bess beetle, (family Passalidae), any of approximately 500 species of beetles (insect order Coleoptera) mostly found in the tropics, with a few species found in North America. They are characterized by their large size, ranging between 30 and 40 mm (1.2 and 1.6 inches) in length. Because of their

Passamaquoddy, Algonquian-speaking North American Indians who lived on Passamaquoddy Bay, the St. Croix River, and Schoodic Lake on the boundary between what are now Maine, U.S., and New Brunswick, Can. At the time of European contact, the Passamaquoddy belonged to the Abenaki Confederacy, and

Passamaquoddy Bay, inlet of the Bay of Fundy (Atlantic Ocean), between southwestern New Brunswick, Can., and southeastern Maine, U.S., at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Deer Island and Campobello Island are in its southern part. The bay has an immense tidal flow, with about 70,000,000,000 cu ft

Coleoptera: Annotated classification: Family Passandridae Few species; mostly in warm climates. Family Phalacridae (shining flower beetles) Larvae develop in certain flower heads (e.g., goldenrod), about 500 species; widely distributed; example Olibrus. Family Propalticidae

Italy: The southern kingdoms and the Papal States: Passaneto—men so powerful that contemporaries described them as “semi-kings,” having below them some 200 lesser, poor, and violent vassals. In these years, with an economy dominated largely by Catalan merchants, Sicily looked to Aragon (which in 1326 had also gained control of the island of…

Sarah Bernhardt: Early life and training: …François Coppée’s one-act verse play Le Passant (“The Passerby”)—a part that she played again in a command performance before Napoleon III.

Siegfried Passarge was a geographer and geomorphologist known for his studies of southern Africa. A professor at Breslau and Hamburg universities (1908–35), Passarge studied the climate and physical morphology of Africa. He wrote Die Kalahari (1904), Südafrika (1908), Physiologische Morphologie

Treaty of Passarowitz, (July 21, 1718), pact signed at the conclusion of the Austro-Turkish (1716–18) and Venetian-Turkish (1716–18) wars at Passarowitz (now Požerevac, Serb.). By its terms the Ottoman Empire lost substantial territories in the Balkans to Austria, thus marking the end of Ottoman

Treaty of Passarowitz, (July 21, 1718), pact signed at the conclusion of the Austro-Turkish (1716–18) and Venetian-Turkish (1716–18) wars at Passarowitz (now Požerevac, Serb.). By its terms the Ottoman Empire lost substantial territories in the Balkans to Austria, thus marking the end of Ottoman

Passau, city, Bavaria Land (state), southeastern Germany. It lies at the confluence of the Danube, Inn, and Ilz rivers, on the Austrian border. Originally the Celtic settlement of Bojodurum, it was later the site of a Roman camp, Castra Batava, and was made an episcopal see in 739. The bishops

Italian literature: Religious and historical literature: …author of religious literature was Jacopo Passavanti, whose Specchio di vera penitenza (“The Mirror of True Penitence”) is a collection of sermons preached in 1354. Less polished but of greater literary value are the translations of Latin legends concerning St. Francis and his followers collected in the anonymous Fioretti di…

Battle of Passchendaele, (July 31–November 6, 1917), World War I battle that served as a vivid symbol of the mud, madness, and senseless slaughter of the Western Front. The third and longest battle to take place at the Belgian city of Ypres, Passchendaele was ostensibly an Allied victory, but it

password, in computing, a sequence of characters used to authenticate a user’s identity and authorize access to a computer system, website, mobile phone, or other digital device. A password is intended to be secret (known only by an authorized user) and is often paired with a username to confirm an

pear: History and types: varieties include Curato, Coscia, and Passe Crassane, the latter also being popular in France. In Asian countries the pear crop comprises primarily local varieties of native species, such as the Asian, or Chinese, pear (P. pyrifolia).

Driss Chraïbi: His first novel—Le Passé simple (1954; “Simple Past”), published shortly before the outbreak of hostilities in Algeria—is a powerful, bitter, ironic cry of revolt against oppressive traditionalism. Les Boucs (1955; The Butts) shifted the author’s accusatory finger from a paternalistic Islamic formalism to the oppressed condition of…

Asghar Farhadi: …turmoil in Le Passé (2013; The Past), which centres on an Iranian man who travels from Tehrān to Paris in order to finalize his divorce so his estranged French wife can remarry, and in Forushande (2016; The Salesman), about a couple whose relationship becomes strained after the wife is assaulted.…

Georges de Porto-Riche: …his best plays, Amoureuse (1891), Le Passé (1897), and Le Vieil Homme (1911), all of which examine the eternal triangle of the wife, the husband, and the lover. The so-called théâtre d’amour that Porto-Riche innovated was highly influential and was much imitated for some years. He was elected to the…

medal: The Netherlands: Simon van de Passe produced similar work and went to London, where he created a series of Tudor and Stuart portraits.

baseball: The scorecard: …to catch it) or a passed ball (a pitch that should have been handled by the catcher). Members of the media and fans often choose to keep score of the game also. Official scorers and media professionals use detailed forms to record every pitch. Fans, who typically buy a simple…

railroad: Passenger cars: The first passenger cars were simply road coaches with flanged wheels. Almost from the beginning, railroads in the United States began to use longer, eight-wheel cars riding on two four-wheel trucks. In Britain and Europe, however, cars with more than six wheels were…

ship: Passenger carriers: Most passenger ships fall into two subclasses, cruise ships and ferries.

passenger pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), migratory bird hunted to extinction by humans. Billions of these birds inhabited eastern North America in the early 1800s; migrating flocks darkened the skies for days. As settlers pressed westward, however, passenger pigeons were slaughtered by the

cruise ship, a large ship used primarily for leisure cruising. While earlier cruises were usually undertaken on ships that had been built for a different primary purpose—such as mail delivery ships or ocean liners meant for transportation—modern cruise ships are essentially floating holiday resorts

airport: Passenger terminal layout and design: As passenger throughput at airports increases, the passenger terminal becomes a more important element of the airport, attaining a dominant status in the largest facilities. The passenger terminal may amount to less than 10 percent of the total…

airport: Passenger requirements: As passenger throughput at airports increases, the passenger terminal becomes a more important element of the airport, attaining a dominant status in the largest facilities. The passenger terminal may amount to less than 10 percent of the total investment in a small airport,…

Cormac McCarthy: Final novels: McCarthy’s next novel, The Passenger, was not released until 2022. It centers on a salvage diver who struggles with the decades-old suicide of his sister as he becomes increasingly paranoid after working on a mysterious plane crash. The companion work, Stella Maris, was published later that year; its…

Laurence Fishburne: Film roles: …other films from 2016 included Passengers, a sci-fi romance about hibernating space travelers heading to another planet.

Indic writing systems: …inhabitants of Sikkim, India—and the Passepa writing system of the Chinese Imperial chancery under the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368); the Passepa system is no longer in use.

passepied, lively dance of Brittany adopted c. 1650 by French and English aristocrats, who, during the century of its popularity, frequently danced it dressed as shepherds and shepherdesses. As a court dance the passepied lost its original chain formations and became, like the minuet, a couple

dice: Cheating with dice: Loaded dice (called tappers, missouts, passers, floppers, cappers, or spot loaders, depending on how and where extra weight has been applied) may prove to be perfect cubes when measured with calipers, but extra weight just below the surface on some sides will make the opposite…

house sparrow, (Passer domesticus), one of the world’s best-known and most abundant small birds, sometimes classified in the family Passeridae (order Passeriformes). It lives in towns and on farms, worldwide, having accompanied Europeans from its original home—most of Eurasia and northern Africa.

Jean Passerat was a French poet who composed elegant and tender verse and was one of the contributors to the “Satire Ménippée,” the manifesto of the moderate Royalist party in support of Henry of Navarre’s claim to the throne. Passerat studied at the University of Paris, became a teacher at the

sparrow: …birds with reddish-brown caps; the savanna sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) and the vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus), finely streaked birds of grassy fields; the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and the fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca), heavily streaked skulkers in woodlands; and the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) and

sparrow: …sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and the fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca), heavily streaked skulkers in woodlands; and the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) and the white-throated sparrow (Z. albicollis), larger species with black-and-white crown stripes. The rufous-collared sparrow (Z. capensis) has an exceptionally wide breeding distribution: from Mexico and Caribbean

songbird, any member of the suborder Passeri (or Oscines), of the order Passeriformes, including about 4,000 species—nearly half the world’s birds—in 35 to 55 families. Most cage birds belong to this group. Songbirds are alike in having the vocal organ highly developed, though not all use it to

Passeri, bird suborder (order Passeriformes) that includes all songbirds. Birds belonging to the suborder Passeri are also referred to as oscines. See

Passeridae, sparrow weaver family of small gregarious birds, based on the genus Passer, the well-known sparrows. In this work these birds are classified as a subfamily (Passerinae) in the weaverfinch family (Ploceidae), order

passeriform, (order Passeriformes), any member of the largest order of birds and the dominant avian group on Earth today. The passeriform birds are true perching birds, with four toes, three directed forward and one backward. Considered the most highly evolved of all birds, passerines have

passeriform, (order Passeriformes), any member of the largest order of birds and the dominant avian group on Earth today. The passeriform birds are true perching birds, with four toes, three directed forward and one backward. Considered the most highly evolved of all birds, passerines have

bunting: …species in two other genera, Passerina and Plectrophenax. In some species, males are very brightly coloured.

bunting: The painted bunting (P. ciris), native to the American Southeast, is sometimes called the “nonpareil” because of the male’s unrivaled colouring—indigo head and neck, scarlet breast, and lemon back.

Passeridae: …classified as a subfamily (Passerinae) in the weaverfinch family (Ploceidae), order Passeriformes.

passeriform, (order Passeriformes), any member of the largest order of birds and the dominant avian group on Earth today. The passeriform birds are true perching birds, with four toes, three directed forward and one backward. Considered the most highly evolved of all birds, passerines have

songbird, any member of the suborder Passeri (or Oscines), of the order Passeriformes, including about 4,000 species—nearly half the world’s birds—in 35 to 55 families. Most cage birds belong to this group. Songbirds are alike in having the vocal organ highly developed, though not all use it to

Stephen Hawes: …is a long allegorical poem, The Passetyme of Pleasure, the chief theme of which is the education and pilgrimage through life of the knight Graunde Amoure. Completed in 1506, it was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509. Another allegory by Hawes, The Example of Vertu, is simpler and shorter.…

Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Sidney Webb also helped reorganize the University of London into a federation of teaching institutions and served in the government as a Labour Party member. Pioneers in social and economic reforms as well as distinguished historians, the Webbs deeply affected social thought and institutions in…

Palestine: The British mandate: …formed the basis of the Passfield White Paper, issued in October 1930, which accorded some priority to Britain’s obligations to the Arabs. Not only did it call for a halt to Jewish immigration, but it also recommended that land be sold only to landless Arabs and that the determination of…

passion flower, (genus Passiflora), genus of more than 500 species of mostly tendril-bearing vines in the family Passifloraceae and their characteristic flowers. Most species are found throughout neotropical regions of the Americas. Some are cultivated as ornamentals, while others are grown for

purple passion fruit, (Passiflora edulis), species of passion flower (family Passifloraceae) and its edible fruit. The plant is native to Paraguay, southern Brazil, and northern Argentina and is grown in tropical regions throughout the world. The fruit’s intensely sharp flavour has notes of

passion flower: Major species: The wild passion flower, passion vine, or maypop (Passiflora incarnata) climbs about 3 to 9 metres (10 to 30 feet) high and has pink and white flowers about 4 to 7.5 cm (1.5 to 3 inches) across and a yellow berrylike edible fruit about 5 cm…

passion flower: Major species: edulis), and the yellow granadilla, or water lemon (P. laurifolia), as well as the wild passion flower, are widely grown in tropical America for their fruit. P. maliformis is the sweet calabash of the West Indies. The size of these fruits usually does not exceed that of a…

passion flower: Major species: The yellow passion flower (P. lutea) is a smaller plant with greenish yellow flowers and purple fruits.

passion flower: Major species: maliformis is the sweet calabash of the West Indies. The size of these fruits usually does not exceed that of a hen’s egg, but the fruit of the giant granadilla is like a gourd and may weigh up to 3.5 kg (about 8 pounds).

passion flower: Major species: …delicate dessert fruits, as the giant granadilla (P. quadrangularis). The purple passion fruit, also called purple granadilla or maracuyá (P. edulis), and the yellow granadilla, or water lemon (P. laurifolia), as well as the wild passion flower, are widely grown in tropical America for their fruit. P. maliformis is the…

Passifloraceae, the passion-flower family, in the order Malpighiales, containing 16 genera and 705 species of herbaceous or woody vines, shrubs, and trees, mostly of warm regions. Passifloraceae is most highly developed in the Neotropics and in Africa. The largest genus in the family is Passiflora,

Passing, novel by Nella Larsen, published in 1929. Larsen’s novel, which closely followed her prizewinning Quicksand (1928), explores the complexities of racial identity in early 20th-century New York. Its central character, Irene Redfield, is a member of the African American bourgeoisie that

Passing: A film version of the novel was released in 2021.

Australian literature: Nationalism and expansion: …her experiences the standard phrase The Passing of the Aborigine (1938). Aboriginal people had become the subject of anthropological interest in the work of Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen in Central Australia, and Aboriginal legends had been collected and rewritten by K. Langloh Parker, although there was…

Penelope Lively: …on her recollections of Egypt; Passing On (1989); City of the Mind (1991); and Cleopatra’s Sister (1993). Heat Wave (1996) is the story of the disintegration of a marriage, and a retired anthropologist reflects on her past in Spiderweb (1998). In The Photograph (2003) a man finds and investigates posthumous…

tennis: Strategy and technique: …is always vulnerable to a passing shot—one angled cross-court or played down-the-line, beyond reach—but if the serve or approach shot puts the opponent under enough pressure, the server, now at the net, has the upper hand, since a volley is generally easier to put away (play for a point) than…

Stanley Kunitz: The poetry collection Passing Through (1995) won a National Book Award. The Collected Poems (2000) presents Kunitz’s lifework and contains one of his best-known pieces, “The Layers.”

novel: Antinovel: … (1959), and Michel Butor in Passing Time (1957) and Degrees (1960) wish mainly to remove the pathetic fallacy from fiction, in which the universe, which is indifferent to man, is made to throw back radar reflections of man’s own emotions. Individual character is not important, and consciousness dissolves into sheer…

Cornish literature: …and the promise of salvation; Passio Domini (“Passion of the Lord”) describes Christ’s temptation and his Crucifixion; Resurrexio Domini (“Resurrection of the Lord”) covers the Resurrection and Ascension. The Ordinalia cannot be dated with certainty but may be from the late 14th or early 15th century. Unlike contemporary works in…

Perpetua: …a Christian martyr who wrote The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, a journal recounting her trial and imprisonment that was continued by a contemporary who described Perpetua’s death in the arena. Both her martyrdom and its account have been highly revered by ancient and modern Christians. Her text is…

ethics: The Stoics: …above, Plato held that human passions and physical desires are in need of regulation by reason. The Stoics went farther: they rejected passions altogether as a basis for deciding what is good or bad. Although physical desires cannot simply be abolished, the wise person will appreciate the difference between wanting…

Brian De Palma: Later work: …soldiers, and the revenge thrillers Passion (2012), starring Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace, and Domino (2019).

Jean-Luc Godard: Later work and awards of Jean-Luc Godard: …which consisted of three films—Passion (1982), Prénom Carmen (1983; First Name: Carmen), and the highly controversial Je vous salue, Marie (1985; Hail Mary)—that served as personal statements on femininity, nature, and Christianity.

oratorio: The golden age of oratorio: 1600–c. 1750: …two great Passion oratorios, the Passion According to St. John (first performed 1724) and the Passion According to St. Matthew (1729), restored the balance attained by Schütz, though they are written on a greater scale and are enriched by the introduction of the later Italian aria. Bach, besides increasing the…

St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Passion music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Its earliest verified performance was April 11, 1727—Good Friday—at Thomaskirche in Leipzig. It is the longest and most elaborate of all works by this Baroque master and represents the culmination of his sacred music and, indeed,

John Hawkes: The Passion Artist (1979) and Virginie: Her Two Lives (1982) are tales of sexual obsession. Hawkes’s later works include Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade (1985), whose narrator is a middle-aged woman; Whistlejacket (1988); Sweet William: A Memoir of Old Horse (1993), written in the…

La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, French silent film, released in 1928, that was an acclaimed and historically accurate account of the trial and execution of Saint Joan of Arc in 1431. (Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) The inventive film is a sober, intelligent drama detailing

French language: History: Two 10th-century texts (the Passion du Christ and the Vie de St. Léger) seem to mingle northern and southern dialect features, while another (the “Jonas fragment”) is obviously from the far north. In the 12th century the “gem” of the epic poems known as chansons de geste, La Chanson…

French literature: Religious drama: …early 14th century in the Passion du Palatinus (“Passion of Palatinus”). Of relatively modest proportions, this contains diversified dialogue with excellent dramatic potential and probably drew on earlier plays now lost.

John Sayles: …discrimination; City of Hope (1991); Passion Fish (1992), which earned Sayles an Academy Award nomination for a best original screenplay, as did the intricately crafted cross-cultural murder mystery Lone Star (1996); The Secret of Roan Inish (1994); Men with Guns (1997); Limbo (1999); Sunshine State (2002);

passion flower, (genus Passiflora), genus of more than 500 species of mostly tendril-bearing vines in the family Passifloraceae and their characteristic flowers. Most species are found throughout neotropical regions of the Americas. Some are cultivated as ornamentals, while others are grown for

Jón Thorkelsson Vídalín: …worthy companion to Hallgrímur Pétursson’s Passion Hymns as well as the most popular devotional work in Iceland down to the 19th century.

Passion music, musical setting of the suffering and Crucifixion of Christ, based either on biblical texts or poetic elaborations. Dating from the 4th century onward, they range from unaccompanied plainsong to compositions for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. In the medieval Passion the deacon sang

Ingmar Bergman: Life: …passion (1969; A Passion, or The Passion of Anna), all dramas of inner conflicts involving a small, closely knit group of characters. With The Touch (1971; Beröringen), his first English-language film, Bergman returned to an urban setting and more romantic subject matter, though fundamentally the characters in the film’s marital…

Ayn Rand: Legacy and influence: …Barbara Branden published a memoir, The Passion of Ayn Rand, that disclosed Rand’s affair with Nathan and revealed unflattering details of her relations with members of the Collective and others. Despite the resulting damage to her reputation, her novels continued to enjoy large sales, and she retained a loyal following…

La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, French silent film, released in 1928, that was an acclaimed and historically accurate account of the trial and execution of Saint Joan of Arc in 1431. (Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) The inventive film is a sober, intelligent drama detailing

Paddy Chayefsky: …pictures: The Bachelor Party (1953; film 1957) and The Catered Affair (1955; film 1956).

Social Realism: Shahn’s painting The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti (1931–32) is a bitter comment on the outcome of the famous case in which two Italian anarchists were condemned to death in a politically motivated trial. A good example of Gropper’s powerfully simplified caricatures of American public life is…

Perpetua: …a Christian martyr who wrote The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, a journal recounting her trial and imprisonment that was continued by a contemporary who described Perpetua’s death in the arena. Both her martyrdom and its account have been highly revered by ancient and modern Christians. Her text is…

Christology: Film: Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004) avoids some of the problems attending a film on Jesus by concentrating on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life, from his arrest to his Crucifixion. The film was criticized, however, for alleged antisemitism, excessive gore and violence, and…

oratorio: The golden age of oratorio: 1600–c. 1750: Passion oratorio texts (dealing with the death of Jesus) of this period often abandon biblical words for a mixture of rhymed paraphrase and lyrical commentary of a more or less sentimental nature.

Passion play, religious drama of medieval origin dealing with the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ. Early Passion plays (in Latin) consisted of readings from the Gospel with interpolated poetical sections on the events of Christ’s Passion and related subjects, such as Mary Magdalene’s

Bill Murray: St. Vincent and Olive Kitteridge: …a mobster in the thriller Passion Play (2010). In 2012 he starred as U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson, which focused on the president’s private life during a weekend in 1939 when he entertained British royalty. Murray later played a member of the Monuments, Fine Arts,…

Jerzy Kosinski: … (1973; revised 1981), Cockpit (1975), Passion Play (1979), Pinball (1982), and The Hermit of 69th Street (1988).

James O’Neill: …a San Francisco production of The Passion Play by Salmi Morse. The role, which caused local authorities to arrest him under ordinances forbidding impersonation of the Deity, drew nationwide attention. In 1882 O’Neill opened as Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo in a stage version by Charles Fechter.…

René Kalisky: …complex in ideas and staging: La Passion selon Pier Paolo Pasolini (1977; “The Passion According to Pier Paolo Pasolini”) is a reconstitution of the Italian writer and film director’s murder, incorporating the reenactment of scenes from Pasolini’s films; Dave au bord de la mer (1978; “Dave on the Beach”) is…

Annie Ernaux: A Simple Passion and The Use of Photography: …works as Passion simple (1991; A Simple Passion), a bestseller in France that describes the obsessive affair she had with a married diplomat, years after her own marriage had ended. It was lauded for its finesse in skirting the usual clichés of illicit love affairs and for uncovering the tensions…

Palm Sunday, in the Christian tradition, the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, commemorating Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is associated in many churches with the blessing and procession of palms (leaves of the date palm or twigs from locally available trees).

Hans Memling: …a Crucifixion panel from the Passion triptych (1491).

passion flower: Major species: The wild passion flower, passion vine, or maypop (Passiflora incarnata) climbs about 3 to 9 metres (10 to 30 feet) high and has pink and white flowers about 4 to 7.5 cm (1.5 to 3 inches) across and a yellow berrylike edible fruit about 5 cm…

Passionist, a religious order of men in the Roman Catholic church, founded by Paolo Francesco Danei (now known as St. Paul of the Cross) in Italy in 1720 to spread devotion to the sufferings and death on the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Passionists fulfill their mission by preaching about Jesus

Ingmar Bergman: Life: …passion (1969; A Passion, or The Passion of Anna), all dramas of inner conflicts involving a small, closely knit group of characters. With The Touch (1971; Beröringen), his first English-language film, Bergman returned to an urban setting and more romantic subject matter, though fundamentally the characters in the film’s marital…

chronology: Christian: The Era of the Passion, commencing 33 years after that of the Incarnation, enjoyed a short vogue, mainly in 11th-century France.

Ingmar Bergman: Life: …passion (1969; A Passion, or The Passion of Anna), all dramas of inner conflicts involving a small, closely knit group of characters. With The Touch (1971; Beröringen), his first English-language film, Bergman returned to an urban setting and more romantic subject matter, though fundamentally the characters in the film’s marital…

Jeanette Winterson: The Passion (1987), her second work, is a picaresque historical novel that chronicles the adventures of Villanelle, an enslaved Venetian woman who is rescued by Henri, a cook from Napoleon’s army. Attempting to reach Venice, the two travel through Russia in winter.

Passifloraceae, the passion-flower family, in the order Malpighiales, containing 16 genera and 705 species of herbaceous or woody vines, shrubs, and trees, mostly of warm regions. Passifloraceae is most highly developed in the Neotropics and in Africa. The largest genus in the family is Passiflora,