilitated employee collaboration. Butterfield’s parents, who

William George Fargo: …& Company—under its vice president, John Butterfield, the largest stockholder in American Express—concentrated on the east. Butterfield constantly feuded with Fargo; the two directors united only to fight rivals and establish affiliates such as Wells, Fargo & Co., United States Express Company, and National Express Company in new territories. Under…

blues: Influence: …rock musicians as Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and the Allman Brothers Band.

Stewart Butterfield is a Canadian entrepreneur who cofounded both Flickr (2004), a photo-sharing site, and Slack Technologies, Inc. (2009), a dot-com enterprise that provided organizations with Slack, an internal-messaging service that facilitated employee collaboration. Butterfield’s parents, who

William Butterfield was a British architect who was prominent in the Gothic Revival in England. Sometimes called the Oxford movement’s most original architect, Butterfield introduced an architectural realism that included a clear expression of materials in colourful contrasts of textures and

butterfish, any of the thin, deep-bodied, more or less oval and silvery fishes of the family Stromateidae (order Perciformes). Butterfishes are found in warm and temperate seas and are characterized by a small mouth, forked tail, and a single dorsal fin. Like the related rudderfishes

gunnel: …species Pholis gunnellus, known as rock gunnel, butterfish (after its slipperiness), or rock eel, is a common European and eastern North American form. It is usually brownish with darker markings and up to about 30 cm (12 inches) long.

Goldie Hawn: …film adaptation of the play Butterflies Are Free.

butterfly, (superfamily Papilionoidea), any of numerous species of insects belonging to multiple families. Butterflies, along with the moths and the skippers, make up the insect order Lepidoptera. Butterflies are nearly worldwide in their distribution. The wings, bodies, and legs, like those of

Mariah Carey: …divorced in 1998), she released Butterfly (1997), which reflected her new independence. The album was heavily influenced by hip-hop and rap, and the related music videos revealed a more sexual Carey. The single “Heartbreaker” (featuring Jay-Z) topped the charts in 1999, making Carey the first artist to hit number one…

butterfly bush, (genus Buddleja), any of more than 100 species of plants constituting the genus Buddleja (family Scrophulariaceae), native to tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Primarily trees or shrubs, most species of Buddleja have hairy leaves and clusters of purple, pink, white,

Latin American architecture: Argentina: …the steel and leather “Butterfly” chair shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and then manufactured by Knoll International. Bonet’s Berlingieri House (1946) and his hotel and restaurant, Solana del Mar (1946), both in Punta Ballena, Uruguay, show the influence of a vernacular period in…

sunspot: …chart is sometimes called the butterfly diagram because of the winglike shapes assumed by the graph. Each solar cycle begins with small spots appearing in middle latitudes of the Sun. Succeeding spots appear progressively closer to the Sun’s equator as the cycle reaches its maximum level of activity and declines.

chaos theory: …circumstance he called the “butterfly effect,” suggesting that the mere flapping of a butterfly’s wing can change the weather. A more homely example is the pinball machine: the ball’s movements are precisely governed by laws of gravitational rolling and elastic collisions—both fully understood—yet the final outcome is unpredictable.

butterflyfish, any of the approximately 115 species of small quick-moving marine fishes in the family Chaetodontidae (order Perciformes). Butterflyfishes are found among tropical reefs around the world but are concentrated in the Indo-Pacific oceanic region. Butterflyfishes are deep-bodied and thin

orchid: Natural history: …are attracted to highly coloured flowers that may or may not be fragrant. Butterflies tend to be somewhat erratic fliers and, lacking the ability to hover, usually land on the flower. The flowers are, therefore, usually erect and provide platforms for landing. Often the platform simply consists of a head…

butterfly weed, (Asclepias tuberosa), North American plant of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), a stout rough-haired perennial with long roots. The erect, somewhat branching stem grows up to 1 metre (3 feet) tall and has linear, alternately arranged leaves. In midsummer it bears numerous clusters

butterfly orchid, common name of several orchid species, especially those of the genera Psychopsis and Platanthera. Some are cultivated as ornamentals for their showy flowers. The genus Psychopsis consists of about five species of epiphytic orchids native to South and Central America. The flowers

Catharine A. MacKinnon: Other books included Butterfly Politics (2017), a volume featuring speeches and other works. Although many of her positions met with opposition, MacKinnon was an influential legal theorist, helping to transform legal education by calling attention to issues affecting women and transforming the law for women globally by opening…

butterfly ray, any of several stingray (q.v.) species in the family

swimming: Strokes: The butterfly stroke, used only in competition, differs from the breaststroke in arm action. In the butterfly the arms are brought forward above the water. The stroke was brought to the attention of U.S. officials in 1933 during a race involving Henry Myers, who used the…

drop-leaf table: The butterfly table is a late 17th-century American type whose name derives from its shape when fully extended. The simplest form of drop-leaf table is the bracket table, a small side table fixed to the wall and supported by a bracket.

valve: A butterfly valve is a circular disk pivoted along one diameter; the solid lines in the Figure (left centre), show one in the closed position. In the fully open position, shown dotted, the disk is parallel to the direction of flow. The damper in a stovepipe…

butterfly weed, (Asclepias tuberosa), North American plant of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), a stout rough-haired perennial with long roots. The erect, somewhat branching stem grows up to 1 metre (3 feet) tall and has linear, alternately arranged leaves. In midsummer it bears numerous clusters

children’s literature: From T.W. to Alice (1712?–1865): …way similarly revolutionary, was The Butterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast (1807), by William Roscoe, a learned member of Parliament and writer on statistics. The gay and fanciful nonsense of this rhymed satiric social skit enjoyed, despite the seeming dominance of the moral Barbaulds and Trimmers, a roaring success. Great…

Federico García Lorca: Early poetry and plays: …maleficio de la mariposa (The Butterfly’s Evil Spell in Five Plays: Comedies and Tragi-Comedies, 1970), a symbolist work about a lovesick cockroach, in Madrid in 1920. Critics and audiences ridiculed the drama, and it closed after four performances. Lorca’s next full-length play, the historical verse drama Mariana Pineda (written…

Michael Rumaker: His semiautobiographical novel The Butterfly (1962) tells of a young man’s struggles to gain control of his life following an emotional breakdown. Exit 3, and Other Stories (1966; U.S. title, Gringos and Other Stories) contains short fictions rife with marginal characters and random violence. A Day and a…

butterflyfish, any of the approximately 115 species of small quick-moving marine fishes in the family Chaetodontidae (order Perciformes). Butterflyfishes are found among tropical reefs around the world but are concentrated in the Indo-Pacific oceanic region. Butterflyfishes are deep-bodied and thin

Ebenezer Butterick was an American manufacturer who is regarded as the inventor of standardized paper patterns for clothing (1859), first sold in Sterling in 1863. Butterick established a pattern factory in Fitchburg, Mass., later that year and moved it to Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1869. He founded a

buttermilk, the fluid remaining when the fat is removed by churning cream into butter. It was formerly used as a beverage, but today it is mostly condensed or dried for use in the baking and frozen desserts industry. It has been replaced as a beverage by cultured buttermilk, which is prepared from

souari nut, any of the seeds borne in large, clustered fruits of trees of the genus Caryocar (family Caryocaraceae), which has about 15 species. C. nuciferum, from Panama and northern South America, is typical. Its coconut-sized fruit has four nuts, surrounded by edible flesh. The warty, red,

Brazil nut, (Bertholletia excelsa), edible seed of a large South American tree (family Lecythidaceae) found in the Amazonian forests of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador. The Brazil nut is particularly well known in the Brazilian state of Pará, where it is called castanha-do-pará (Pará nut) and

butternut, (Juglans cinerea), deciduous nut-producing tree of the walnut family (Juglandaceae), native to eastern North America. The tree is economically important locally for its edible nuts and for a yellow or orange dye obtained from the fruit husks. Some substances in the inner bark of the

butterscotch, usually hard candy made by boiling brown sugar and butter and sometimes corn syrup together in water. The derivation of the name is disputed as to whether it denotes the candy’s origin in Scotland or an original ingredient of “scotched,” or scorched, butter. Although the terms

butterwort, (genus Pinguicula), genus of more than 120 species of small carnivorous plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. Butterworts are characterized by their sticky glandular leaves that capture and digest very small insects, such as fruit flies and gnats. Widely distributed, the plants can be

Butterworth, town, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. It lies north of East London. One of the oldest white settlements in the Transkei region, it grew from a Wesleyan mission station founded in 1827. The settlement was named after Joseph Butterworth, a treasurer of the Wesleyan Mission Society,

Butterworth, town, on the northwest coast of West Malaysia (Malaya). It lies along the Perai River estuary and faces the port of George Town on Penang Island, which lies 2 miles (3 km) east across the Penang strait. Butterworth is a railhead and transshipment point for exports of the Malay

children’s literature: Contemporary times: …struck with agreeable preposterousness by Oliver Butterworth in The Enormous Egg (1956) and The Trouble with Jenny’s Ear (1960). The prolific writer-illustrator William Pène Du Bois has given children nothing more uproariously delightful than The Twenty-one Balloons (1947), merging some of the appeals of Jules Verne with those of Samuel…

Butterworth: The town was named for William J. Butterworth, governor of Singapore and Malacca (1843–55). Pop. (2000 prelim.) urban agglom., 99,227.

Charlie Hebdo shooting: The attackers: …part of the jihadist group Buttes-Chaumont (named after their meeting place, a park in Paris) to fight against U.S. troops. In prison he had contact with other Islamists, among them Coulibaly. Chérif Kouachi and Coulibaly were suspected of involvement in a 2010 plot to free from prison Smain Ait Ali…

Paris: The Buttes: …Butte-Montmartre (18th arrondissement) and the Buttes-Chaumont (19th arrondissement), which rise along the northern rim of the city, are historically working-class areas that have attracted a significant population of immigrants.

Paris: The Buttes: …east of Montmartre is the Buttes-Chaumont Park, which was created under the city planner Baron Haussmann in 1864–67. A bare hill, half hollowed out by abandoned tunnel quarries and filled with the refuse of generations, was turned into a romantic landscape with a lake, a waterfall, a grotto, winding woodland…

Paris: The Buttes: …east of Montmartre is the Buttes-Chaumont Park, which was created under the city planner Baron Haussmann in 1864–67. A bare hill, half hollowed out by abandoned tunnel quarries and filled with the refuse of generations, was turned into a romantic landscape with a lake, a waterfall, a grotto, winding woodland…

African art: Lower Congo (Kongo) cultural area: …known for their fetishes, called butti, which serve in the cult of a wide range of supernatural forces sent by the ancestors, who are not worshiped directly. Each figure has its own specific purpose not related directly to its appearance. When a figure is carved for a newborn child, part…

Pete Buttigieg is an American politician who serves as U.S. secretary of transportation (2021– ) in the administration of Pres. Joe Biden. Buttigieg is the first openly gay cabinet member in American history. He previously was mayor (2012–20) of South Bend, Indiana, and he unsuccessfully sought the

Pete Buttigieg is an American politician who serves as U.S. secretary of transportation (2021– ) in the administration of Pres. Joe Biden. Buttigieg is the first openly gay cabinet member in American history. He previously was mayor (2012–20) of South Bend, Indiana, and he unsuccessfully sought the

stringed instrument: Morphology: …the back, known as the button. The pegbox carries the four tuning pegs, two on each side. It is slotted to the front to receive the strings. The pegs are tapered and pass through two holes in the cheeks of the head. At the top of the head is the…

button, usually disklike piece of solid material having holes or a shank through which it is sewed to one side of an article of clothing and used to fasten or close the garment by passing through a loop or hole in the other side. Purely decorative, nonutilitarian buttons are also frequently used on

cliff brake: Several species, including button fern (Pellaea rotundifolia) and sickle fern (P. falcata), are grown as indoor ornamentals.

button quail, any of numerous small, round-bodied birds belonging to the family Turnicidae of the order Gruiformes. The 15 species are confined to scrubby grasslands in warm regions of the Old World. Button quail are dull-coloured birds, 13 to 19 centimetres (5 to 7 inches) long, that run crouching

gastropod: Classification: … (Vermetidae), horn shells (Potamididae), and button shells (Modulidae). Superfamily Strombacea Foot and operculum greatly modified and move with a lurching motion; feed on algae and plants; some species used for human food; conchs (Strombidae) of tropical oceans and the pelican’s foot shells (Aporrhaidae) of near Arctic waters.

black widow, (genus Latrodectus), any of about 30 species of black spiders distinguished by an hourglass-shaped marking on the abdomen. Black widows are found throughout much of the world. The bite of the black widow often produces muscle pain, nausea, and mild paralysis of the diaphragm, which

buttonbush, (genus Cephalanthus), genus of at least six species of shrubs or small trees of the madder family (Rubiaceae) native to Africa, Asia, and North America. Buttonbrush plants are named for their fragrant creamy white spherical flowers. They are sometimes used in landscaping and are a

Dick Button is a figure skater who dominated American and international amateur competition in the late 1940s and early 1950s until he became a professional in 1952. He was the only man to win top honours in the Olympic, World, European, North American, and U.S. national competitions, and in 1948

Dick Button is a figure skater who dominated American and international amateur competition in the late 1940s and early 1950s until he became a professional in 1952. He was the only man to win top honours in the Olympic, World, European, North American, and U.S. national competitions, and in 1948

Sir Thomas Button was an English navigator and naval officer and an early explorer of Canada. The son of Miles Button of Worleton in Glamorganshire, Wales, Button saw his first naval service in 1588 or 1589, and by 1601, when the Spanish fleet invaded Ireland, he had become captain of the pinnace

Stephen Decatur Button was an American architect whose works influenced modern tall-building design, particularly that of Louis Sullivan. His impact, however, was not recognized by architectural historians until the mid-20th century. Button discarded the massive dead-wall treatment appropriate to

Bob Newhart: On The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1960), recorded during the first set of nightclub performances Newhart ever gave, he enacted a series of one-sided conversations in which he assumed the role of an earnest straight man in absurd or wildly dramatic scenarios. On the strength…

Bob Newhart: …which also enjoyed robust sales; The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! (1960) earned a Grammy in the field of comedy performance. In 1961 he parlayed his popularity into a television variety series, The Bob Newhart Show, which earned Emmy and Peabody awards but aired for only one season. While maintaining his…

plane tree: The American plane tree, or sycamore (P. occidentalis), also known as buttonwood, buttonball, or whitewood, is the tallest, sometimes reaching a height of more than 50 m (160 feet). Its pendent, smooth, ball-shaped seed clusters usually dangle singly and often persist after leaf fall. Native from…

buttonbush, (genus Cephalanthus), genus of at least six species of shrubs or small trees of the madder family (Rubiaceae) native to Africa, Asia, and North America. Buttonbrush plants are named for their fragrant creamy white spherical flowers. They are sometimes used in landscaping and are a

dress: Female display: Moreover, the adoption of buttonholes from the Moors around 1250 had introduced the art of tailoring. Clothes could now be cut very tight and still be easily removed. Shaped seams evolved, and the possession of a shapely figure was essential for both men and women. By 1400 women’s waistlines…

textile: Sewing thread: Buttonhole twist is a strong, lustrous silk about three times the diameter of normal sewing silk, and is used for hand-worked buttonholes, for sewing on buttons, and for various decorative effects.

Bob Hope: Movies: …including “Two Sleepy People,” “Buttons and Bows,” and “Silver Bells.”

plane tree: The American plane tree, or sycamore (P. occidentalis), also known as buttonwood, buttonball, or whitewood, is the tallest, sometimes reaching a height of more than 50 m (160 feet). Its pendent, smooth, ball-shaped seed clusters usually dangle singly and often persist after leaf fall. Native from…

buttress, in architecture, exterior support, usually of masonry, projecting from the face of a wall and serving either to strengthen it or to resist the side thrust created by the load on an arch or a roof. In addition to their practical functions, buttresses can be decorative, both in their own

buttress dam, concrete dam in which the smooth upstream face is supported by buttresses on the downstream side. Unlike traditional gravity dams, buttress dams do not rely entirely upon their own weight to resist the thrust of the water. Their upstream face, therefore, is not vertical but inclines

Amazon River: Plant life: …these giant trees is their buttresses, the basal enlargements of their trunks, which help stabilize the top-heavy trees during infrequent heavy winds. Further characteristics of the canopy trees are their narrow, downward-pointing “drip-tip” leaves, which easily shed water, and their cauliflory (the production of flowers directly from the trunks rather…

Ita Buttrose is an Australian journalist, editor, and businesswoman who was the founding editor (1972–75) of the highly popular Australian women’s magazine Cleo and the first woman to serve as editor in chief (1981–84) of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers in Sydney. Buttrose left