Michael Lewis is an American author and long-form journalist who uses compelling personalities to explain complicated and arcane subjects. Lewis is popularly known for his books of nonfiction, three of which—Moneyball (2003), The Blind Side (2007), and The Big Short (2010)—were adapted into feature

Matthew Gregory Lewis was an English novelist and dramatist who became famous overnight after the sensational success of his Gothic novel The Monk (1796). Thereafter he was known as “Monk” Lewis. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, Lewis served as attaché to the British

Norman Lewis was an Abstract Expressionist painter and teacher who diverged from his native Harlem community of artists in choosing abstraction over representation as his mode of expression. Lewis was born in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City to immigrants from Bermuda. He showed interest

Norman Lewis was an Abstract Expressionist painter and teacher who diverged from his native Harlem community of artists in choosing abstraction over representation as his mode of expression. Lewis was born in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City to immigrants from Bermuda. He showed interest

African Americans and Horse Racing: …was an African American jockey, Oliver Lewis.

Wyndham Lewis was an English artist and writer who founded the Vorticist movement, which sought to relate art and literature to the industrial process. About 1893 Lewis moved to London with his mother after his parents separated. At age 16 he won a scholarship to London’s Slade School of Fine Art,

Oklahoma City Thunder: …shooting of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, the Sonics won a surprising division championship in 2004–05 and advanced to the conference semifinals.

Ray Lewis is an American professional gridiron football player who is considered to be one of the greatest linebackers in National Football League (NFL) history. After starring in several sports in high school, Lewis enrolled at the University of Miami, where he became a middle linebacker and was

Ray Lewis is an American professional gridiron football player who is considered to be one of the greatest linebackers in National Football League (NFL) history. After starring in several sports in high school, Lewis enrolled at the University of Miami, where he became a middle linebacker and was

Jamie Lee Curtis: Acting career: …time, she also starred with Richard Lewis in the TV sitcom Anything but Love (1989–92), about coworkers who are attracted to each other. Curtis received a Golden Globe Award (1990) for her performance. In 1994 she starred with Arnold Swarzenegger in James Cameron’s True Lies. The action comedy was a…

Montgomery Clift: …actor Alfred Lunt and director Robert Lewis (both of whom served as mentors) and became known for the intelligence and dedication he brought to his work.

the Drifters: …Jersey), Charlie Thomas, Elsbeary Hobbs, Rudy Lewis, and Moore.

folk dance: Dancing for enlightenment: …Universal Peace were developed by Samuel Lewis from California, who was a Sufi and Zen master. He had been a student of modern dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis, who inspired him with her understanding of dance as a means to attain wisdom. In the late 1960s, he and some followers…

Shari Lewis was an American puppeteer and author who entertained and educated children on a series of television shows for some 40 years as the creator and voice of a series of sock puppets, most notably a woolly character named Lamb Chop. Lewis studied acting, dance, and singing as a child and

Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist and social critic who punctured American complacency with his broadly drawn, widely popular satirical novels. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, the first given to an American. Lewis graduated from Yale University (1907) and was for a time a

Sir Arthur Lewis was a Saint Lucian economist who shared (with Theodore W. Schultz, an American) the 1979 Nobel Prize for Economics for his studies of economic development and his construction of an innovative model relating the terms of trade between less developed and more developed nations to

Sir Arthur Lewis was a Saint Lucian economist who shared (with Theodore W. Schultz, an American) the 1979 Nobel Prize for Economics for his studies of economic development and his construction of an innovative model relating the terms of trade between less developed and more developed nations to

fascism: Acceptance of racism: …trained by the British boxer Ted (“Kid”) Lewis, who was Jewish—it became so by 1936.

disability art: American theatre artist and scholar Victoria Ann Lewis suggested that such work exhibits “disability cool,” a term the disability community uses to describe a revaluation and resignification of the very markers of disability and impairment that traditionally connote shame.

typography: Mechanical composition: …Cambridge University Press, whose printer, Walter Lewis, had begun a complete reform of its typographic resources. Cambridge stocked most of the types Morison commissioned for Monotype and demonstrated by their intelligent use that mechanical composition could be used to produce books at once handsome and functional. Among these types were…

Wyndham Lewis was an English artist and writer who founded the Vorticist movement, which sought to relate art and literature to the industrial process. About 1893 Lewis moved to London with his mother after his parents separated. At age 16 he won a scholarship to London’s Slade School of Fine Art,

Lewisburg, city, seat (1778) of Greenbrier county, southeastern West Virginia, U.S. It is located near the Greenbrier River and the Greenbrier State Forest, west of White Sulphur Springs (home of the renowned resort, the Greenbrier). Strategically situated at the junction of the Midland and Kanawha

Bucknell University, private coeducational institution of higher learning in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Bachelor’s and master’s degree programs are available in 64 majors, in sciences, arts, business, engineering, and education, offered through three colleges: the College of Arts & Sciences, the

Lewisham, inner borough of London, England. Most of Lewisham belongs to the historic county of Kent, although a small area in the northwest belongs historically to Surrey. It adjoins the boroughs of Southwark (west), Greenwich (east), and Bromley (south) and has a section of River Thames riverfront

William Legge, 2nd earl of Dartmouth was a British statesman who played a significant role in the events leading to the American Revolution. Legge was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Oxford. In 1750 he succeeded his grandfather as earl of Dartmouth and later entered on a

bitterroot, (Lewisia rediviva), ornamental succulent plant of the purslane family (Portulacaceae), native to western North America and cultivated in rock gardens. The main stem and root merge into a tuberous structure. The leaves are barely 2.5 cm (1 inch) long, and the flowering stalk with pink or

Lewisian Complex, major division of Precambrian rocks in northwestern Scotland (the Precambrian began about 4.6 billion years ago and ended 542 million years ago). In the region where they occur, Lewisian rocks form the basement, or lowermost, rocks; they form all of the Outer Hebrides, as well as

Lewisian Complex, major division of Precambrian rocks in northwestern Scotland (the Precambrian began about 4.6 billion years ago and ended 542 million years ago). In the region where they occur, Lewisian rocks form the basement, or lowermost, rocks; they form all of the Outer Hebrides, as well as

lewisite, in chemical warfare, poison blister gas developed by the United States for use during World War I. Chemically, the substance is dichloro(2-chlorovinyl)arsine, a liquid whose vapour is highly toxic when inhaled or when in direct contact with the skin. It blisters the skin and irritates the

Lewiston, city, Androscoggin county, southwestern Maine, U.S., on the Androscoggin River opposite Auburn, 34 miles (55 km) north-northeast of Portland. Lewiston is the second most populous city in the state. In 1770 Paul Hildreth of Dracut, Massachusetts, settled the site of Lewiston Falls

Lewiston, city, seat (1861) of Nez Perce county, northwestern Idaho, U.S., just south of Moscow and adjacent to Clarkston, Washington, at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers. Established as a gold-mining town on a site where the explorers Meriwether Lewis (for whom it was named) and

lamb’s lettuce, (Valerianella locusta), weedy plant of the family Caprifoliaceae, native to southern Europe but widespread in grainfields in Europe and North America. It has been used locally as a salad green and as an herb with a nutty tangy flavour. Italian corn salad, Valerianella eriocarpa,

Lewiston, city, Androscoggin county, southwestern Maine, U.S., on the Androscoggin River opposite Auburn, 34 miles (55 km) north-northeast of Portland. Lewiston is the second most populous city in the state. In 1770 Paul Hildreth of Dracut, Massachusetts, settled the site of Lewiston Falls

University of Maine: …and Portland and includes the Lewiston-Auburn College. It offers associate, bachelor’s, and graduate and professional degree programs. Facilities in Gorham include a centre for teaching; the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service is located in Portland. Total enrollment at Southern Maine is approximately 10,000.

Lewistown, borough (town), seat (1789) of Mifflin county, south-central Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Juniata River, 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Harrisburg. Opened for settlement (1754) by a treaty with the Iroquois, it was laid out in 1790 on the site of the Shawnee Indian village, Ohesson. It was

Lewistown, city, seat (1899) of Fergus county, central Montana, U.S. Situated on Big Spring Creek in the dead centre of the state, Lewistown began in 1873 as a trading post on the Carroll Trail. Initially named Reed’s Fort for Major A.S. Reed (who opened a post office there in 1881), the town was

Sol LeWitt was an American artist whose work provides a link between Minimalism and conceptual art. LeWitt was the son of Russian immigrants. He attended Syracuse University (B.F.A., 1949) and, following military service in Japan and Korea, moved in 1953 to New York City. There he worked as a

Sol LeWitt was an American artist whose work provides a link between Minimalism and conceptual art. LeWitt was the son of Russian immigrants. He attended Syracuse University (B.F.A., 1949) and, following military service in Japan and Korea, moved in 1953 to New York City. There he worked as a

philosophy of biology: Form and function: In a celebrated article with Richard Lewontin, Gould argued that structural constraints on the adaptation of certain features inevitably result in functionally insignificant by-products, which he compared to the spandrels in medieval churches—the roughly triangular areas above and on either side of an arch. Biological spandrels, such as the pseudo-penis…

Cat People: The movie was produced by Val Lewton, who made a number of influential horror films for RKO Radio Pictures. Cat People avoided standard horror film devices—Irena is never shown in cat form—and instead relied on suggestion and the moviegoer’s imagination.

dementia with Lewy bodies: …with the accumulation of so-called Lewy bodies—abnormal deposits of a protein known as alpha-synuclein—in the brain. Lewy bodies are named for German physician Friedrich Heinrich Lewy, who first described them (1912), in the context of Parkinson disease.

dementia with Lewy bodies, chronic, progressive disease characterized by the deterioration of intellectual capacity, particularly attention and visual and spatial processing, associated with the widespread loss of neurons in certain regions of the brain. It is the second most common form of

dementia with Lewy bodies: …are named for German physician Friedrich Heinrich Lewy, who first described them (1912), in the context of Parkinson disease.

Roman law: Written and unwritten law: …which consisted of leges (singular lex), or enactments of one of the assemblies of the whole Roman people. Although the wealthier classes, or patricians, dominated these assemblies, the common people, or plebeians, had their own council in which they enacted resolutions called plebiscita. Only after the passage of the Lex…

epigraphy: Ancient Rome: …bce; pieces of the laws Lex Acilia Repetundarum (123 bce) and Lex Agraria (111 bce) were found in the 16th century on opposite sides of what was once a large bronze tablet; the local laws of the town of Bantia (on the borderlands of Lucania and Apulia in southern Italy)…

epigraphy: Ancient Rome: …Acilia Repetundarum (123 bce) and Lex Agraria (111 bce) were found in the 16th century on opposite sides of what was once a large bronze tablet; the local laws of the town of Bantia (on the borderlands of Lucania and Apulia in southern Italy) are inscribed on a fragmentary bronze…

Swabia: The Lex Alemannorum, a code based on Alemannic customary law, first emerged in the 7th century. By the 7th century Irish missionaries began to introduce Christianity. Centres of Christian activity included the abbeys of St. Gall and of Reichenau and the bishoprics of Basel, Constance, and…

delict: …they were superseded by the Lex Aquila in the early 3rd century bc. This law covered slaves and animals as well as buildings. If a slave or a grazing animal was unlawfully killed, the damages were equal to the highest value of the slave or animal in the preceding year;…

Gundobad: …two codes of law, the Lex Gundobada, applying to all his subjects, and, somewhat later, the Lex Romana Burgundionum, applying to his Roman subjects.

plebeian: …the law known as the Lex Canuleia (445 bce), they were also forbidden to marry patricians. Until 287 bce the plebeians waged a campaign (Conflict of the Orders) to have their civil disabilities abolished. They organized themselves into a separate corporation and withdrew from the state on perhaps as many…

Gaius Flaminius: …only senator to support the Lex Claudia of Quintus Claudius (218), which forbade senators to engage in commerce.

Sulla: Life: …trials; a new treason law, Lex Cornelia Majestatis, designed to prevent insurrection by provincial governors and army commanders; the requirement that the tribunes had to submit their legislative proposals to the Senate for approval; and various laws protecting citizens against excesses of judicial and executive organs.

epigraphy: Ancient Rome: …century bce; parts of the Lex Cornelia de Viginti Quaestoribus (81 bce) are preserved on a large bronze tablet found at Rome; Julius Caesar’s Lex Julia Municipalis of 45 bce was found near Heraclea in Lucania. On the whole, however, the transmission of Roman law, from the earliest fragments to…

ancient Rome: The Flavian emperors: …en bloc with the famous Lex de Imperio Vespasiani (“Law Regulating Vespasian’s authority”), and the Assembly ratified the Senate’s action. This apparently was the first time that such a law was passed; a fragmentary copy of it is preserved on the Capitol in Rome.

conflict of laws: Choice of law: …(known in Latin as the lex fori). Indeed, some modern methodologies, particularly in the United States, favour the lex fori approach.

Roman law: Written and unwritten law: …after the passage of the Lex Hortensia in 287 bce, however, did plebiscita become binding on all classes of citizens; thereafter, plebiscita were generally termed leges along with other enactments. In general, legislation was a source of law only during the republic. When Augustus Caesar established the empire in 31…

epigraphy: Ancient Rome: …found at Rome; Julius Caesar’s Lex Julia Municipalis of 45 bce was found near Heraclea in Lucania. On the whole, however, the transmission of Roman law, from the earliest fragments to the mature codifications, is nonepigraphic. In later times the flood of administrative decrees increases with the growth of centralized…

Krupp AG: …und Halbach, who, by the Lex Krupp (Krupp Law) of 1943, assumed the name Krupp and became the sole owner of his mother’s vast holdings. Even before 1939, the extent of these holdings had become staggering. Within Germany, the Krupp concern had wholly owned 87 industrial complexes, held a controlling…

Lucius Licinius Crassus: …in 95, Crassus sponsored the Lex Licinia Mucia, which provided for the prosecution of any person who falsely claimed Roman citizenship. The law offended Rome’s Italian allies, who were not fully incorporated into the Roman state, and thereby increased the tensions that led to the revolt of the allies in…

Lex Luthor, comic character, an evil genius of the fictional city of Metropolis, who is a scientist and business mogul and the archnemesis of Superman. Since his first appearance in DC Comics’ Action Comics, no. 23 (1940), Luthor has been singularly obsessed with Superman, and his quest to destroy

natural law, in philosophy, system of right or justice held to be common to all humans and derived from nature rather than from the rules of society, or positive law. There have been several disagreements over the meaning of natural law and its relation to positive law. Aristotle (384–322 bce) held

dress: Sumptuary laws: …under the Roman Republic, the Lex Oppia, was enacted in 215 bce; it ruled that women could not wear more than half an ounce of gold upon their persons and that their tunics should not be in different colours. Most Roman sumptuary laws tried to control spending on funerals, banquets,…

ancient Rome: Culture and religion: …the dangers of luxury: the Orchian law (182) limited the lavishness of banquets; the Fannian law (161) strengthened the Orchian provisions, and the Didian law (143) extended the limits to all Italy. A similar sense of the dangers of wealth may also have prompted the lex Voconia (169), which prohibited…

parliamentary procedure: Origins and development: Lex Parliamentaria (1689; “Parliamentary Law”) was a pocket manual for members of Parliament and included many precedents that are now familiar. Drawing from the Journal of the House of Commons, it included points such as the following:

province: …up a special charter, or lex provinciae (provincial law), based on the report of the general who had conquered the province. This charter defined the province’s territorial limits and the number of towns that it included, as well as the rights and duties of the provincials, especially the kind and…

Italy: The southern kingdoms and the Papal States: Inspired by the Lex Regia, the supposed right of the Roman people to confer authority on the emperor, he announced that the citizens of his own day, under his leadership, could assume that right and resolve all disputes between rival claimants to the office. Achieving prominence as the…

Rhodian Sea Law, body of regulations governing commercial trade and navigation in the Byzantine Empire beginning in the 7th century; it influenced the maritime law of the medieval Italian cities. The Rhodian Sea Law was based on a statute in the Digest of the Code of Justinian commissioned in the

Germanic law: The Lex Burgundiorum and the Lex Romana Burgundiorum of the same period had similar functions, while the Edictum Rothari (643) applied to Lombards only.

France: Germans and Gallo-Romans: …population (Papian Code of Gundobad; Breviary of Alaric). By the 9th century this principle of legal personality, under which each person was judged according to the law applying to his status group, was replaced by a territorially based legal system. Multiple contacts in daily life produced an original civilization composed…

Salic Law, the code of the Salian Franks who conquered Gaul in the 5th century and the most important, although not the oldest, of all Teutonic laws (leges barbarorum). The code was issued late (c. 507–511) in the reign of Clovis, the founder of Merovingian power in western Europe. It was twice

talion, principle developed in early Babylonian law and present in both biblical and early Roman law that criminals should receive as punishment precisely those injuries and damages they had inflicted upon their victims. Many early societies applied this “eye-for-an-eye” principle literally. In

ancient Rome: Citizenship and politics in the middle republic: …consulship, and in 180 the lex Villia annalis (Villian law on minimum ages) set minimum ages for senatorial magistrates and required a two-year interval between offices. The consulship (two elected to it per year) could be held from age 42, the praetorship (six per year) from age 39, and the…

ancient Rome: Culture and religion: …may also have prompted the lex Voconia (169), which prohibited Romans of the wealthiest class from naming women as heirs in their wills.

Law of the Twelve Tables, the earliest written legislation of ancient Roman law, traditionally dated 451–450 bc. The Twelve Tables allegedly were written by 10 commissioners (decemvirs) at the insistence of the plebeians, who felt their legal rights were hampered by the fact that court judgments

Alois, Graf Lexa von Aehrenthal was the foreign minister (1906–12) of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, whose direction of the latter’s annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina (1908) provoked an international crisis. (See Bosnian crisis of 1908.) Entering the imperial foreign service as attaché in

polycarbonate (PC), a tough, transparent synthetic resin employed in safety glass, eyeglass lenses, and compact discs, among other applications. PC is a special type of polyester used as an engineering plastic owing to its exceptional impact resistance, tensile strength, ductility, dimensional

Ben Lexcen was an Australian yachtsman and marine architect who designed Australia II, the first non-American yacht to win (1983) the prestigious America’s Cup in the 132-year history of the race. Lexcen, who had little formal education, was apprenticed at the age of 14 to a locomotive mechanic,

linguistics: Modes of language: …analysis, sometimes referred to as lexemes (in one sense of this term), are not necessarily identifiable as single grammatical units, whether as morphemes, words, or phrases. No priority, then, is ascribed to any one of the three modes.

definition: Lexical definition specifies the meaning of an expression by stating it in terms of other expressions whose meaning is assumed to be known (e.g., a ewe is a female sheep). Ostensive definition specifies the meaning of an expression by pointing to examples of things to…

creole languages: Theories of creolization: …and became known as the lexical learning hypothesis, children who were exposed to a pidgin at an early age created a creole language by adopting only the vocabularies of the pidgin. They developed new grammars following the default specifications of the biological blueprint for language, known as universal grammar or…

accent: Word accent (also called word stress, or lexical stress) is part of the characteristic way in which a language is pronounced. Given a particular language system, word accent may be fixed, or predictable (e.g., in French, where it occurs regularly at the end of words,…

lexicography, the compiling, editing, or writing of a dictionary. It is distinct from lexicology, the study of the words in a given language, including their origins, evolution, meanings, usage, and contexts. The history of lexicographical practices can be traced back to about 3200 bce, when

dictionary, reference book that lists words in order—usually, for Western languages, alphabetical—and gives their meanings. In addition to its basic function of defining words, a dictionary may provide information about their pronunciation, grammatical forms and functions, etymologies, syntactic

vocabulary, inventory of words used by a particular person or group or the words in a particular language or field of knowledge. The term comes from the Latin vocabulum, meaning designation or name. There are two types of vocabulary: active and passive. Active vocabulary includes the words an

paleography: Abbreviations: …the standard work, Adriano Cappelli’s Lexicon Abbreviaturarum (1912).

encyclopaedia: Authorship: …Isaac Newton, in compiling his Lexicon Technicum (1704; “Technical Lexicon”). Johann Heinrich Zedler, in his Universal-Lexicon (1732–50), went further by enlisting the help of two general editors, supported by nine specialist editors, the result being a gigantic work of great accuracy. The French Encyclopédie, the largest encyclopaedia issued at that…

Austronesian languages: Vocabulary: Lexicostatistics, a controversial method for studying word replacement in relation to subgrouping, often distinguishes a subset of terms called “basic vocabulary.” Lists of basic vocabulary words typically include those for body parts, terms for everyday natural phenomena (sky, wind, rain, sun, star, earth, stone, water,…

Lexington, city, coextensive with Fayette county, north-central Kentucky, U.S., the focus of the Bluegrass region and a major centre for horse breeding. Named in 1775 for the Battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, it was chartered by the Virginia legislature in 1782 and was the meeting place (1792)

Battle of the Coral Sea: carrier Lexington and damaged the carrier Yorktown, while U.S. planes so crippled the large Japanese carrier Shokaku that it had to retire from action. So many Japanese planes were lost that the Port Moresby invasion force, without adequate air cover and harassed by Allied land-based bombers,…

Lexington, city, seat (1777) of Rockbridge county (though administratively independent of it), west-central Virginia, U.S. It lies in the Shenandoah Valley, on the Maury River, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Lynchburg. The area was inhabited by the Cherokee and Monacan peoples before the 1730s, when

Lexington, town (township), Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Boston. Settled in 1640 and later organized as the parish of Cambridge Farms, it became an independent township in 1713 and was named for Lexington (now Laxton), England. The town is

Lexington, city, seat (1823) of Lafayette county, west-central Missouri, U.S., on the Missouri River (there bridged to Henrietta), 35 miles (56 km) east of Kansas City. The site, around William Jack’s Ferry, was settled after 1819. The town was laid out in 1822 and named for Lexington, Ky. One of

Lexington, county, central South Carolina, U.S. It lies between the North Fork Edisto River to the southwest and the city of Columbia and the Congaree River to the east. The county is also drained by the Saluda River, which is impounded by the Saluda Dam to form Lake Murray. Lexington county’s

Battles of Lexington and Concord, (April 19, 1775), initial skirmishes between British regulars and American provincials, marking the beginning of the American Revolution. Acting on orders from London to suppress the rebellious colonists, General Thomas Gage, recently appointed royal governor of

Madeline McDowell Breckinridge: …Committee (later reorganized as the Lexington Civic League). The league agitated successfully for the establishment of playgrounds and kindergartens in poorer districts of the city and for legislation setting up a juvenile court system, regulating child labour, and compelling school attendance. Also in 1900 Breckinridge led in founding the Lexington…

vocabulary, inventory of words used by a particular person or group or the words in a particular language or field of knowledge. The term comes from the Latin vocabulum, meaning designation or name. There are two types of vocabulary: active and passive. Active vocabulary includes the words an

classical scholarship: Library of Alexandria: His Lexeis (“Readings”) was the most important of the numerous lexicographical works produced at this time, which included lexicons of particular authors and dialects; he also wrote some of the many treatises about literature that were now appearing.

linguistics: Technical terminology: …units of the stratum above, lexons, by means of the relationship of realization. For example, the word form “hated” realizes (on the morphemic stratum) a combination of two lexons, one of which, the stem, realizes the lexeme HATE and the other, the suffix, realizes the PAST TENSE lexeme; each of…

Toyota Motor Corporation: …such as its luxury brand, Lexus (1989), and the first mass-produced hybrid-powered vehicle in the world, the Prius (1997). In 1999 Toyota was listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. The company continued to expand to new markets—specifically targeting younger buyers with the launch…

Pedro Almodóvar: …La ley del deseo (1987; Law of Desire), deal with the intersection between violence and sexual desire. A dizzying farce called Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) won international acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film.…