ACANTHUS, a genus of plants, the typical one of the order acanthaceæ, or acanthads. In English it is inelegantly termed bear's beech, or, more euphoniously, brank ursine. In architecture, it is the imitation, in the capitals of the Corinthian and Composite orders, of the leaves of a species of acanthus, the A. spinosus, which is found in Greece. The acanthus first copied is supposed to have been growing around a flower pot; and the merit of adopting the suggestion thus afforded for the ornamentation of the capital of a pillar is attributed to Callimachus.
ACAPULCO (ak-a-pōōl´kō) , a seaport in Mexico on the Pacific Ocean; has a large and nearly land-locked harbor, but the climate is unwholesome. It exports hides, cedar timber, and fruit. Nearly the whole city was destroyed by earthquakes in 1799, in 1837, and again in 1852. Pop. about 7,500.
ACARNANIA, or AKARNANIA, a province of ancient Greece, forming the westernmost portion; named, according to tradition, from Acarnan, son of Alamæon, who settled the region. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian war the inhabitants were rude and piratical, and they always remained behind the other Greeks in civilization. They were good slingers and faithful and courageous soldiers. Under the Romans it was a province of Macedonia. It is now, with Ætolia, a province of the Grecian kingdom. Pop. about 150,000; capital Missolonghi.
ACCELERATION, in natural philosophy, the rate of increase of velocity of a moving body in a unit of time. If the acceleration is uniform, as in the case of a body falling or ascending under the action of gravity, the velocity is proportional to the time, and the space moved through varies as the square of the time. The acceleration of gravity is the increasing rate of motion with which a falling body approaches the earth, and is reckoned as a little more than 32 feet a second. Minus, or negative, acceleration is the corresponding loss of motion. In astronomy, the secular acceleration of the moon's mean motion is an increase of about 11 seconds per century in the rapidity of the moon's mean motion. It was discovered by Halley and explained by Laplace.
ACCENT, that stress or emphasis given by the voice to a certain syllable or syllables of a word, or to certain notes in a bar of music; also, the peculiar intonation of one spoken language when compared with another. The term further denotes marks used in printing or writing to show the position of the stress. There is a certain analogy between accent and emphasis, emphasis doing for whole words or clauses of sentences what accent does for single syllables. Marks sometimes called accents are used in mathematics, e. g., a′ + b′ (read a prime plus b prime). Accent in music is the greater intensity given to certain notes, as distinguished from their length in time and their quality or timbre. In geometry and trigonometry a circle at the right of a figure indicates degrees, one mark, minutes, two marks, seconds of a degree, as 13° 4′ 5″. In mensuration and engineering, the mark denotes feet, inches, and lines, as 4′ 6″ 10‴.
ACCEPTANCE, a bill of exchange drawn on one who agrees absolutely or conditionally to pay it, according to the tenor of the document itself. To render it so valid that, if the drawee fail to liquidate it, the drawer may be charged with costs, the promise of the drawer must be in writing under or upon the back of the bill.
ACCESSORY, in law, one who is not the chief actor in an offense nor present at its commission, but still is connected with it in some other way. Accessories may become so before the fact or after the fact. Sir Matthew Hale defines an accessory before the fact as one who, being absent at the time of the crime committed, does yet procure, counsel, or command another to commit a crime. If the procurer be present when the evil deed is being done, he is not an accessory, but a principal. An accessory after the fact is one who, knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, relieves, comforts, and assists the felon.
ACCIDENT, an unforeseen occurrence, particularly if it be of a calamitous character.
In logic: (a) Whatever does not really constitute an essential part of a person or thing; as the clothes one wears, the saddle on a horse, etc. (b) The qualities or attributes of a person or thing, as opposed to the substance. Thus bitterness, hardness, etc., are attributes, and not part of the substance in which they inhere. (c) That which may be absent from anything, leaving its essence still unimpaired.
Accidents, in logic, are of two kinds, separable and inseparable. If walking be the accident of a particular man, it is a separable one, for he would not cease to be that man though he stood still; while on the contrary, if Spaniard is the accident connected with him, it is an inseparable one, since he never can cease
