METER; METRE n.
ic. Common meter (Hymnol.), four iambic verses, or lines, making a stanza, the first and third having each four feet, and the second and fourth each three feet; -- usually indicated by the initials C.M. -- Long meter (Hymnol.), iambic verses or lines of four feet each, four verses usually making a stanza; -- commonly…
MINOR a.
Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third. Asia Minor (Geog.), the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine, or Black Sea, on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south. -- Minor mode (Mus.), that mode, or scale, in which the third and sixth are minor, -- much used…
MOABITE STONE n.
found at Dibon in Moab by Rev. F. A. Klein, Aug. 19, 1868, which bears an inscription of thirty-four lines, dating from the 9th century b. c., and written in the Moabite alphabet, the oldest Phonician type of the Semitic alphabet. It records the victories of Mesha, king of Moab, esp. those over Israel (2 Kings iii. 4,…
MOHAMMEDAN CALENDAR n.
A lunar calendar reckoning from the year of the hegira, 622 a. d. Thirty of its years constitute a cycle, of which the 2d, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 26th, and 29th are leap years, having 355 days; the others are common, having 354 days. By the following tables any Mohammedan date may be changed into…
MONTEM n.
A custom, formerly practiced by the scholars at Eton school, England, of giing every third year, on Whittuesday, to a hillock near the Bath road, and exacting money from all passers-by, to support at the university the senior scholar of the school.
MOUNTAIN a.
kidney-form leaves, and small greenish flowers, found in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and in high northern latitudes. Gray. -- Mountain sparrow (Zoöl.), the European tree sparrow. -- Mountain spinach. (Bot.) See Orach. -- Mountain tobacco (Bot.), a composite plant (Arnica montana) of Europe; called also le…