love-in-a-mist, hardy annual garden plant (Nigella damascena) of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), having finely cut foliage and blue or white flowers surrounded by a cluster of thready bracts. It is also called fennel-flower—as are other plants of the genus—and devil-in-the-bush. The seeds have been used medicinally. Seeds of another species (N. sativa) are called black cumin and have been used in the Old World for seasoning; they are thought to be the fitch of the Bible (Isa. 28.25, 27). True cumin and true fennel are unrelated plants of the parsley family. Love-in-a-mist is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Ranunculales, family Ranunculaceae.

love-apple: see tomato.

love bird: see parrot.

courts of love: see chivalry and courtly love.

courtly love, philosophy of love and code of lovemaking that flourished in France and England during the Middle Ages. Although its origins are obscure, it probably derived from the works of Ovid, various Middle Eastern ideas popular at the time, and the songs of the troubadours. According to the code, a man falls passionately in love with a married woman of equal or higher rank. Before his love can be declared, he must suffer long months of silence; before it can be consummated, he must prove his devotion by noble service and daring exploits. The lovers eventually pledge themselves to secrecy and to remain faithful despite all obstacles. In reality, courtly love was little more than a set of rules for committing adultery. It was more important as a literary invention, expressed in such works as Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot (12th cent.), Guillaume de Lorris's Roman de la Rose (13th cent.), and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (14th cent.). In these works it was the subjective presentation of the lovers' passion for each other and their consideration for other people that transformed the code of courtly love into one of the most important literary influences in Western culture. See chivalry.

Peacock, Thomas Love, 1785-1866, English novelist and poet. He was employed by the East India Company from 1819 to 1856, serving as its chief examiner the final 20 years. Peacock's novels, comic and delightfully satirical, parody the intellectual modes and pretenses of his age. Nightmare Abbey (1818), his best-known work, satirizes the English romantic movement and contains characters based on Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley. Other novels include Headlong Hall (1816), Melincourt (1817), Maid Marian (1822), Crotchet Castle (1831), and Gryll Grange (1860). Peacock's best poems—lyrics and drinking songs—are interspersed in his novels. He was one of Shelley's most intimate friends, and after the famous poet's death Peacock was his literary executor.

Love, Alfred Henry, 1830-1913, American pacifist, b. Philadelphia. Love, a Quaker, remained firm in his principles at the outbreak of the Civil War, refusing even to hire a substitute when he was drafted; he set forth his position in An Appeal in Vindication of Peace Principles (1862). With others he formed the Universal Peace Union and until his death remained the leader of this body and editor of its publications and periodical. He urged outlawing war, the negotiation of treaties of arbitration, the establishment of an international court, and arbitration in industrial disputes.

Love Canal, section of Niagara Falls, N.Y., that formerly contained a canal that was used as chemical disposal site. In the 1940s and 50s the empty canal was used by a chemical and plastics company to dump nearly 20,000 tons (c.18,000 metric tons) of toxic waste; the waste was sealed in metal drums in a manner that has since been declared illegal. The canal was then filled in and the land given to the expanding city of Niagara Falls by the chemical company. Housing and an elementary school were built on the site. By the late 1970s several hazardous chemicals had leaked through their drums and risen to the surface. Investigations confirmed the existence of toxins in the soil and determined that they were responsible for the area's unusually high rates of birth defects, miscarriages, cancer, illness, and chromosome damage. Families were evacuated from the area in 1978, and in 1980 the Love Canal area was declared a national emergency.

The disaster led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency's "Superfund," which makes responsible parties liable for the cleanup of environmental hazards. More than $20,000,000 in settlement damages was paid by the chemical company and the city of Niagara Falls to a group of former residents. The company also agreed in 1994 to pay New York state $98 million and in 1995 to pay the federal government $129 million toward the costs incurred during the cleanup of the area. The evacuated neighborhood was repopulated in the 1990s after the cleanup was completed.

Almquist, Carl Jonas Love, 1793-1866, Swedish writer. He was one of the few Swedish authors developing the novel in the period 1830-50. At first a somewhat bizarre romanticist, inclined toward anarchy, he later became more concerned with realism and democracy. This transition is seen in The Book of the Thorn Rose (14 vol., 1832-51), which contains most of his novels, stories, plays, and poems. The collection includes The Queen's Diamond Ornament (1834), a masterpiece of Scandinavian literature; its heroine, the androgynous Tintomara, embodies Almquist's skeptical attitude toward conventional sex roles. Sara Videbeck (1839, tr. 1919), an important feminist novel, is thought to have led to his exile. In his varied career he was civil servant, teacher, clergyman, and socialist. Accused of forgery and suspected of murder, he fled to the United States and after 1865 lived in Bremen as Professor Westermann.

or ghazal or gazel

In Islamic literature, a lyric poem, generally short and graceful in form and typically dealing with love. The genre developed in late 7th-century Arabia. Ghazels begin with a rhymed couplet whose rhyme is repeated in all subsequent even lines, while the odd lines are unrhymed. The two main types of ghazel are native to the Hejaz (what is now western Saudi Arabia) and Iraq. It reached its greatest refinement in the works of Hafez. American poets such as Adrienne Rich have used variations of the form.

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in full polychlorinated biphenyl

Any of a class of highly stable organic compounds prepared by the reaction of chlorine with biphenyl, a two-ring compound. The commercial product, a mix of several PCB isomers, is a colourless, viscous liquid that is almost insoluble in water, does not degrade under high temperatures, and is a good electrical insulator (see dielectric). PCBs became widely used as lubricants, heat-transfer fluids, and fire-resistant dielectric fluids in transformers and capacitors in the 1930s and '40s. In the mid 1970s they were found to cause liver dysfunction in humans and came under suspicion as carcinogens; their manufacture and use were consequently restricted in the U.S. and many other countries, though illegal dumping by manufacturers continued. They persist in the environment and have entered the food chain, causing great harm especially to invertebrates and fish.

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Late-medieval code that prescribed the highly conventionalized behaviour and emotions of aristocratic ladies and their lovers. It was the theme of an extensive literature that began with late 11th-century troubadour poetry in France and swiftly pervaded Europe. The courtly lover, who saw himself as enslaved by passion but fired by respect, faithfully served and worshiped his lady-saint. Courtly love was invariably adulterous, largely because upper-class marriage at the time was usually the result of economic interest or the seal of a power alliance. Its literary sources are believed to be found in Arabic literature, transmitted to Europe through Arab-dominated Spain; the growing religious cult of Mary was another influence. Examples of works inspired by the ideal are the Roman de la rose, Petrarch's sonnets to Laura, Dante's Divine Comedy, and the lyrics of the trouvères and minnesingers. Seealso chivalry.

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(born Oct. 18, 1785, Weymouth, Dorset, Eng.—died Jan. 23, 1866, Lower Halliford, Middlesex) English novelist and poet. For most of his life Peacock worked for the East India Co. He was a close friend of Percy B. Shelley, who greatly inspired his writing. His best verse is interspersed in his novels, which are dominated by the conversations of their characters and satirize the intellectual currents of the day. His best-known work, Nightmare Abbey (1818), satirizes romantic melancholy and includes characters based on Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron.

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Neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, N.Y., the site of the worst environmental disaster involving chemical wastes in U.S. history. Originally the site of an abandoned canal, it became a dumping ground for nearly 22,000 tons of chemical waste in the 1940s and '50s. The canal was later filled in, and housing was built on it. The leakage of toxic chemicals into these homes was detected in 1978, and residents were discovered to have a high incidence of chromosome damage. After their evacuation, 1,300 former residents obtained a $20 million settlement from the dumping company and the city. In the early 1990s New York state ended its cleanup and declared parts of the area safe for residence.

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