Glossary of Historical Terms

723 terms of government, war, faith, law and society that appear in the profiles and the encyclopedia, each with a short definition and a link to its full entry.

A

Abul-Abbas: Abul-Abbas was an Asian elephant sent by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid to Charlemagne.
Adinkra (Adinkra symbols): Adinkra are visual symbols of the Akan peoples of Ghana, each representing a concept, proverb or value.
Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre (Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri): Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre was the title taken by Godfrey of Bouillon after the crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, when he declined to be called king.
Aerial bombardment: Aerial bombardment is the use of aircraft to drop bombs or other munitions on military or civilian targets.
Afrikaans: Afrikaans is a West Germanic language that developed at the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch spoken by settlers of the Dutch East India Company, with influence from Malay, Portuguese, Khoekhoe and other languages.
Agent Orange: Agent Orange was a herbicide sprayed by the United States military over forests and crops in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War, mainly between 1962 and 1971.
Agora: An agora was the central public space of an ancient Greek city, used for markets, assemblies and civic life.
Aircraft carrier (fleet carriers): An aircraft carrier is a warship designed to carry, launch and recover aircraft, serving as a mobile air base at sea.
Akkadian language (Akkadian): Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia, written in cuneiform.
Aku Uka: Aku Uka is the title of the sacred king of the Jukun people of the Benue valley in Nigeria.
Akuapem Twi: Akuapem Twi is a dialect of the Akan language spoken on the Akuapem ridge in south-eastern Ghana.
Alake of Egbaland: The Alake of Egbaland is the paramount traditional ruler of the Egba, a Yoruba people whose capital is Abeokuta in south-western Nigeria.
Alanic language (Alanic): Alanic was the Eastern Iranian language of the Alans, a nomadic people of the steppes north of the Caucasus in late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Amanyanabo: Amanyanabo, meaning owner of the town, is the title of the traditional rulers of the Ijaw city-states of the eastern Niger Delta, such as Kalabari, Bonny, Nembe and Okrika.
Amarna Period: The Amarna Period is the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt in the mid-fourteenth century BCE, named after Amarna (Akhetaten), the new capital built by the pharaoh Akhenaten for the cult of the sun disc Aten.
Amharic (Amharic language): Amharic is a Semitic language of Ethiopia, written in the Ge'ez script, and the working language of the Ethiopian federal government.
Amphora (amphorae): An amphora is a two-handled ceramic jar used in the ancient Mediterranean world to transport and store goods such as wine and olive oil.
Ankole-Watusi: The Ankole-Watusi is a breed of cattle known for its enormous horns, developed in the United States in the twentieth century from long-horned Sanga cattle of east-central Africa.
Antillean Creole (Kwéyòl, Patwa): Antillean Creole is a French-based creole language spoken in the Lesser Antilles, including Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica and Saint Lucia, where it is called Kwéyòl.
Aqueduct (aqueducts): An aqueduct is a channel or structure built to carry water from a source to a city, often across valleys on arches.
Aquifer: An aquifer is an underground layer of rock or sediment that holds water.
Arabic language (Arabic): Arabic is a Semitic language that spread with Islam from the Arabian Peninsula across the Middle East and North Africa.
Aramaic: Aramaic is a Semitic language that became the common language of much of the Near East in the first millennium BCE.
Arawakan languages: The Arawakan languages are a family of languages of South America and the Caribbean, spoken from the Andes and Amazonia to the Antilles.
Arch-Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire (Erzmarschall): The Arch-Marshal (Erzmarschall) was one of the ceremonial high offices of the Holy Roman Empire attached to the electoral dignity.
Archery (archers): Archery is the use of bows to shoot arrows in hunting and warfare.
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB): An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is a protected landscape designation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, created under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.
Arquebus: The arquebus was an early form of matchlock firearm used from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century.
Arras culture: The Arras culture is an Iron Age culture of East Yorkshire in England, from about the 4th century BCE to the Roman conquest, named after a cemetery at Arras near Market Weighton.
Arung Matoa: Arung Matoa, roughly "chief lord" in Bugis, was the title of the head of the Bugis kingdom of Wajo in South Sulawesi.
Ashura: Ashura is the tenth day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar.
Asomtavruli (Mrgvlovani): Asomtavruli is the oldest form of the Georgian alphabet, written with rounded letters.
Associates of the Swiss Confederacy (Zugewandte Orte): The Associates of the Swiss Confederacy, in German zugewandte Orte, were territories allied to the Old Swiss Confederacy without being full member cantons.
Atlantic slave trade (Atlantic trade, slave trade): The Atlantic slave trade was the forced transportation of millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Attic standard (Attic silver standard): The Attic standard was the weight standard for silver coinage originating in Athens, based on a tetradrachm of about 17 grams.
Attrition: Attrition refers to a form of warfare in which victory depends on wearing down the enemy's manpower and material resources through continuous losses.
Augustal prefect (praefectus augustalis): The Augustal prefect (praefectus augustalis) was the title of the governor of Egypt in the late Roman Empire.
Awoamefia: Awoamefia is the title of the paramount ruler of the Anlo Ewe of south-eastern Ghana, who resides at Anloga.
Awujale: The Awujale is the title of the paramount ruler of the Ijebu Kingdom, a Yoruba state in south-western Nigeria with its seat at Ijebu-Ode.

B

Balhara: Balhara was the name by which Arab travellers and geographers of the ninth and tenth centuries, such as Sulaiman the Merchant, Ibn Khordadbeh and al-Masudi, referred to the Rashtrakuta kings of the Deccan.
Balochi language (Balochi): Balochi is an Iranian language spoken by the Baloch people in Pakistan's Balochistan province, south-eastern Iran, southern Afghanistan and among communities in Oman and the Gulf.
Bantustan (homeland): A Bantustan, or homeland, was a territory set aside for Black South Africans of a particular ethnic group under apartheid.
Battering ram (battering rams): A battering ram is a siege weapon consisting of a heavy beam used to break down gates and walls.
Bazaar (bazaars): A bazaar is a market or commercial quarter, typically of covered streets, shops and workshops, found in cities across the Islamic world and South Asia.
Ba–Shu script (Ba-Shu symbols): The Ba–Shu script is a set of undeciphered signs and symbols found on bronze weapons, seals and other objects of the ancient Ba and Shu cultures of Sichuan and Chongqing, dating from about the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE.
Bead (beads): Beads are small decorative objects of glass, stone, shell or metal, pierced for threading, which served widely as trade goods and stores of value.
Benzoin resin (benzoin): Benzoin resin is an aromatic balsamic resin obtained from trees of the genus Styrax, used as incense, in perfume and in medicine.
Berber languages (Tamazight, Amazigh languages): The Berber languages, also called Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic family spoken by the Amazigh peoples of North Africa, from Morocco and Algeria to Libya, Egypt's Siwa Oasis and the Tuareg regions of the Sahara and Sahel.
Biatec: Biatec is a name, probably that of a Celtic ruler, inscribed on large silver coins minted in the 1st century BCE at the oppidum on the site of modern Bratislava, in the lands of the Boii.
Bicameral legislature: A bicameral legislature is a lawmaking body divided into two separate chambers or houses.
Black Ships: The Black Ships was the Japanese name for the Western vessels, especially the steam-powered warships of Commodore Matthew Perry's American squadron that entered Edo Bay in 1853.
Blue Riband: The Blue Riband is an unofficial honour given to the passenger liner making the fastest regular crossing of the Atlantic.
Bokmål: Bokmål is the more widely used of the two official written standards of Norwegian, alongside Nynorsk.
Bombard (bombards): A bombard is a large early cannon, usually a muzzle-loader firing heavy stone balls, used mainly in sieges in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.
Bonnie Blue Flag: The Bonnie Blue Flag is a flag of a single white star on a blue field, first flown by the short-lived Republic of West Florida in 1810.
Borbarua: The Borbarua was a high office of the Ahom kingdom of Assam, created by King Pratap Singha in the early 17th century.
Borgohain: The Borgohain was one of the two oldest ministerial offices of the Ahom kingdom of Assam, alongside the Burhagohain, traditionally dated to the founder Sukaphaa in the 13th century.
Borpatrogohain: The Borpatrogohain was a ministerial office of the Ahom kingdom of Assam, created by King Suhungmung in the early 16th century as a third great counsellor beside the Burhagohain and the Borgohain.
Brak: Brak was the title of the kings of Waalo, a Wolof kingdom on the lower Senegal river.
Brazilwood: Brazilwood is a tropical tree whose dense red heartwood was valued in early modern Europe as the source of a red dye for textiles.
Breech-loading rifle (breech-loading rifles): A breech-loading rifle is a firearm loaded at the rear of the barrel rather than through the muzzle, allowing much faster reloading, especially when lying down.
Bren light machine gun (Bren gun): The Bren light machine gun was the standard light machine gun of the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War.
Brigade (brigades): A brigade is a military formation made up of several battalions or regiments, smaller than a division.
British Overseas Territories (British Overseas Territory): The British Overseas Territories are the fourteen territories under British sovereignty that are not part of the United Kingdom, mostly small islands left from the British Empire, such as Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Montserrat and…
Broch: A broch is a type of Iron Age drystone tower found in northern and western Scotland, especially in Caithness, Orkney and Shetland.
Bronze (bronze industry): Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and the term is also used loosely for related copper alloys such as brass.
Bronze casting (bronze-casting): Bronze casting is the technique of shaping objects by pouring molten copper alloy into moulds, often using the lost-wax method.
Bronze-working: Bronze-working is the craft of producing tools, weapons and ornaments from bronze, an alloy of copper and tin.
Bukhar Khudah: Bukhar Khudah, 'lord of Bukhara', was the title of the local rulers of Bukhara before and during the Arab conquest of Transoxiana.
Bumiputera: Bumiputera, 'sons of the soil', is the Malaysian term for the Malays and the indigenous peoples of the country, including the Orang Asli and the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak.
Burhagohain: The Burhagohain was the senior of the great ministers of the Ahom kingdom of Assam, an office traditionally dated to the reign of the founder Sukaphaa in the 13th century.
Burushaski (Burushaski language): Burushaski is a language spoken in the Hunza, Nagar and Yasin valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan.
Buurba Jolof (Burba Jolof): Buurba Jolof was the title of the kings of the Jolof Empire, who were overlords of the Wolof states of Senegal.

C

Cacao: Cacao is the tree native to tropical Mesoamerica whose beans are used to make chocolate.
Cadastral survey (cadastral): A cadastral survey is a systematic record of land parcels, recording their area, ownership, use and value, usually for taxation.
Calabash: A calabash is a gourd dried and hollowed out for use as a container.
Calligraphy: Calligraphy is the art of decorative handwriting, highly developed in the Islamic world, where it adorned manuscripts, buildings and objects.
Camel: The camel is a large hoofed mammal adapted to arid environments, used for transport, milk, meat and warfare.
Camel warfare: Camel warfare refers to the use of camels in combat, for transport of troops and supplies or as mounts.
Camphor: Camphor is a fragrant crystalline substance obtained from trees, prized in Asia as a medicine, perfume and ritual material.
Canadian Red Ensign: The Canadian Red Ensign was a red flag with the Union Jack in the canton and the Canadian coat of arms in the fly, used as Canada's unofficial and later official national flag on land and at sea from the late nineteenth century.
Cape Dutch: Cape Dutch was the form of Dutch spoken at the Cape of Good Hope by settlers, the enslaved and Khoekhoe communities from the 17th century.
Cape Verdean Creole (Kriolu, Kabuverdianu): Cape Verdean Creole, known as Kriolu, is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in Cape Verde and by its emigrant communities.
Caravan trade (caravan routes, caravan commerce): Caravan trade is long-distance overland commerce carried by groups of merchants with pack animals, typically camels, travelling together for safety.
Caravanserai: A caravanserai is a roadside inn built around a courtyard, providing lodging for travellers and their animals along trade routes in the Islamic world.
Caravel: A caravel was a small, highly manoeuvrable sailing ship developed by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century, often with lateen sails that allowed it to sail close to the wind.
Carolingian minuscule: Carolingian minuscule is a clear, legible script developed in the late eighth century in the Carolingian Empire.
Carrack: A carrack was a large, three- or four-masted ocean-going sailing ship developed in the Mediterranean and Iberia in the fifteenth century.
Cartography: Cartography is the science and art of making maps.
Cassava: Cassava, also called manioc, is a starchy root crop native to South America.
Caste: Caste refers to a system of hereditary social groups, often tied to occupation and restricting marriage between groups.
Cataphract (cataphracts): A cataphract was a heavily armoured cavalryman, with both rider and horse protected by armour, who charged with a long lance.
Catapult (catapults): A catapult is a siege engine that hurls projectiles using tension, torsion or human traction, used before gunpowder artillery.
Cataract surgery: Cataract surgery is the treatment of the clouding of the eye's lens.
Cattle: Cattle are domesticated bovines kept for milk, meat, hides and draught, and in many societies as a measure of wealth.
Census: A census is an official count of a population, often recording households, property and obligations.
CFA franc (West African CFA franc, Central African CFA franc): The CFA franc is the name of two currencies used in West and Central Africa, created by France in December 1945 for its African colonies.
Chagatai language (Chaghatai Turkic): Chagatai is an extinct Turkic literary language of Central Asia, named after the Chagatai Khanate.
Chain mail (chain-mail): Chain mail is armour made of small interlocking metal rings.
Chalukya-Vikrama era: The Chalukya-Vikrama era was a calendar era introduced by the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI to count years from his accession in 1076.
Champa rice: Champa rice refers to fast-ripening, drought-resistant rice varieties introduced to China from Champa in present-day Vietnam.
Chao (currency): Chao was the paper currency issued by the Yuan Dynasty in China.
Charcoal: Charcoal is a fuel produced by heating wood in the absence of air, and was essential for smelting iron in the pre-industrial world.
Chariot: A chariot is a light, two-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle used in warfare, carrying a driver and an archer or spearman.
Chemical weapons: Chemical weapons are toxic substances used in war to kill or injure, such as mustard gas.
Chernozem (black-earth): Chernozem, or black earth, is a highly fertile dark soil rich in humus, found across the steppes of Ukraine and southern Russia.
Chhau dance (Chhau): Chhau is a tradition of martial and folk dance from eastern India, performed in three main styles, Purulia in West Bengal, Seraikela in Jharkhand and Mayurbhanj in Odisha.
Chinampa (chinampas): A chinampa is an artificial agricultural plot built up from mud and vegetation in shallow lake beds, separated by canals.
Chữ Nôm (Nôm, Chu Nom): Chữ Nôm is a script for writing the Vietnamese language, built from Chinese characters and new characters formed on their model.
Cinnamon: Cinnamon is a spice made from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum, the finest coming from Sri Lanka.
Cipollino marble (marmor Carystium): Cipollino is a green-and-white banded marble quarried in antiquity near Karystos in southern Euboea, Greece.
Cis-Sutlej states: The Cis-Sutlej states were the Sikh and other states of the Malwa region of Punjab between the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers, among them Patiala, Nabha and Jind.
Classical Greece (Classical period of ancient Greece): Classical Greece is the period of ancient Greek history from the Persian Wars of the early fifth century BCE to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE.
Clear script (Todo bichig): The Clear script (todo bichig) is an alphabet created in 1648 by the Oirat monk Zaya Pandita, adapted from the traditional Mongolian script to write the Oirat language more exactly.
Cloves: Cloves are the aromatic dried flower buds of a tree native to the Maluku Islands of Indonesia.
Coal: Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock used as fuel.
Coffee economy (coffee): Coffee is a drink made from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, originally from Ethiopia and Yemen, which spread through the Islamic world and then Europe.
Cog (ship): The cog was a type of sailing ship used in northern Europe from the 10th to the 14th century, with a flat bottom, high straight sides, a single square sail and, later, a stern rudder and raised castles.
Cohort: A cohort was a tactical unit of the Roman army, normally about 480 men, with ten cohorts forming a legion.
Columbian exchange (New World crops): The Columbian Exchange is the transfer of plants, animals, diseases and people between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages from 1492.
Companions of the Prophet (Sahaba): The Companions of the Prophet, in Arabic sahaba, are the people who knew or saw the Prophet Muhammad and believed in him.
Composite bow: A composite bow is a bow made from layers of wood, horn and sinew glued together, giving great power in a short length suitable for use on horseback.
Concentration camp: A concentration camp is a place where large numbers of civilians or prisoners are detained, usually without trial, in harsh conditions.
Condolence Ceremony: The Condolence Ceremony is the central ritual of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, held to mourn a dead chief and to raise up his successor.
Congreve rocket (Congreve rockets): The Congreve rocket was a British military rocket developed by William Congreve in the early nineteenth century, based on rockets used in Mysore.
Conscription (conscript): Conscription is compulsory enlistment of people into state service, especially the armed forces.
Constitutional monarchy: A constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch is head of state but exercises power within the limits of a constitution.
Copper: Copper is a reddish metal used since ancient times for tools, ornaments and, alloyed with tin, bronze.
Copper ingot (copper ingots): Copper ingots are cast bars or shapes of copper used for trade and storage of value.
Coptic Pope of Alexandria (Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria): The Coptic Pope of Alexandria is the patriarch and head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Miaphysite church of Egypt that separated from the Chalcedonian church after 451.
Corvée labour (corvée): Corvée labour is unpaid work required by a state from its subjects, often for building and maintaining public works or for military service.
Corvus: The corvus was a boarding bridge with a spike at its end, used by the Roman navy during the First Punic War.
Cotton: Cotton is a plant fibre spun and woven into textiles, one of the most important traded commodities in history.
Counterweight trebuchet (counterweight trebuchets): A counterweight trebuchet is a siege engine that uses a heavy falling weight to swing a throwing arm, capable of hurling large stones over long distances.
Cowrie shell (cowrie): The cowrie shell is the shell of a small sea snail, used as currency across Africa and Asia.
Coyotlatelco (Coyotlatelco culture): Coyotlatelco is a style of red-on-buff pottery, and by extension the archaeological culture associated with it, found in the Basin of Mexico in the centuries after the decline of Teotihuacan, roughly 600 to 900 CE.
Cross of Lorraine: The Cross of Lorraine is a cross with two horizontal bars, originally the Cross of Anjou, which René II brought into use as an emblem of the dukes of Lorraine in the later fifteenth century.
Crossbow: A crossbow is a bow mounted horizontally on a stock, shot by a trigger mechanism, allowing troops with limited training to shoot powerful bolts.
Crown Dependencies: The Crown Dependencies are the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Isle of Man, self-governing possessions of the British Crown.
Crucifixion (crucify): Crucifixion is a method of execution in which the condemned is fastened to a cross or stake and left to die.
Cumbric: Cumbric was the Brittonic Celtic language of the early medieval north of Britain, spoken in the kingdom of Strathclyde and in Cumbria.
Cuneiform: Cuneiform is a writing system of wedge-shaped signs pressed into clay tablets, invented in Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BCE.
Cupbearer: A cupbearer was a court official who served drinks to the king, a position of trust and access to the ruler.
Customs union: A customs union is an agreement among territories to remove tariffs between them and adopt a common external tariff.
Cyfraith Hywel (Laws of Hywel Dda): Cyfraith Hywel, the law of Hywel, was the native law of medieval Wales, traditionally said to have been codified under Hywel Dda in the 10th century.
Cypro-Minoan syllabary: The Cypro-Minoan syllabary is an undeciphered script used on Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age, from about 1550 to 1050 BCE.
Cyzicene (Cyzicene stater): Cyzicenes were electrum coins struck by the Greek city of Cyzicus on the Sea of Marmara from the 6th to the 4th century BCE.

D

Damel: Damel was the title of the kings of Cayor, a Wolof kingdom on the coast of Senegal.
Danegeld: Danegeld was a tax raised in Anglo-Saxon England to pay tribute to Viking raiders, above all from 991 under Æthelred the Unready, when large sums were paid to Danish armies to stop their attacks.
Darb el-Arba'in (Darb El Arba'in): Darb el-Arba'in, the 'forty-day road', was a caravan route linking Darfur to Asyut in Upper Egypt.
Daric: The daric was a gold coin of the Achaemenid Empire, introduced under Darius I.
Dauphin of France (Dauphin of Viennois): Dauphin of France was the title of the heir apparent to the French throne from 1350 to 1830.
Decimal military organisation (decimal military system, decimal organisation): Decimal military organisation is a system of dividing an army into units of ten, a hundred, a thousand and ten thousand, each under its own commander.
Deflation (deflationary): Deflation is a sustained fall in the general level of prices, often linked to a shortage of money.
Deforestation: Deforestation is the large-scale clearing of forests.
Denarius: The denarius was the standard silver coin of the Roman Empire for several centuries.
Deportation (mass deportation): Deportation refers to the forced removal of people from their homes to other places.
Deutsche Mark: The Deutsche Mark was the currency of West Germany from June 1948 and of reunified Germany from 1990 until it was replaced by the euro in 2002.
Devanagari: Devanagari is an Indian script, written from left to right with a characteristic horizontal headline, in which each consonant carries an inherent vowel.
Dharmachakra: The Dharmachakra, or Wheel of the Law, is a Buddhist symbol representing the teaching of the Buddha, recalling his first sermon at Sarnath, known as setting the wheel of the Dharma in motion.
Dhu Raydan: Dhu Raydan, after Raydan, the royal palace at the Himyarite capital Zafar, was the name by which the Himyarite kingdom of south Arabia appears in its inscriptions.
Dinar: The dinar was the gold coin of the Islamic world, first issued in the Umayyad period.
Dirham (dirhams): The dirham was the silver coin of the Islamic world.
Dongmaeng: Dongmaeng was a great state festival of Goguryeo held in the tenth month of the year to give thanks to Heaven, recorded in the Chinese Records of the Three Kingdoms.
Druk Desi: The Druk Desi was the civil ruler of Bhutan under the dual system of government created by Ngawang Namgyal, the Zhabdrung, in the seventeenth century, while the Je Khenpo headed the monastic body.
Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King): Druk Gyalpo, 'Dragon King', is the title of the head of state of Bhutan.
Dry-stone construction (dry-stone): Dry-stone construction is a building technique in which walls are made from carefully fitted stones without mortar.
Duke of Atholl: Duke of Atholl is a title in the peerage of Scotland created in 1703 for John Murray, Marquess of Atholl.
Duke of Aveiro (House of Aveiro): Duke of Aveiro was a Portuguese ducal title created in 1535 for João de Lencastre, a grandson of King John II.
Dzud: Dzud is a Mongolian term for a catastrophic winter, when heavy snow, ice or extreme cold prevents livestock from grazing and causes mass deaths of animals.

E

Earl of Clanricarde: Earl of Clanricarde is a title in the Peerage of Ireland created in 1543 for Ulick na gCeann Burke, chief of the Burkes of south County Galway, under Henry VIII's policy of surrender and regrant.
Earl of Derby: Earl of Derby is a title in the peerage of England held since 1485 by the Stanley family.
Earl of Kildare: Earl of Kildare is a title in the peerage of Ireland created in 1316 for John FitzGerald and held by the Geraldine (FitzGerald) family.
Earl of Mercia: The Earl of Mercia was one of the great territorial earls of late Anglo-Saxon England, governing much of the old Mercian kingdom under the kings of England.
Early Bronze Age: The Early Bronze Age is the first phase of the Bronze Age in the Near East and the Aegean, roughly 3300 to 2000 BCE.
Early Classic period (Early Classic Maya): The Early Classic period is the first part of the Classic era of Maya civilisation, from about 250 to 600 CE.
Early Minoan period (Early Minoan): The Early Minoan period is the first phase of the Bronze Age Minoan civilisation of Crete, from about 3100 to 2100 BCE.
East Semitic languages: The East Semitic languages are an extinct branch of the Semitic language family, spoken in ancient Mesopotamia and Syria.
Ebony: Ebony is a dense, dark hardwood from tropical Africa that was highly valued as a luxury material in the ancient world.
Ecological warfare: Ecological warfare refers to military methods that target an enemy's environment and resources, such as water supplies or farmland.
Egyptian hieroglyphs (hieroglyphics): Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system of ancient Egypt, using pictorial signs for sounds and words.
Eid al-Ghadir (Feast of Ghadir): Eid al-Ghadir is a Shia Muslim festival held on 18 Dhu al-Hijja to commemorate the Prophet Muhammad's sermon at Ghadir Khumm in 632, in which Shia Muslims see the designation of Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor.
El Niño (El Niño–Southern Oscillation): El Niño is the periodic warming of surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, part of a climate cycle that recurs every few years.
Elamite language (Elamite administrative language): Elamite is the extinct language of ancient Elam, written first in its own scripts and later in cuneiform.
Elector Palatine (Elector of the Palatinate): Elector Palatine was the title of the Count Palatine of the Rhine as one of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire, confirmed by the Golden Bull of 1356.
Elmina Note: The Elmina Note was a document entitling an African power to a regular rent paid by the Dutch for the land of their castle at Elmina on the Gold Coast.
English language: English is a Germanic language that originated in England.
Englishry: The Englishry was the lowland part of a marcher lordship in Wales, settled by English and Flemish colonists and run under English law and manorial custom, as distinct from the upland Welshry, where Welsh tenants kept Welsh law and customs.
Entrepôt (entrepot): An entrepôt is a port or trading centre where goods are imported, stored and re-exported, often without further processing.
Erligang culture: The Erligang culture is a Bronze Age culture of China dated to about 1600–1400 BCE, named after a site at Zhengzhou in Henan.
Esperanto: Esperanto is a constructed international language created by the Polish ophthalmologist L.
Eteocypriot language (Eteocypriot): Eteocypriot is the name given to a non-Greek language of ancient Cyprus, known from inscriptions written in the Cypriot syllabary between about the 8th and 4th centuries BCE.
Etsu Nupe: Etsu Nupe is the title of the traditional ruler of the Nupe people of central Nigeria.
Eunuch: A eunuch is a castrated man, and in many courts eunuchs served as palace officials, guards of the royal household and administrators.
Eurobond: A Eurobond is an international bond issued in a currency other than that of the country where it is sold, usually underwritten by an international syndicate of banks.
Eze Nri: Eze Nri was the title of the priest-king of Nri, an Igbo sacred kingdom in south-eastern Nigeria.

F

Fatwa: A fatwa is a formal legal opinion issued by a qualified Islamic jurist.
Federalism (federalisation, federal autonomy): Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent units.
Feigned retreat: The feigned retreat is a tactic in which an army pretends to flee in order to draw the enemy into breaking formation, then turns to attack.
Feudalism (semifedal, feudal): Feudalism is a term for systems in which land was granted in return for military service and loyalty, creating hierarchies of lords and vassals.
Field artillery (cannon): Field artillery refers to mobile cannon used on the battlefield.
Fire arrow (fire arrows): A fire arrow was an arrow carrying an incendiary or gunpowder charge.
First Intermediate Period: The First Intermediate Period is the era of ancient Egyptian history between the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the reunification of the country in the Middle Kingdom.
First Sea Lord: The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the British Royal Navy and the senior naval officer on the Admiralty Board.
Five-year plans of the Soviet Union: The five-year plans were the centralised economic plans by which the Soviet state directed production from 1928 until 1991.
Flag of Denmark (Dannebrog): The flag of Denmark, the Dannebrog, a white Scandinavian cross on a red field, is often said to be the oldest national flag in continuous use.
Flax: Flax is a plant grown for its fibres, which are made into linen, and for its seeds.
Florentine Catasto (Catasto of 1427): The Florentine Catasto of 1427 was a tax survey introduced by the Republic of Florence, which required every household in the city and its territory to declare its members, property, investments and debts.
Fon (title): Fon is the title of the sacred kings of the chiefdoms and kingdoms of the Cameroon Grassfields, such as Nso, Bafut and Bali-Nyonga.
Foreign Orientals (Vreemde Oosterlingen): Foreign Orientals (Vreemde Oosterlingen) was a legal category in the Dutch East Indies for residents of Asian origin who were neither Europeans nor natives, chiefly Chinese, Arabs and Indians.
Fortified camp (fortified camps): A fortified camp is a defended encampment built by an army on campaign.
Four Asian Tigers (Four Little Dragons): The Four Asian Tigers are Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, economies that industrialised rapidly from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Frankokratia (Latinokratia): Frankokratia ('rule of the Franks') is the period of Western, chiefly French and Italian, rule in Greek lands after the Fourth Crusade of 1204.
French language: French is a Romance language that developed from Latin in France.
Führer: Führer, German for 'leader', was the title used by Adolf Hitler as head of the Nazi Party and, from August 1934, as head of the German state after he merged the offices of president and chancellor on the death of Paul von Hindenburg.
Fundus: A fundus was a Roman landed estate or farm.
Fur trade (furs): The fur trade was the commerce in animal pelts, highly valued for clothing and as luxury goods.

G

Gabunga: Gabunga was the title of the admiral of the Kingdom of Buganda's fleet of war canoes on Lake Victoria, a hereditary office held by the head of the Lungfish (Mamba) clan.
Galician-Portuguese (Old Galician): Galician-Portuguese was the Romance language of medieval Galicia and northern Portugal, from which modern Galician and Portuguese developed.
Galilean moons (Medicean Stars): The Galilean moons are the four largest moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, discovered by Galileo Galilei with his telescope in January 1610.
Galleon: A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used from the sixteenth century for war and long-distance trade.
Galley (galleys): A galley is a warship propelled mainly by oars, dominant in Mediterranean warfare for centuries.
Gallo language: Gallo is a Romance language of the langue d'oïl group, spoken in eastern Brittany around Rennes, Saint-Malo and Nantes.
Gamay: Gamay is a red wine grape of eastern France, the main grape of Beaujolais.
Gandhari language (Gandhari Prakrit): Gandhari is a Middle Indo-Aryan language, or Prakrit, of the ancient region of Gandhara in what is now north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.
Ganjifa: Ganjifa is a family of card games played with round, hand-painted cards, introduced to India from Persia and popular at the Mughal court in the 16th century.
Garhjat states: The Garhjat states were the small princely states of the hill and forest country of Odisha, whose name refers to the forts, garh, from which their Rajas ruled.
Gatling gun: The Gatling gun is a hand-cranked, rapid-firing gun with several rotating barrels, patented by the American inventor Richard Gatling in 1862.
Gauleiter: A Gauleiter was the Nazi Party's leader of a regional branch, or Gau, in Germany and later in annexed territories.
Gbe languages: The Gbe languages are a group of closely related languages of the Volta–Niger family spoken from south-eastern Ghana through Togo and Benin to south-western Nigeria.
Ge'ez (Ge'ez script): Ge'ez is an ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its own script.
Genocide: Genocide is the deliberate destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser): German Emperor was the title of the head of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, always held by the King of Prussia.
Germanisation (Germanization): Germanisation is the spread of the German language, people and culture into other lands, through settlement or state policy.
Gilchrist–Thomas process (Thomas process, basic Bessemer process): The Gilchrist–Thomas process is a method of making steel from phosphorus-rich iron ore, developed by the British cousins Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Gilchrist and made public in 1879.
Glassmaking: Glassmaking is the craft of producing glass objects.
God's Wife of Amun (Divine Adoratrice of Amun): God's Wife of Amun was the title of the highest-ranking priestess of the god Amun at Thebes.
Gold trade (gold-salt, trans-Saharan gold): The gold trade refers to the commerce in West African gold, often exchanged for Saharan salt and carried across the desert to North Africa and the Mediterranean.
Golden Urn: The Golden Urn was a method introduced by the Qing Qianlong Emperor in 1793 for choosing high Tibetan and Mongolian reincarnate lamas, including the Dalai and Panchen Lamas.
Gonfaloniere of Justice (Gonfaloniere di Giustizia): The Gonfaloniere of Justice was the highest office of the Republic of Florence, created by the Ordinances of Justice of 1293 to command a militia enforcing the laws against the magnates.
Gorani language: Gorani is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in parts of the Zagros on both sides of the Iran–Iraq border, closely related to Zazaki.
Gosanke: The Gosanke, the 'three honourable houses', were the three senior branch families of the Tokugawa, founded by sons of Tokugawa Ieyasu: the Owari, Kii and Mito houses.
Grand Duke of Tuscany: Grand Duke of Tuscany was the title created by Pope Pius V in 1569 for Cosimo I de' Medici, ruler of Florence and Siena, and confirmed by the emperor in 1576.
Grand Pensionary (Raadpensionaris): The Grand Pensionary was the leading official of the province of Holland in the Dutch Republic, its chief legal adviser and spokesman in the States General, and often the effective director of the Republic's policy.
Grand Župan (Veliki župan): Grand Župan was the title of the supreme ruler of several early medieval South Slavic states, above the župans who governed individual districts.
Grantha script: The Grantha script is a South Indian script derived from Brahmi, used from Pallava times to write Sanskrit in the Tamil country, where the Tamil script lacked letters for many Sanskrit sounds.
Great Chief of the Ma: Great Chief of the Ma was the title of the leaders of the Meshwesh, Libyan settlers in Egypt, during the Third Intermediate Period.
Great Sun: The Great Sun was the title of the paramount ruler of the Natchez people of the lower Mississippi valley.
Greek fire: Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire, typically projected from siphons on warships, and able to burn on water.
Greek language: The Greek language is an Indo-European language with a written history stretching back over three thousand years.
Green Corn Ceremony (Busk): The Green Corn Ceremony is the most important annual festival of the Muscogee (Creek), Seminole and other peoples of the south-eastern woodlands of North America.
Grenzer (Grenzers, Military Frontiersmen): Grenzer were the soldier-settlers of the Habsburg Military Frontier, the border zone against the Ottoman Empire in Croatia, Slavonia, Hungary and later Transylvania.
Gross domestic product (GDP, GNP): Gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the total value of goods and services produced within an economy over a given period.
Groundnut (groundnuts): The groundnut, or peanut, is a legume crop originally from South America that became widely cultivated in West Africa.
Groundwater depletion (resource depletion, groundwater): Groundwater depletion is the exhaustion of underground water reserves when extraction exceeds natural recharge.
Guarani language (Paraguayan Guarani): Guarani is a Tupi–Guarani language of South America and one of the two official languages of Paraguay, alongside Spanish, spoken by most Paraguayans regardless of background.
Guerrilla warfare (guerrilla): Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small, mobile forces use raids, ambushes and knowledge of terrain against larger conventional armies.
Guild: A guild is an association of craftsmen or merchants practising the same trade, organised to regulate production, training and standards and to protect members' interests.
Gunpowder: Gunpowder is an explosive mixture of saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur, first developed in China.
Güregen: Güregen, meaning 'royal son-in-law', was a title borne in the Mongol world by men who married into the family of Genghis Khan.
Gutsherrschaft: Gutsherrschaft is the German term for the manorial system that developed east of the Elbe from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Gymnasium: A gymnasium was a Greek institution for physical training and education, which also served as a centre of social and intellectual life.

H

Hadiyya language: Hadiyya is a Highland East Cushitic language spoken by the Hadiya people of southern Ethiopia, south-west of Addis Ababa, by more than a million people.
Hadramautic language (Hadramitic): Hadramautic was one of the Ancient South Arabian languages, written in the Kingdom of Hadramawt in what is now eastern Yemen from the early first millennium BCE until about the 4th century CE.
Haiku: Haiku is a short form of Japanese poetry, traditionally of three phrases following a five-seven-five syllable pattern and often evoking nature and the seasons.
Haitian Creole (Kreyòl): Haitian Creole is a French-based creole language spoken by almost the whole population of Haiti.
Hajj: The hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim who is able is expected to make at least once in a lifetime, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Hand cannon (hand cannons): The hand cannon was an early firearm consisting of a simple metal tube fired by igniting gunpowder by hand.
Hangul (Hangeul, Korean alphabet): Hangul is the Korean alphabet, created in 1443 under King Sejong of Joseon and promulgated in 1446 as the Hunminjeongeum, "the proper sounds for instructing the people".
Hanyu Pinyin (Pinyin): Hanyu Pinyin is the official system for writing Standard Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet, adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1958 and developed by a committee that included the linguist Zhou Youguang.
Hassaniya Arabic (Hassaniya): Hassaniya Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in Mauritania, Western Sahara, southern Morocco and parts of Algeria, Mali and Senegal.
Hattic language: Hattic was the language of the Hattians of central Anatolia in the 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE.
Haveli: A haveli is a traditional townhouse or mansion of the Indian subcontinent, built around one or more inner courtyards.
Heavy cavalry: Heavy cavalry refers to mounted troops with substantial armour and weapons, used for shock action against enemy formations.
Hebrew: Hebrew is a Semitic language, the language of the Hebrew Bible and of ancient Israel.
Hellanodikai: The Hellanodikai, 'judges of the Greeks', were the officials who organised and judged the ancient Olympic Games.
Heller (coin) (Haller pfennig): The Heller was a German coin first struck at the imperial mint of Schwäbisch Hall in the 12th century as a silver pfennig, the Haller pfennig, from which its name comes.
High King of Ireland (Ard Rí): The High King of Ireland, Ard Rí in Irish, was the title claimed by kings who asserted supremacy over the island's many kingdoms.
Highland East Cushitic languages: The Highland East Cushitic languages are a branch of the Cushitic family spoken in the highlands of southern Ethiopia, in and around the Rift Valley.
Hill fort (hill forts): A hill fort is a fortification built on high ground, using the natural terrain for defence.
Hindko (Hindko language): Hindko is a group of Indo-Aryan dialects spoken in north-western Pakistan, especially in the Hazara region and the city of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and in parts of northern Punjab.
Hindu–Arabic numeral system (Hindu-Arabic numerals): The Hindu–Arabic numeral system is the decimal place-value system of writing numbers with ten digits, including zero, used throughout the world today.
Hiri Motu (Police Motu): Hiri Motu is a simplified form of the Motu language of the Port Moresby area and one of the national languages of Papua New Guinea.
HIV/AIDS: HIV/AIDS is the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system and, untreated, leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Hoplite: A hoplite was a heavily armed Greek infantryman, equipped with a large round shield, spear and armour, fighting in the close formation known as the phalanx.
Horse archer (horse archers): A horse archer is a mounted warrior who shoots with a bow from horseback, combining mobility with missile firepower.
Horse breeding (horse-breeding): Horse breeding is the raising of horses for transport, warfare and trade.
Horse trade (horses from North Africa): The horse trade refers to the exchange of horses, often over long distances, for military and prestige purposes.
Huerta: A huerta is an irrigated agricultural area in Spain, especially around Valencia, Murcia and Granada, using irrigation channels developed in the Islamic period.
Huizi: Huizi was a form of paper money issued by the Southern Song government from the twelfth century.
Huopao: Huopao were incendiary bombs or fire projectiles used in Chinese warfare, often launched by trebuchets.

I

Incense: Incense is aromatic resin or plant material burned for its fragrance, especially in religious rituals.
Indian Ocean trade: Indian Ocean trade refers to the maritime exchange of goods such as spices, textiles, gold, ivory and ceramics across the Indian Ocean, driven by seasonal monsoon winds.
Indigo: Indigo is a blue dye obtained from plants, widely used to colour textiles.
Indo-European languages: The Indo-European languages are a family of related languages spoken across Europe and much of western and southern Asia, descended from a reconstructed ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, probably spoken in the 4th millennium BCE.
Inflation: Inflation is a sustained rise in the general level of prices, reducing the purchasing power of money.
Insulin: Insulin is the hormone that regulates blood sugar, and its absence or failure causes diabetes.
Intercession of the Theotokos (Pokrov): The Intercession of the Theotokos (Pokrov) is an Eastern Orthodox feast, celebrated on 1 October (14 October in the Gregorian calendar), commemorating a vision of the Virgin Mary spreading her veil over the faithful in the Blachernae…
Iron Curtain: The Iron Curtain was the political, military and physical boundary that divided Europe after the Second World War, separating the Soviet Union and the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe from the West.
Iron plough (iron-tipped plough): The iron plough, or iron-tipped plough, is a plough whose cutting edge is made of iron, allowing deeper and more efficient tillage.
Iron smelting (iron production): Iron smelting is the extraction of iron from ore by heating it in a furnace.
Iron working (iron-working): Iron working is the craft of smelting and forging iron to make tools and weapons.
Ironclad (ironclads): An ironclad was a steam-powered warship protected by iron or steel armour plates, developed in the mid-nineteenth century.
Iroquoian languages: The Iroquoian languages are a family of Native American languages of eastern North America.
Itza language (Itzaj): Itza is a Mayan language of the Yucatecan branch, spoken by the Itza Maya of the Petén lakes in northern Guatemala.
Ivory trade (ivory): The ivory trade is the commerce in elephant tusks, prized for carving and luxury goods.
Iwan (four-iwan): An iwan is a vaulted hall or space, walled on three sides and open on one, characteristic of Persian and Islamic architecture.

J

Japanese tea ceremony (tea ceremony): The Japanese tea ceremony is a ritual preparation and serving of powdered green tea, shaped by Zen Buddhist ideals of simplicity and harmony.
Javanese calendar: The Javanese calendar was introduced by Sultan Agung of Mataram in 1633.
Je Khenpo: The Je Khenpo is the chief abbot of the Central Monastic Body of Bhutan and the country's highest religious authority.
Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (Jebtsundamba Khutuktu): The Jebtsundamba Khutughtu is the title of the highest reincarnate lama of Mongolian Buddhism, head of the Gelug school in Mongolia.
Jemdet Nasr period: The Jemdet Nasr period is an archaeological period of Mesopotamia, about 3100 to 2900 BCE, between the Uruk period and the Early Dynastic period.
Jèrriais (Jersey French, Jersey Norman French): Jèrriais is the Norman language of Jersey, a variety of Norman French spoken on the island since the Middle Ages.
Jersey Royal (Jersey Royal potato): The Jersey Royal is a variety of early new potato grown in Jersey, developed around 1880 by the farmer Hugh de la Haye from an unusually large potato with many eyes.
Jezzailchi (jezzailchis): Jezzailchis were soldiers armed with the jezail, a long-barrelled musket used in Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Jiaozi: Jiaozi was a form of paper money that first appeared in Sichuan in the early eleventh century, initially issued by merchants and later taken over by the government.
Jihad: Jihad is an Islamic term meaning struggle or striving, which can refer to spiritual effort or to armed struggle in defence or expansion of the faith.
Jong (ship): The jong was a large ocean-going ship of the Javanese and Malay world, capable of carrying large crews and cargoes.
Jury trial (trial by jury): Jury trial is a legal procedure in which a panel of citizens decides the facts of a case.
Justicia of Aragon: The Justicia of Aragon was a high judge of the medieval Kingdom of Aragon who arbitrated between the king and his subjects and could protect individuals against royal officials.

K

Kabaka of Buganda (Kabaka): The Kabaka of Buganda is the title of the king of Buganda, the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda.
Kabuki: Kabuki is a form of Japanese theatre combining drama, music and dance, known for stylised acting and elaborate costumes.
Kalachuri-Chedi era: The Kalachuri-Chedi era is a calendar era of ancient India whose first year began in 248 or 249 CE.
Kannada (Kannada language): Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka, with more than 40 million speakers.
Kapellmeister: Kapellmeister is a German title for the director of music at a princely court or church, originally the leader of a chapel's musicians.
Kapudan Pasha (Kapudan-ı Derya): Kapudan Pasha was the title of the grand admiral of the Ottoman navy, from the 16th century one of the highest officials of the empire.
Karmapa: The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and the oldest line of reincarnated lamas in Tibet, beginning with Düsum Khyenpa in the 12th century.
Kebek (coin) (kebeks): The kebek was a standardised silver coin introduced by Kebek Khan of the Chagatai Khanate in the 1320s.
Kenjutsu: Kenjutsu is the Japanese art of swordsmanship.
Kente cloth (kente): Kente cloth is a brightly coloured woven textile of the Akan peoples of present-day Ghana, made from interwoven strips of cloth.
Khalifa: Khalifa, rendered in English as caliph, is the Arabic title for the successor to the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Muslim community.
Khedive of Egypt (Khedive): Khedive was the title of the hereditary viceroys of Egypt under Ottoman suzerainty, granted by the sultan to Isma'il Pasha in 1867 and used until 1914.
Khowar language (Chitrali): Khowar, also called Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group spoken by several hundred thousand people in Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and in parts of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Khwarazmshah: Khwarazmshah ('Shah of Khwarazm') was the title of the rulers of Khwarazm, the oasis region on the lower Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea.
Kibushi (Shibushi): Kibushi is the Malagasy language spoken in Mayotte, closely related to the Sakalava dialect of north-western Madagascar.
Kilo-class submarine (Project 636): The Kilo class is the NATO name for a type of diesel-electric attack submarine designed in the Soviet Union and built from the early 1980s, later in an improved version known as Project 636.
Kinyarwanda: Kinyarwanda is the Bantu language of Rwanda, spoken by nearly the whole population and closely related to Kirundi of Burundi.
Kipchak languages: The Kipchak languages are a branch of the Turkic languages spoken from eastern Europe to Central Asia, including Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Bashkir, Karakalpak, Nogai and Crimean Tatar.
Kola nut (kola nuts): The kola nut is the caffeine-containing seed of the kola tree, native to the West African forest zone.
Komtur: Komtur, from Latin commendator, was the title of the commander of a commandery (Komturei) in the Teutonic Order and some other military orders.
Kongo language (Kikongo): Kongo, or Kikongo, is a Bantu language spoken by the Kongo people in western Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Angola and the Republic of the Congo.
Kopek: The kopek is a small unit of Russian currency, one hundredth of a rouble.
Kopje: A kopje is a small, isolated hill, often a rocky granite outcrop, rising from the surrounding plain in southern Africa.
Kora: The kora is a twenty-one-string harp-lute of the Mandinka and neighbouring peoples of West Africa, played above all by jali (griots), the hereditary musicians and keepers of oral history.
Kshatriya: Kshatriya is the second of the four varnas of the traditional Hindu social order, the class of rulers and warriors, ranked after the Brahmins.
Kulinism: Kulinism was a system of ranking among Bengali Brahmins and Kayasthas that placed certain families, the Kulins, at the top of the social order.
Kurgan: A kurgan is a burial mound raised over a grave, a form of tomb common across the Eurasian steppe from prehistoric times.
Kyabazinga (Kyabazinga of Busoga): Kyabazinga is the title of the king of Busoga, in eastern Uganda.

L

La Tène culture: The La Tène culture was the late Iron Age culture of Celtic Europe, from about 450 BCE until the Roman conquest.
Lachit Divas (Lachit Diwas): Lachit Divas is an annual day of commemoration held in Assam, India, on 24 November, the birthday of Lachit Borphukan, the Ahom general who defeated the Mughal army at the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.
Lacquerware: Lacquerware is objects coated with lacquer made from the sap of the lacquer tree, producing a durable, glossy finish.
Lance (lancers): A lance is a long spear designed for use by mounted soldiers, especially in the charge.
Land tenure (land grant system): Land tenure refers to the rules and arrangements by which land is held, used, granted and transferred.
Landammann: Landammann is the title of the chief magistrate in several Swiss cantons.
Landammann of Switzerland: The Landammann of Switzerland was the head of the Swiss Confederation under Napoleon's Act of Mediation from 1803 to 1813.
Late Classic period (Late Classic Maya): The Late Classic is the period of Maya history from about 600 to 900 CE, when lowland Maya civilisation reached its height.
Latin: Latin is the language of ancient Rome, which spread across the western Mediterranean with Roman rule and became the root of the Romance languages.
Lavelua: Lavelua is the title of the paramount king of Uvea, or Wallis Island, in the Pacific.
Leather (leather goods): Leather is animal hide tanned and prepared for making goods such as bags, sandals, saddles and book covers.
Lepontic language (Lepontic): Lepontic is an ancient Celtic language known from about 140 inscriptions found around the Italian lakes and the southern Alps, dated from about the 6th to the 1st century BCE.
Lex Rhodia (Rhodian Sea Law): The Lex Rhodia was the maritime law of Rhodes on jettison: when cargo was thrown overboard to save a ship, the loss was shared among all whose property had been saved.
Libyco-Berber script (Libyc script): The Libyco-Berber script is an ancient alphabet of consonants used to write Berber languages across North Africa and the Canary Islands from at least the third century BCE.
Linear A: Linear A is the undeciphered script used by the Minoans of Crete for administration and religious inscriptions from about 1800 to 1450 BCE.
Linear B: Linear B is the syllabic script used by the Mycenaean palaces of Greece and Crete from about 1450 to 1200 BCE to record an early form of Greek.
Linear Elamite: Linear Elamite is an ancient script used in Elam in the late third millennium BCE.
Lingua franca: A lingua franca is a language used for communication between speakers of different native languages.
Litunga: Litunga, meaning 'keeper of the earth', is the title of the king of the Lozi people of Barotseland in western Zambia.
Llanito (Yanito): Llanito is the vernacular speech of Gibraltar, an Andalusian Spanish base mixed heavily with British English through frequent code-switching.
Lord of Mann: Lord of Mann is the title of the ruler of the Isle of Man.
Lord of the Isles (Dominus Insularum): Lord of the Isles, in Latin Dominus Insularum, was the title of the Clan Donald rulers of the Hebrides and western Highlands, first used by John of Islay in 1336.
Luganda (Ganda language): Luganda is the Bantu language of the Baganda of central Uganda.
Lukonkesh (Lukokesha): Lukonkesh (Lukokesha) was the title of the queen mother of the Lunda Empire in central Africa, a female dignitary of high rank at the royal capital, the musumba.
Luxembourgish: Luxembourgish is a West Germanic language, derived from Moselle Franconian dialects, spoken as a mother tongue by most Luxembourgers.
Lyciarch: The Lyciarch was the president of the Lycian League, the federation of the cities of ancient Lycia in south-western Asia Minor.

M

Madhab (madhhab): A madhab is a school of Islamic jurisprudence, a tradition of legal interpretation based on the Quran and Sunna.
Magadhi Prakrit: Magadhi Prakrit was the Middle Indo-Aryan vernacular of ancient Magadha in eastern India.
Magahi: Magahi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by more than 12 million people, mainly in southern Bihar and neighbouring parts of Jharkhand in India.
Magnetic compass (compass): The magnetic compass is a navigational instrument that uses a magnetised needle to indicate direction.
Magyarisation (Magyarization): Magyarisation was the policy of spreading the Hungarian language and identity among the non-Hungarian peoples of the Kingdom of Hungary, pursued especially after the Compromise of 1867.
Maharaja (Maharajah): Maharaja ('great king') is a Sanskrit royal title used across South Asia, originally for major sovereigns and later by many Hindu and Sikh rulers of princely states.
Maharana: Maharana, 'great rana', was the royal title of the rulers of Mewar, whose capital was Chittor and from 1559 Udaipur, and of a few other Rajput states such as Porbandar.
Maize: Maize is a cereal crop domesticated in Mesoamerica, the staple of the Aztec and other American civilisations.
Malay language: The Malay language is an Austronesian language spoken in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and much of maritime South-East Asia.
Malayalam language: The Malayalam language is a Dravidian language spoken mainly in Kerala and Lakshadweep in south-western India, by about 35 million people.
Maloango (Ma Loango): Maloango, or Ma Loango, was the title of the king of Loango on the Atlantic coast north of the Congo River.
Maltese language: Maltese is the national language of Malta and an official language of the European Union.
Mandarin Chinese: Mandarin Chinese is the largest group of Chinese dialects, spoken across northern and south-western China, and the basis of Standard Chinese, the official language of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan.
Manilla: A manilla was a horseshoe-shaped bracelet of copper or brass used as currency in West Africa.
Manshur: A manshur was a formal decree or diploma of investiture issued by a caliph.
Manuscript: A manuscript is a handwritten book or document.
Manuscript illumination: Manuscript illumination is the decoration of handwritten books with painted images, ornament and gold.
Manx language (Manx Gaelic): Manx is a Goidelic Celtic language of the Isle of Man, closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
Marathi: Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in western India, in present-day Maharashtra.
Matchlock: The matchlock was an early firearm mechanism in which a slow-burning match was lowered onto the priming powder to fire the gun.
Mawlid (Mawlid al-Nabi): Mawlid is the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, held by many Muslims on 12 Rabi al-Awwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar.
Maxim gun (Maxim guns): The Maxim gun was the first fully automatic machine gun, invented by Hiram Maxim in the 1880s.
Measles: Measles is a highly contagious viral disease.
Mechanical clock: A mechanical clock is a timekeeping device driven by a mechanism such as falling weights or water and an escapement.
Medism: Medism was the Greek term for collaborating with or siding with the Persian Empire, whose people the Greeks often called Medes.
Mefo bills: Mefo bills were promissory notes devised by Hjalmar Schacht to finance German rearmament in secret from 1934.
Mehri language: Mehri is a Modern South Arabian language spoken by the Mahra people of eastern Yemen and western Oman, and by migrants in the Gulf states.
Mercenary: A mercenary is a soldier who fights for pay in the service of a foreign power.
Meroitic script (Meroitic): The Meroitic script was the writing system of the Kingdom of Kush in its Meroitic period, used from about the second century BCE.
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar: The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar counts the days elapsed since a fixed starting date in 3114 BCE, using units based on twenty.
Messapic language: Messapic was an extinct Indo-European language of the Messapians of south-eastern Italy, in the Salento peninsula of Apulia.
Middle Persian (Pahlavi): Middle Persian, also called Pahlavi, was the Iranian language of the Sasanian Empire, descended from Old Persian and ancestral to modern Persian.
Military-industrial complex: The military-industrial complex is the network of armed forces, arms manufacturers and political interests that grows up around a permanent defence establishment.
Millet: Millet is a group of hardy, drought-tolerant cereal grains grown widely in Africa and Asia.
Minaic language (Minaean language): Minaic was the Ancient South Arabian language of the Kingdom of Ma'in in the al-Jawf region of Yemen, written in the South Arabian script.
Minié rifle (Minié rifles): The Minie rifle was a muzzle-loading rifled musket firing a conical bullet that expanded into the barrel's rifling, allowing accurate long-range fire.
Minnesang: Minnesang was the tradition of courtly love poetry and song in medieval Germany, flourishing from the twelfth to the fourteenth century.
Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP): Mixed-member proportional representation, or MMP, is an electoral system in which voters elect constituency members and also vote for parties, with list seats allocated so that each party's share of parliament matches its share of the…
Mogho Naba (Moro Naba, Mogho Naaba): The Mogho Naba ('ruler of the world') is the title of the king of the Mossi kingdom of Ouagadougou in present-day Burkina Faso, the senior of the Mossi states.
Monsoon: The monsoon is a seasonal reversal of winds that brings heavy summer rains to South and South-East Asia.
Mounted archer (mounted archers): A mounted archer is a cavalry soldier who shoots arrows from horseback.
Movable type: Movable type is a printing system using individual, reusable characters that can be arranged to form texts.
Muharram: Muharram is the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar and one of its four sacred months.
Mulena Mukwae: The Mulena Mukwae is the title of the royal princess who rules the southern part of Barotseland from Nalolo, under the Litunga, the Lozi king, who rules from the north.
Muqarnas: Muqarnas is a form of architectural ornament in Islamic architecture consisting of tiers of small niches, creating a honeycomb or stalactite effect in vaults and domes.
Musket (musketeer): The musket is a muzzle-loading, smoothbore firearm that became the standard infantry weapon in many armies from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
Mutasa: Mutasa is the hereditary title of the rulers of Manyika, a Shona kingdom in the highlands on the border of present-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Mwamba (Bemba title): Mwamba is the title of one of the senior chiefs of the Bemba of north-eastern Zambia, who rules a large territory next to that of the Chitimukulu, the paramount.
Mwata Yamvo (Mwaant Yav): Mwata Yamvo is the title of the paramount ruler of the Lunda Empire, centred in the south of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Myrrh: Myrrh is an aromatic resin obtained from trees native to north-east Africa and southern Arabia, prized in antiquity for incense, perfume and embalming.

N

Nahuatl: Nahuatl is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Mexica and other peoples of central Mexico.
Nasi (title): Nasi is a Hebrew title meaning 'prince' or 'leader', used in the Hebrew Bible for tribal chiefs.
National debt (funded national debt): A national debt is the total borrowing of a state, typically funded through government bonds.
National Hero of Indonesia (Pahlawan Nasional): National Hero of Indonesia (Pahlawan Nasional) is the highest honorary title awarded by the Indonesian government, given posthumously since 1959 to people who fought colonial rule or served the nation.
National Redoubt (Switzerland) (Réduit national): The National Redoubt was the Swiss defence plan announced by General Henri Guisan in July 1940, after the fall of France left Switzerland almost surrounded by the Axis.
Natron: Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium salts, used historically in cleaning, preservation, glassmaking and medicine.
Naval blockade (blockade): A naval blockade is the use of warships to stop shipping from reaching or leaving an enemy's ports.
Nayaka (Nayak): Nayaka, meaning leader or chief, was a title for military commanders in medieval South India.
Ndlovukati: Ndlovukati, meaning she-elephant, is the title of the queen mother of the Swazi Kingdom (Eswatini).
Ndonga dialect (Oshindonga): Oshindonga is a dialect of the Ovambo language spoken by the Ndonga people of northern Namibia.
Neopalatial period (New Palace period): The Neopalatial or New Palace period is the high point of Minoan civilisation on Crete, from about 1700 to 1450 BCE, when the palaces of Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Zakros were rebuilt on a grander scale and Minoan art, trade and…
Nepal Sambat: Nepal Sambat is a lunar calendar era of Nepal that begins in 879 CE.
New Economic Mechanism: New Economic Mechanism is the name of market-oriented reforms in two communist states.
Ngambela: The Ngambela is the chief councillor, or prime minister, of the Lozi kingdom of Barotseland.
Ngwenyama: Ngwenyama, meaning lion, is the title of the king of the Swazi Kingdom (Eswatini).
Niçard dialect (Nissart, Niçard Occitan): Niçard, or Nissart, is the variety of Occitan traditionally spoken in Nice and its former county, usually classed as a sub-dialect of Provençal.
Ninja (Shinobi): Ninja, or shinobi, were warriors of pre-modern Japan who specialised in espionage, scouting, infiltration and surprise attacks, especially in the Sengoku period of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Nobiin (Nobiin language, Mahas language): Nobiin is a Nubian language spoken along the Nile in southern Egypt and northern Sudan, the language of the Fadicca and Mahas Nubians.
Norman architecture (Norman Romanesque): Norman architecture is the Romanesque style of building developed in Normandy in the eleventh century and carried to England after 1066 and to southern Italy and Sicily.
Norn language: Norn was the North Germanic language spoken in Orkney, Shetland and Caithness, descended from the Old Norse of the Viking settlers.
North African elephant (North African forest elephant): The North African elephant was a population of elephants, now extinct, that lived in north-western Africa in antiquity.
Northern Black Polished Ware: Northern Black Polished Ware is a fine, glossy black or grey pottery of the Iron Age in northern India, made from about 700 to 200 BCE.
Northern Thai language (Kham Mueang, Lanna language): Northern Thai, known to its speakers as Kham Mueang, is the Tai language of the former kingdom of Lan Na, spoken by several million people in northern Thailand.
Nutmeg: Nutmeg is a spice obtained from the seed of a tree native to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of present-day Indonesia.

O

Oba of Lagos: The Oba of Lagos is the traditional ruler of Lagos, Nigeria.
Obelisk: An obelisk is a tall, narrow, tapering stone monument, often carved from a single block.
Obong of Calabar: The Obong of Calabar is the title of the paramount traditional ruler of the Efik people of Calabar in south-eastern Nigeria.
Odia language (Oriya): Odia, formerly spelled Oriya, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in Odisha, India, written in its own rounded script.
Oil palm: The oil palm is a tree native to West and Central Africa whose fruit yields palm oil, an important food and trade product.
Old French: Old French is the form of the French language spoken from around the ninth to the fourteenth century.
Old High German: Old High German is the earliest recorded stage of the German language, used from about the eighth to the eleventh century.
Old Javanese (Kawi): Old Javanese, or Kawi, is the literary and administrative language of Java recorded from the late 8th century, heavily influenced by Sanskrit.
Old Kannada (Halegannada): Old Kannada, or Halegannada, is the form of the Kannada language used in inscriptions and literature of the later first and early second millennium CE, from the Rashtrakuta period to the Hoysalas.
Old Khmer: Old Khmer is the earliest recorded form of the Khmer language, used in inscriptions in Cambodia from the seventh century.
Old Malay: Old Malay is the earliest attested form of the Malay language, known from inscriptions in Sumatra and nearby regions.
Old Mon: Old Mon is the earliest recorded form of the Mon language, an Austroasiatic language of mainland Southeast Asia.
Old Nubian: Old Nubian is the medieval written form of the Nubian language, used in the Christian kingdoms of the middle Nile from about the 8th to the 15th century.
Old Persian: Old Persian is the ancient Iranian language of the Achaemenid kings, written in a cuneiform script.
Old Turkic: Old Turkic is the earliest recorded Turkic language, written in a runic script from the 8th century.
Old Uyghur language: Old Uyghur was the Turkic language of the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho and the Gansu Uyghurs from the 9th to the 14th centuries.
Olive oil: Olive oil is the oil pressed from olives, a staple of Mediterranean diet, lighting and trade since antiquity.
Olowo (Olowo of Owo): The Olowo is the title of the king of Owo, a Yoruba kingdom in Ondo State, Nigeria.
Olu of Warri: The Olu of Warri is the title of the king of the Itsekiri people of the western Niger Delta in Nigeria.
Đông Sơn culture (Dong Son culture): The Đông Sơn culture was a Bronze Age culture of the Red River and Ma River valleys of northern Vietnam, named after a village in Thanh Hóa province.
Onojie (Enijie): Onojie, plural Enijie, is the title of the hereditary traditional rulers of the Esan chiefdoms in Edo State, Nigeria.
Oscan language (Oscan): Oscan was an Italic language spoken in southern Italy by the Samnites, Campanians, Lucanians and related peoples in the second half of the first millennium BCE.
Osco-Umbrian languages (Sabellic languages): The Osco-Umbrian languages, also called Sabellic, are a group of extinct Italic languages once spoken across central and southern Italy.
Osmanya (Osmanya script): Osmanya is an alphabet for the Somali language created around 1920 by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, son of the sultan of Hobyo.
Ostracism: Ostracism was an Athenian procedure by which the Assembly could exile a leading citizen for ten years without loss of property, by writing his name on potsherds, ostraka.
Ostrich feather (ostrich feathers): Ostrich feathers were a luxury trade good valued for decoration and fashion, carried north from the Sahel and Sahara across trans-Saharan routes.
Oto-Manguean languages: The Oto-Manguean languages are a large family of Indigenous languages of Mexico and Central America, including Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomi, Mazahua and Chinantec.
Overgrazing: Overgrazing occurs when livestock graze pasture more heavily than it can recover, degrading the land.
Owa Obokun: Owa Obokun is the title of the king of Ijesha, a Yoruba kingdom in south-western Nigeria whose capital is Ilesa.

P

Painted Grey Ware culture (Painted Grey Ware): The Painted Grey Ware culture is an Iron Age archaeological culture of the western Ganges plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley in northern India, dated to roughly 1200–600 BCE.
Palayakkarar (Poligars, Poligar): The Palayakkarar, known in English as Poligars and in Kannada as Palegars, were military chiefs of south India who held territories called palayams under the Vijayanagara Empire and its successor Nayaka states in return for military…
Pallava script (Pallava Grantha): The Pallava script is a Brahmic script that developed in southern India under the Pallava dynasty from around the 4th century CE.
Palm oil: Palm oil is an edible oil made from the fruit of the oil palm, a tree native to West and Central Africa.
Pant Pratinidhi: Pant Pratinidhi, or Pratinidhi, was a high office of the Maratha state, created by Chhatrapati Rajaram in the 1690s for a viceregent who could act in the king's name during the wars with the Mughals.
Pant Sachiv (Sachiv): The Sachiv, or Pant Sachiv, was one of the eight ministers of the Ashta Pradhan council created by Shivaji, responsible for royal correspondence and records.
Paper money: Paper money is currency printed on paper rather than minted in metal.
Papermaking (paper-making): Papermaking is the craft of producing paper from plant fibres, invented in China.
Papiamento (Papiamentu): Papiamento is a creole language spoken on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao in the southern Caribbean.
Papyrus: Papyrus is a writing material made from the pith of the papyrus plant, which grew abundantly in the Nile valley and delta.
Parthian shot: The Parthian shot was a mounted archery tactic in which a horse archer, real or feigning retreat, turned in the saddle to shoot at pursuing enemies.
Partible inheritance: Partible inheritance is a custom by which a father's property is divided among all his sons rather than passing to a single heir.
Pashto (Pashto language): Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language spoken by the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan, written in a modified Arabic script.
Passover (Pesach): Passover is a major Jewish festival commemorating the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, celebrated in spring from the 15th day of the month of Nisan.
Pastoralism (pastoral): Pastoralism is a way of life based on herding livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, horses and camels, often involving seasonal movement between pastures.
Patroon (Patroonship): A patroon was a landholder in New Netherland granted a large estate, a patroonship, by the Dutch West India Company under its Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, in return for settling fifty adults there within four years.
Peanut (peanuts): The peanut is a legume native to South America that spread worldwide after the Columbian exchange.
Penal transportation: Penal transportation was the punishment of sending convicted criminals to a distant colony.
People's commissar: A people's commissar was a minister of the Soviet government between 1917 and 1946, a member of the Council of People's Commissars in charge of a branch of administration such as war, foreign affairs or nationalities.
Pepper: Pepper is a spice made from the dried berries of a vine native to southern India, long one of the most valuable goods of Indian Ocean trade.
Percheron: The Percheron is a breed of heavy draught horse from the Perche region of north-western France, usually grey or black.
Persian carpet (carpet-weaving): The Persian carpet is a hand-knotted rug made in Iran, part of a weaving tradition stretching back many centuries.
Persian language: Persian is an Iranian language spoken mainly in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, whose literary form developed after the Islamic conquest from earlier Middle Persian.
Persian miniature (miniature painting): Persian miniature is a tradition of small, detailed painting, usually used to illustrate manuscripts of poetry and history.
ʼPhags-pa script (Phagspa script): The ʼPhags-pa script is an alphabet created by the Tibetan lama Drogön Chögyal Phagpa at the request of Kublai Khan.
Phalanx: A phalanx is a dense formation of heavily armed infantry fighting in close ranks.
Phosphate (phosphates): Phosphate is a mineral resource used chiefly to make agricultural fertilisers.
Phra Khlang: The Phra Khlang was the Siamese minister of the treasury, whose department under the Ayutthaya and early Bangkok kings also managed royal trade, the ports and relations with foreign merchants and states.
Pike (pikemen): The pike is a long thrusting spear used by infantry in close formations, especially to resist cavalry.
Pinot noir: Pinot noir is a red wine grape associated above all with Burgundy, where it has been grown since at least the fourteenth century.
Piracy (pirates): Piracy is robbery and violence committed at sea.
Pitkern (Pitcairnese): Pitkern is a creole language based on 18th-century English and Tahitian, spoken by the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island.
Poison gas: Poison gas is a chemical weapon that injures or kills by inhalation or contact.
Polonisation (Polonization): Polonisation is the adoption of the Polish language, culture and often Catholic religion by non-Polish groups.
Porcelain: Porcelain is a fine, hard, translucent ceramic first developed in China.
Porfiriato: The Porfiriato was the period of Porfirio Díaz's rule in Mexico, from 1876 to 1911, with an interval from 1880 to 1884.
Portuguese language: Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in the western Iberian Peninsula.
Potato: The potato is a starchy tuber native to the Andes of South America, spread worldwide after the Spanish conquest.
Pound sterling (sterling): The pound sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom.
Prakrit (Prakrits): Prakrit is the name for the vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages of ancient India, related to Sanskrit but simpler in sound and grammar.
Prefect of Egypt (Praefectus Aegypti): The prefect of Egypt (praefectus Aegypti) was the governor of the Roman province of Egypt from its annexation in 30 BCE.
Primogeniture: Primogeniture is the rule of inheritance by which the eldest son succeeds to the whole of a title or estate.
Prince of Transylvania: Prince of Transylvania was the title of the rulers of the Principality of Transylvania, first taken by John Sigismund Zápolya when he gave up the Hungarian royal title at the Treaty of Speyer in 1570.
Prince of Wales: Prince of Wales was the title claimed by native Welsh rulers of Gwynedd as overlords of Wales.
Printing press (printing): Printing is the mechanical reproduction of text and images.
Protective tariff (protective tariffs): A protective tariff is a tax on imported goods designed to shield domestic producers from foreign competition.
Protogeometric style: The Protogeometric style is the style of Greek pottery of about 1050–900 BCE, after the collapse of Mycenaean civilisation, decorated with concentric circles and semicircles drawn with compasses and multiple brushes.
Protopalatial period (Old Palace period): The Protopalatial or Old Palace period is the phase of Minoan Crete, roughly 1900 to 1700 BCE, in which the first palaces were built at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia.
Psychological warfare: Psychological warfare is the use of fear, deception and propaganda to weaken an enemy's will to resist.
Pulaar: Pulaar is the variety of the Fula language spoken in the Senegal River valley, the old region of Futa Toro, and in Senegal, Mauritania, the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.
Pulses: Pulses are the edible seeds of leguminous plants, such as lentils, peas, chickpeas and beans.
Pyidawtha (Pyidawtha Plan): Pyidawtha, meaning 'happy, prosperous land', was the welfare-state programme of U Nu's government in Burma, launched in 1952.
Pythia: The Pythia was the priestess of Apollo at Delphi who spoke the god's oracles.

Q

Qatabanian language (Qatabanic): Qatabanian is an Old South Arabian language spoken in the ancient kingdom of Qataban in Yemen and written in the South Arabian script.
Qatar and Dubai riyal (Qatar-Dubai riyal): The Qatar and Dubai riyal was the currency issued jointly by Qatar and Dubai from 1966 to 1973.
Quechua (Quechuan languages, Runa Simi): Quechua is a family of languages spoken by some eight to ten million people in the Andes, chiefly in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Quinquereme: A quinquereme was a large ancient warship powered by oarsmen arranged in groups of five per vertical unit.

R

Raffia cloth: Raffia cloth is a textile woven from the fibres of the raffia palm, produced in Central Africa.
Rajab: Rajab is the seventh month of the Islamic lunar calendar.
Rajah of Sarawak (White Rajah): Rajah of Sarawak was the title of the Brooke family, the 'White Rajahs', who ruled Sarawak in northern Borneo from 1841 to 1946.
Rajasuya: The Rajasuya was a Vedic royal consecration ritual in which a king was anointed and proclaimed his supremacy over other rulers.
Rajpramukh: Rajpramukh was the title of the head of a union of former princely states in the Republic of India between 1948 and 1956, an office comparable to a state governor.
Ramlila (Ram Lila): Ramlila is a dramatic re-enactment of the life of the god Rama, based on the Ramayana and especially Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, performed across northern India in the weeks around the Dussehra festival.
Rector of Ragusa (Rector of the Republic of Ragusa): The Rector of Ragusa was the nominal head of state of the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) from 1358 to 1808.
Reich Protector (Reichsprotektor): Reich Protector, in German Reichsprotektor, was the title of the highest German official in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 1939 to 1945, who held real power over the nominal Czech government.
Reichskommissar (Reich Commissioner): A Reichskommissar, or Reich Commissioner, was in Nazi Germany an official appointed to govern an occupied territory as a civil administrator answerable directly to Hitler.
Reservoir (reservoirs): A reservoir is an artificial or enlarged body of water used to store water for irrigation, drinking or flood control.
Rhinoplasty: Rhinoplasty is surgery to reconstruct or reshape the nose.
Riau Malay: Riau Malay is the variety of Malay spoken in the Riau archipelago and the old Johor-Riau sultanate.
Rice: Rice is a cereal grain cultivated in flooded paddies or dry fields and is a staple food across much of Asia and parts of West Africa.
Rice terrace (terraced paddies): A rice terrace is a series of stepped, levelled fields cut into hillsides to allow the irrigated cultivation of rice on sloping ground.
Riesling: Riesling is a white grape variety native to the Rhine region of Germany, prized for aromatic, high-acid wines ranging from dry to sweet.
Roman-Dutch law: Roman-Dutch law is the legal system that developed in the Netherlands in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries by combining Roman civil law with Dutch custom, and was described by jurists such as Hugo Grotius.
Romansh (Romansh language): Romansh is a Romance language spoken in the canton of Graubünden in eastern Switzerland, descended from the Latin of the Roman province of Raetia.
Romny culture: The Romny culture was an archaeological culture of the 8th to 10th centuries on the left bank of the Dnieper in present-day Ukraine and Russia.
Rubber: Rubber is an elastic material produced from the latex of certain tropical trees, which became an important industrial commodity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the growth of bicycles, automobiles and electrical…
Rupee: The rupee is a currency unit of the Indian subcontinent, descended from the silver rupiya coin introduced in the sixteenth century and later standardised under Mughal rule.
Rupiya: The rupiya was a silver coin introduced in northern India in the sixteenth century under Sher Shah Suri and adopted as the standard silver coinage of the Mughal Empire.
Russification: Russification was the policy of spreading the Russian language, culture and administration among the non-Russian peoples of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union.
Rye: Rye is a hardy cereal grain that grows well in cool climates and poorer soils, long a staple of northern and eastern European agriculture.

S

Sadeh: Sadeh is an ancient Iranian festival celebrated with great bonfires fifty days before Nowruz, at the end of January, to honour fire and mark the waning of winter.
Saint Lucian Creole (Kwéyòl): Saint Lucian Creole, or Kwéyòl, is a French-based creole language spoken by most people in Saint Lucia.
Saka era (Shaka era): The Saka era is a calendar era beginning in 78 CE, used widely in India and in Hindu-Buddhist Java and Bali to date inscriptions and chronicles.
Salinisation: Salinisation is the build-up of salts in soil, often caused by long-term irrigation in hot, dry climates where evaporation leaves mineral deposits behind.
Salt trade: The salt trade refers to the long-distance exchange of salt, a vital commodity for human diet and food preservation.
San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi): The San Pedro cactus, Echinopsis pachanoi, is a fast-growing columnar cactus native to the Andes of Peru and Ecuador.
Sancai: Sancai, meaning three colours, is a type of Chinese lead-glazed pottery decorated mainly in amber, green and cream, which flourished under the Tang Dynasty.
Sanctions: Sanctions are penalties, usually economic, imposed by states or international bodies to pressure another state to change its behaviour.
Sangpyeong tongbo: The Sangpyeong tongbo was a copper coin of Joseon Korea, cast in large numbers from 1678 under King Sukjong as the country's standard currency.
Sanskrit: Sanskrit is a classical Indo-Aryan language of South Asia, used for religious, literary, philosophical and scientific texts over more than three millennia.
Sapa Inca: Sapa Inca, the 'unique Inca', was the title of the ruler of the Inca state.
Sarissa: The sarissa was a very long pike, several metres in length, carried by the infantry of the Macedonian phalanx.
Savannah: Savannah is a type of tropical grassland with scattered trees, found widely across Africa between the rainforest and the desert.
Secretary-General of the United Nations: The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of its Secretariat, appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council, usually for five-year terms.
Semitic languages (Semitic): The Semitic languages are a family of languages of the Near East and North Africa that includes Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, Arabic and Ge'ez.
Serfdom: Serfdom was a form of unfree labour in which peasants were bound to the land and owed labour or dues to a lord.
Sericulture: Sericulture is the raising of silkworms for the production of raw silk, typically by feeding them on mulberry leaves.
Sesame: Sesame is a flowering plant cultivated for its oil-rich seeds, one of the oldest oilseed crops.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are a list of remarkable monuments drawn up by Greek writers of the Hellenistic period: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis…
Sharif of Mecca (Sharifate of Mecca, Emir of Mecca): The Sharif of Mecca was the ruler of Mecca and much of the Hejaz, chosen from among the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Hasan, from the 10th century until 1925.
Shawl (shawls, pashmina): A shawl is a large piece of cloth worn over the shoulders or head.
Shehu of Borno: Shehu of Borno is the title of the rulers of Borno in north-eastern Nigeria from the al-Kanemi dynasty, founded by the scholar Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi in the early 19th century.
Shimaore (Mahorais): Shimaore is a Bantu language spoken in Mayotte, one of the varieties of Comorian and closely related to Swahili.
Shina language (Shina): Shina is a Dardic Indo-Aryan language spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan and in neighbouring parts of Kashmir and Kohistan.
Shirvanshah: Shirvanshah, "king of Shirvan", was the title of the rulers of Shirvan in the eastern Caucasus.
Shudra: Shudra is the fourth of the four varnas, the classes of traditional Hindu society described in Vedic and later Sanskrit texts, below the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas.
Siculo-Arabic (Sicilian Arabic): Siculo-Arabic was the variety of Arabic spoken in Sicily and Malta from the Islamic conquest in the 9th century.
Sidetic language: Sidetic was an Anatolian language spoken at Side on the Pamphylian coast of southern Turkey, related to Luwian and Lycian.
Siege engine (siege engines): A siege engine is a device designed to break or bypass fortifications, such as a battering ram, siege tower, catapult or trebuchet.
Siege tower (siege towers): A siege tower is a mobile wooden tower used to bring attackers to the top of fortification walls.
Siege warfare: Siege warfare is the conduct of military operations to capture or defend fortified places, through blockade, assault, mining or bombardment.
Silk: Silk is a fine, strong fabric made from the cocoons of silkworms, first produced in China.
Silk Road: The Silk Road was the network of overland trade routes linking China with Central Asia, Iran, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Silver: Silver is a precious metal used throughout history for coinage, jewellery and as a store of value.
Sinhala language: Sinhala is the Indo-Aryan language of the Sinhalese people and one of the official languages of Sri Lanka, written in its own script.
Skat: Skat is a three-player trick-taking card game developed in Altenburg in Thuringia around 1810–1820, drawing on older games such as Schafkopf and Tarock.
Slave raiding: Slave raiding is the capture of people by force to be enslaved and sold or used for labour.
Slavery (enslaved): Slavery is the condition in which people are treated as property and forced to work.
Sling: The sling is a simple projectile weapon consisting of a cord and pouch used to hurl stones or lead shot.
Smallpox: Smallpox is a highly contagious viral disease that was a leading cause of death in many societies until its eradication in 1980.
Soil erosion: Soil erosion is the loss of the fertile top layer of soil through the action of water, wind or overuse.
Solidus (solidi): The solidus was a gold coin introduced by the Roman emperor Constantine in the early fourth century.
Son of Heaven (Tianzi): Son of Heaven (tianzi) was a title of the Chinese ruler, first used by the kings of the Western Zhou, expressing the idea that the ruler held a mandate from Heaven to govern all under Heaven.
Soqotri language: Soqotri is a Modern South Arabian language spoken on Socotra and its neighbouring islands, part of Yemen.
Sorghum: Sorghum is a drought-tolerant cereal grain that was domesticated in Africa and became a staple across the savannah and Sahel.
South Picene language (South Picene): South Picene is an extinct Sabellic language of the Italic family, known from about two dozen inscriptions of the 6th to 4th centuries BCE found in the Marche and Abruzzo, Italy.
Sovereign default (bankruptcies): A sovereign default is a failure by a government to repay its debts.
Spanish language: The Spanish language is a Romance language that originated in Castile.
Special administrative regions of China (Special Administrative Region): The special administrative regions of China are Hong Kong and Macau, created under the principle of 'one country, two systems' when Britain returned Hong Kong in 1997 and Portugal returned Macau in 1999.
Spice trade (spice monopolies, spices): The spice trade was the long-distance commerce in spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg from South and Southeast Asia.
Spirit medium (spirit mediums): A spirit medium is a person believed to be possessed by and speak for ancestral or other spirits.
Sranan Tongo (Sranan): Sranan Tongo is an English-based creole language that arose among enslaved Africans in Suriname in the seventeenth century, during the English period of the colony, and later absorbed many Dutch and Portuguese words.
Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin, Putonghua): Standard Chinese, or Standard Mandarin, is the official language of the People's Republic of China, based on the pronunciation of Beijing and the grammar of modern vernacular Mandarin literature.
Star catalogue (star catalogues): A star catalogue is a list of stars with their positions and brightness.
State Counsellor of Myanmar: The State Counsellor of Myanmar was a post created in April 2016 for Aung San Suu Kyi, who was barred from the presidency by the 2008 constitution because her sons held foreign citizenship.
State Elder (Riigivanem): The State Elder (Riigivanem) was the head of government of interwar Estonia, who under the constitution of 1920 also acted as head of state, as there was no separate presidency.
States of Germany (Länder, Bundesländer): The states of Germany, or Länder, are the sixteen federated states of the Federal Republic of Germany, each with its own constitution, parliament and government.
Stato da Mar (Stato da Màr): The Stato da Mar ('State of the Sea') was the collective name for the overseas possessions of the Republic of Venice, as distinct from its Italian mainland territories, the Domini di Terraferma.
Steamship (steam-powered warships): A steamship is a ship powered by a steam engine.
Steel: Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, much stronger than iron.
Subsidy (subsidies): A subsidy is a payment made by a state to support another party.
Sugar plantation (sugar-plantation, sugar): A sugar plantation is a large agricultural estate growing sugarcane for sugar production, typically using intensive labour.
Sugarcane: Sugarcane is a tall tropical grass whose stalks are crushed to produce sugar.
Sumerian language: The Sumerian language was the language of ancient Sumer, one of the earliest written languages.
Sumptuary law (sumptuary): A sumptuary law is a law that restricts consumption, such as clothing or luxury goods, often according to social rank.
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP): The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) was the title of the head of the Allied occupation of Japan, held by General Douglas MacArthur from 1945 and by Matthew Ridgway from 1951, and the name of his headquarters in Tokyo.
Supreme Leader of Iran: The Supreme Leader of Iran is the highest office of the Islamic Republic of Iran, created by the constitution of 1979 on the principle of the guardianship of the Islamic jurist.
Swargadeo: Swargadeo, "lord of heaven", was the title of the kings of the Ahom kingdom of Assam, rendering the Tai Ahom title Chao-pha.
Swazi language (siSwati): Swazi, or siSwati, is a Bantu language of the Nguni group, closely related to Zulu.
Sweet potato (sweet potatoes): The sweet potato is a starchy root crop native to the Americas that spread across the world after the sixteenth century through Spanish and Portuguese trade networks.
Syennesis: Syennesis was the name, or perhaps the title, of the native kings of Cilicia in southern Anatolia during the period of Achaemenid rule.
Syiem (Siem): Syiem is the title of the chief of a traditional Khasi state, or hima, in the hills of present-day Meghalaya, India.
Synthetic dye (dyestuff): Synthetic dyes are colourants produced by industrial chemistry rather than extracted from plants or animals, a technology that developed rapidly from the mid-nineteenth century.
Syriac: Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic that became the main literary and liturgical language of many Christian communities in the Near East from the early centuries CE.

T

Tagalog language (Tagalog, Filipino language): Tagalog is an Austronesian language of the central Philippines, spoken natively around Manila and in southern Luzon.
Tai Tham script (Lanna script): The Tai Tham script, also called the Lanna script, is a writing system derived from the Mon script and used since about the 14th century for Northern Thai, Tai Lue, Tai Khün and Lao religious texts.
Talent (talents): The talent was a large unit of weight used in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, commonly used to measure quantities of silver and gold for payments.
Talmudic academy (Talmudic): A Talmudic academy, or yeshiva, is an institution for the advanced study of the Talmud and Jewish law.
Tamil-Brahmi: Tamil-Brahmi is a variant of the Brahmi script used to write the Tamil language from around the 3rd or 2nd century BCE.
Tanka: The tanka was a silver coin introduced as standard currency in the Delhi Sultanate by Iltutmish in the early thirteenth century.
Taoiseach: The Taoiseach is the head of government of Ireland, nominated by Dáil Éireann and appointed by the President.
Tatich (Patron of the Cross): Tatich was the title of the supreme leader of the Cruzob, the rebel Maya of Chan Santa Cruz during the Caste War of Yucatán.
Tea: Tea is a beverage made from the leaves of the tea plant, native to southern China.
Telegraph: The telegraph was a system for transmitting messages over long distances by electrical signals along wires, developed in the nineteenth century.
Telugu language: Telugu is a Dravidian language of south-eastern India, the main language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and one of the most widely spoken languages of India.
Tenancy: Tenancy is an arrangement in which cultivators farm land owned by others in return for rent, labour or a share of the harvest.
Terp: A terp is an artificial dwelling mound built in the coastal salt marshes of the northern Netherlands and north-western Germany, where it is called a Wurt, to keep homes and livestock above storm floods.
Tetum language (Tetun): Tetum is an Austronesian language of the island of Timor and, with Portuguese, one of the two official languages of Timor-Leste.
Theatre: Theatre is the performance of drama before an audience, and also the buildings designed for it.
Thewa: Thewa is a jewellery technique from Pratapgarh in Rajasthan, India, in which finely worked sheet gold is fused onto coloured glass.
Thin Orange ware (Thin Orange): Thin Orange ware is a fine, thin-walled orange pottery produced in southern Puebla, in central Mexico, during the Classic period, roughly the third to the sixth centuries CE.
Tibeto-Burman languages: Tibeto-Burman is the name for the large group of Sino-Tibetan languages other than Chinese, spoken from the Himalayas to Myanmar and south-western China.
Tigrinya language (Tigrinya): Tigrinya is a Semitic language of the Horn of Africa, spoken in the highlands of Eritrea and in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Timber: Timber is wood used for construction, shipbuilding and fuel, and was a strategic resource for many pre-modern states.
Tin: Tin is a metal that, when alloyed with copper, produces bronze, making it a strategic commodity of the ancient world.
Tisha B'Av: Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, is the annual fast day in Judaism that mourns the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 587 or 586 BCE and of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE.
Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin is an English-based creole language spoken across Papua New Guinea and one of its official languages.
Tomato: The tomato is a fruit-bearing plant native to the Americas that spread to Europe and the rest of the world after the Spanish conquests of the sixteenth century.
Torrens title: Torrens title is a system of land registration in which the state keeps a central register of land ownership and guarantees the title of the registered owner.
Total war: Total war is warfare in which states mobilise their entire population, economy and resources, and in which the distinction between combatants and civilians is eroded.
Tower of skulls (towers of skulls): A tower of skulls was a structure built from the heads of the slain, raised as a deliberate display of terror after the capture of a city.
Trans-Saharan trade (trans-Saharan): The trans-Saharan trade was the network of caravan routes across the Sahara Desert linking North Africa and the Mediterranean with West and Central Africa.
Transhumance: Transhumance is the seasonal movement of livestock and herders between different pastures, typically between lowland winter grazing and highland summer grazing.
Trebuchet: The trebuchet is a siege engine that uses a pivoting arm to hurl heavy projectiles, either by human traction or by a heavy counterweight.
Triangular trade (triangular commerce): The triangular trade was the Atlantic commercial system linking Europe, West Africa and the Americas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Tsetse fly (tsetse-fly): The tsetse fly is a blood-feeding insect of tropical Africa that transmits trypanosomiasis, a disease fatal to horses and cattle.
Tubba': Tubba' was the name by which Arab and Islamic tradition remembered the kings of Himyar in ancient Yemen.
Tui Lau: Tui Lau is a Fijian chiefly title meaning paramount chief of the Lau Islands in eastern Fiji.
Tui Viti: Tui Viti, meaning 'king of Fiji', is the title claimed in the mid-19th century by Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the paramount chief of Bau.
Tulughma: Tulughma was a flanking tactic of Central Asian origin in which mobile cavalry units swept around the enemy's flanks to attack them from the sides and rear.
Tumbuka language (Chitumbuka): Tumbuka, or Chitumbuka, is a Bantu language spoken in northern Malawi and eastern Zambia.
Tumshuqese language (Tumshuqese): Tumshuqese is an extinct Eastern Iranian language of the Saka group, known from documents of about the 7th to 10th centuries found at Tumshuq on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, in Xinjiang.
Tupi: Tupi is an indigenous language of Brazil, spoken by the Tupi peoples of the Atlantic coast at the time of Portuguese colonisation.
Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua (Tu'i Ha'atakalaua): The Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua was the second line of Tongan kings, created in the 15th century after the assassination of the Tuʻi Tonga Takalaua.
Tuʻi Kanokupolu: Tuʻi Kanokupolu is the title of the third and youngest of Tonga's royal lines, founded in the early 17th century by a son of the Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua.
Typhus: Typhus is a group of bacterial infectious diseases, often spread by lice, that cause fever and can be highly fatal in crowded or wartime conditions.
Tyrian purple (purple-dyed, murex): Tyrian purple is a deep purple dye produced from murex sea snails, named after the Phoenician city of Tyre.

U

U-boat (Unterseeboot): U-boat is the English name for German military submarines, from the German Unterseeboot.
Ukiyo-e: Ukiyo-e, meaning 'pictures of the floating world', is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings that flourished from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Umm an-Nar culture: The Umm an-Nar culture was a Bronze Age culture of south-eastern Arabia, in modern Oman and the United Arab Emirates, dated about 2600–2000 BCE and named after an island off Abu Dhabi.
Undang: The Undang are the four great territorial chiefs of Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia, ruling the districts of Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Johol and Rembau.
Undeutsche: Undeutsche ("non-Germans") was the term used in medieval and early modern Livonia for the native Estonian and Latvian population, as opposed to the German-speaking nobility, clergy and burghers.
Union Flag (Union Jack): The Union Flag, or Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom.
Universal suffrage (universal male suffrage): Universal suffrage is the right of all adult citizens to vote, regardless of property, class or, in its full form, sex.
Urdu: Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Hindi, written in a Perso-Arabic script and rich in Persian and Arabic vocabulary.
Uruk period: The Uruk period is the archaeological period of Mesopotamia from about 4000 to 3100 BCE, named after the city of Uruk.

V

V-weapons (Vergeltungswaffen, Vengeance weapons): The V-weapons were long-range weapons used by Nazi Germany in the last year of the Second World War: the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 ballistic missile, the first of its kind.
Venetic (Venetic language): Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language spoken by the ancient Veneti in north-eastern Italy, recorded in some 300 inscriptions from about the 6th to the 1st century BCE.
Verhansung: Verhansung was the expulsion of a town from the Hanseatic League, the gravest sanction the Hansa could impose on a disobedient member.
Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc ngữ, Quốc ngữ): The Vietnamese alphabet, chữ Quốc ngữ, is the Latin-based script used to write Vietnamese, with diacritics marking tones and vowels.
Vikram Samvat (Vikrama Samvat): Vikram Samvat is a Hindu calendar era that begins in 57 BCE, still widely used in India and the official calendar of Nepal.
Vilayet: A vilayet was a first-level province of the Ottoman Empire under the administrative system introduced by the Provincial Law of 1864, which replaced the older eyalets.
Villa (estate) (villae): A villa, in the Carolingian context, was a great landed estate belonging to the church, the crown or the aristocracy.
Vogt (advocatus): Vogt (plural Vögte), from the Latin advocatus, was a German title for an official who protected and represented church lands and later, more generally, for a lord's or a king's administrator of a district, with judicial and fiscal powers.
Volga trade route: The Volga trade route was a network of river and portage routes linking Scandinavia and the Baltic with the Caspian Sea and the Islamic world via the Volga River in the early medieval period.
Vorort: The Vorort was the leading or presiding canton of the Swiss Confederation before 1848, which convened the federal Diet and conducted common business between sessions.
Vunivalu of Bau: The Vunivalu of Bau is the paramount chiefly title of Bau in Fiji, originally that of the war king, who shared authority with the senior sacred chief, the Roko Tui Bau.

W

Wa Na: Wa Na is the title of the paramount chief of Wa, a Wala kingdom in the Upper West Region of Ghana.
Wagshum: Wagshum was the hereditary title of the rulers of Wag, a district of Lasta in northern Ethiopia, whose family claimed descent from the Zagwe dynasty.
War elephant (war elephants): A war elephant is an elephant trained for combat, used to charge enemy formations, carry archers and intimidate opponents.
War reparations (reparations): War reparations are payments imposed on a defeated state to compensate the victors for the costs and damage of war.
Warring States period: The Warring States period was the final phase of the Eastern Zhou in ancient China, when seven major states, Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei, fought for supremacy.
Well (wells): A well is a shaft dug into the ground to reach water, essential for life and travel in arid regions such as the Sahara and the Sahel.
Welshry: The Welshry was the part of a Marcher lordship in medieval Wales where native Welsh tenants lived under Welsh law and custom, as opposed to the Englishry, where settlers held land under English law.
Weser Renaissance: Weser Renaissance is the style of Renaissance architecture in the Weser region of north-western Germany, flourishing from about 1520 to 1620.
West Indies Associated States: The West Indies Associated States was the collective name for British colonies in the eastern Caribbean that became states in free association with the United Kingdom under the West Indies Act 1967.
Wet-rice agriculture: Wet-rice agriculture is the cultivation of rice in flooded paddy fields, a highly productive system that can support dense populations.
Woodblock printing (wood-block printing): Woodblock printing is a technique of printing text or images by carving them in relief on a wooden block, inking it and pressing paper onto it.

X

Xing ware: Xing ware is a type of white porcelain produced at kilns in northern China under the Tang Dynasty.
Xuanming calendar (Senmyō calendar, Senmyō-reki): The Xuanming calendar was an astronomical calendar compiled in Tang China and adopted in 822.

Y

Ya Na: Ya Na is the title of the king of Dagbon, the kingdom of the Dagomba in northern Ghana, who reigns from Yendi.
Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia): The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is the head of state of Malaysia, a constitutional monarch elected for a five-year term by the Conference of Rulers from among the nine hereditary rulers of the Malay states.
Yang Dipertuan Muda: Yang Dipertuan Muda ('junior ruler') was the title of the viceroy or under-king of the Johor-Riau and later Riau-Lingga sultanates.
Yavana (Yavanas): Yavana is a term used in ancient Indian languages for Greeks and, later, for other westerners.
Year-name (year-names): A year-name was a dating formula used in early Mesopotamia, in which each year was named after a notable event of the previous year, such as a military victory or the building of a temple.
Yemsa language (Janjero language): Yemsa, formerly called Janjero, is an Omotic language of south-western Ethiopia, spoken by the Yem people in the hills east of the Omo river.
Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis): Yerba mate is a holly, Ilex paraguariensis, native to the forests of Paraguay, southern Brazil and north-eastern Argentina, whose dried leaves are steeped to make the caffeinated drink mate.
Yiddish: Yiddish is a language of the Ashkenazi Jews, based on medieval German with Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic elements and written in the Hebrew alphabet.
Yuri's Day (St George's Day (Russia)): Yuri's Day, the autumn feast of St George on 26 November, was the time when Russian peasants were allowed to leave their landlords.

Z

Zaju: Zaju is a form of Chinese drama combining spoken dialogue, song and music, which reached its classical form under the Yuan Dynasty.
Zamorin (Samoothiri): The Zamorin, in Malayalam Samoothiri, was the title of the Hindu rulers of the Kingdom of Calicut on the Malabar Coast of Kerala from about the 12th century to 1766.
Zasagt Khan: Zasagt Khan was the title of the Chinggisid rulers of the western Khalkha Mongols, one of the three, later four, Khalkha khanates.
ZB vz. 26: The ZB vz. 26 was a light machine gun designed by Václav Holek at the Zbrojovka Brno arms works and adopted by the Czechoslovak army in 1926.
Zenden (Dizains, Seven Zenden): The Zenden (French dizains) were the self-governing communal districts of the Upper Valais, in present-day Switzerland.
Ziggurat: A ziggurat is a massive stepped temple tower built in ancient Mesopotamia and Elam, with a shrine on its summit.
Zugewandter Ort (Associate of the Swiss Confederacy): A Zugewandter Ort (associated place) was a territory allied with the Old Swiss Confederacy without being a full member canton.