Agonoclita or the Agonoclites in antiquity was a Christian sect from the 7th century whose distinguishing principle was never to kneel, but to deliver all their prayers standing.
Angelica (Ἀγγελική) was a celebrated dance among the ancient Greeks, performed at their feasts and important celebrations. It was thus called from the Greek ἄγγελος, by reason, as Pollux assures us, the dancers were dressed in the habit of messengers.
Annulets, in architecture, are small square components in the Doric capital, under the quarter-round. They are also called fillets or listels.
Argentum album, mentioned in Domesday, signifies bullion, or silver uncoined. In those ancient days, such passed as money from one to another in payment.
The Astati were a Paulician sect in the 9th century, the followers of Sergius, who renewed the beliefs of Manichaeism. They prevailed much under Emperor Nicephorus I, but later, under Michael I Rhangabes, they were curbed with very severe laws.
In heraldry, an avellane cross is a form of cross which resembles four hazel filberts in their husks or cases, joined together at the great end. The term comes from the Latin name for the hazel, originally Nux avellana. It was fairly rare in English heraldry.
In law, ayel, also known as ayle, aiel, or de avo, is a writ where a grandfather, being seized on his demesne on the day of his death, a stranger enters the same day, and dispossesses the rightful heir, the grandchild. The writ allowed the grandchild to oust the stranger.
Blanching is the whitening of metal, by various means, such as soaking in acid or by coating with tin. This term is commonly used in coinage, in which pieces are given a lustre and brilliance before images are struck into the surface.
A boulder wall, also spelled boulder-walls or bowlder-wall, is a kind of wall built of round flints and pebbles, laid in a strong mortar. It is used where the sea has a beach cast up, or where there are plenty of flints.
In alchemy, chalcanthum, also called chalcanth or calcanthum, was a term used for the compound blue vitriol (CuSO4), and the ink made from it. The term was also applied to red vitriol (a native sulfate of cobalt), and to green vitriol (ferrous sulfate).
Carolus is the name given to a number of gold coins:
Cercelée, or sarcelly or recercelée, is a term in heraldry. A cross cercelée is like an exaggerated cross moline, and to a lesser extent similar to the anchored cross, with its forked tips curving around both ways, like a ram's horns. The form is also known as recercelée, for example by Boutell.
In pharmacy, etc., charta emporetica was a kind of paper made very soft and porous, used as a filter. It was also used as packing paper.
In medieval England, a childwite, or child-wit, was a fine paid by a man to a lord for unlawfully impregnating his bond-woman. The term was also selectively used of free women.
In old English law, a commission of rebellion, or writ of rebellion, was a process of contempt on the nonappearance of a defendant. It was issued out when a man, after proclamation issued out of the chancery, or the exchequer, and made by the sheriff, to present himself, under pain of his allegiance, to the court by a certain day, does not appear.
In classical antiquity, a crotalum was a kind of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in ancient Greece and elsewhere, including the Korybantes.
In military fortification, a contramure, or countermure, is a wall raised behind another, to supply its place when breached or destroyed.
In classical antiquity, the cotyla or cotyle was a measure of capacity among the Romans and Greeks: by the former it was also called hemina; by the latter, τρυβλίον and ἡμίνα or ἡμίμνα. It was the half of the sextarius or ξέστης, and contained six cyathi, or nearly half a pint English.
In printmaking, a counterproof is a print taken off from another just printed, which, by being passed through the press, gives a copy in reverse, and of course in the same position as that of the plate from which the first was printed, the object being to enable the printmaker to inspect the state of the plate.
In antiquity, the term "desultor" or "apobates" has been applied to individuals skilled at leaping from one horse or chariot to another.
