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Erpenius, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Erpenius, Thomas ûrpēˈnēəs [key], 1584–1624, Dutch Orientalist, whose name in Dutch was Van Erpe. Erpenius was one of the most celebrated scholars of his day and wrote several grammars of Middl...

Afrikaans

(Encyclopedia)Afrikaans ăfˌrəkänsˈ [key], member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Although its classification is still dis...

Boeing, William Edward

(Encyclopedia)Boeing, William Edward, 1881–1956, American aviation pioneer and executive, b. Detroit. After attending Yale's Sheffield Scientific School (1899–1902), he moved (1903) to Gray's Harbor, Wash., whe...

Du Pont

(Encyclopedia)Du Pont do͞opŏnt [key], family notable in U.S. industrial history. The Du Pont family's importance began when Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine River in N De...

Kongo, kingdom of

(Encyclopedia)Kongo, kingdom of kôngˈgō, kŏngˈ– [key], former state of W central Africa, founded in the 14th cent. In the 15th cent. the kingdom stretched from the Congo River in the north to the Loje River ...

Tinbergen, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Tinbergen, Jan yän tĭnˈbĕrˌgən [key], 1903–94, Dutch economist, co-winner with Ragnar Frisch of the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1969). A graduate of Leiden Univ. (1929), h...

Flemish language

(Encyclopedia)Flemish language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Generally regarded as the Belgian variant of Dutch (see...

Bilderdijk, Willem

(Encyclopedia)Bilderdijk, Willem wĭlˈəm bĭlˈdərdīk [key], 1756–1831, Dutch poet. He tutored Louis Bonaparte in Dutch and later conducted a small private college at Leiden, where his pupils included Isaäc ...

leveraged buyout

(Encyclopedia)leveraged buyout, the takeover of a company, financed by borrowed funds. Often, the target company's assets are used as security for the loans acquired to finance the purchase. The acquiring company o...

Hadewijch

(Encyclopedia)Hadewijch häˈdəvīkh [key], fl. early 13th cent., Dutch mystical poet, a nun. Her works, beautiful lyrics on the love of God and a number of letters in rhyme and visions in prose, are a monument bo...