Crystal

In chemistry and mineralogy, a crystal is a solid in which the element atoms, molecules, or ions are packed in a frequently ordered, repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions.

The word crystal originates from the Greek word κρύσταλλος (krystallos) meaning clear ice, as it was thoughts to be an especially solid form of water. Citation needed: The word once referred mainly to quartz, or "rock crystal".

Most metals encounter in everyday life is polycrystals. [Citation needed] Crystals are often symmetrically intergrown to form crystal twins.

Syntax

In linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek συν- syn-, “together”, and τάξις táxis, “arrangement”) is the revision of the rules that govern the structure of sentences, and which establish their relative grammaticality. The term syntax can also be used to refer to these rules themselves, as in “the syntax of a language” (e.g. "the syntax of French" or "the syntax of Gaelic"). Modern research in syntax attempts to explain languages in terms of such rules, and, for many practitioners, to find general rules that apply to all languages. Since the field of syntax attempts to explain grammaticality judgments, and not provide them, it is undisturbed with linguistic prescription.

Merchant bank

In banking, it is a traditional term for an Investment Bank. It can also be used to explain the private equity activities of banking. This article is about the past of banking as developed by merchants, from the Middle Ages onwards.

Merchant banks, now so called, are in reality the original "banks". These were made-up in the middle Ages by Italian grain merchants. As the Lombardy merchants and bankers grew in stature based on the strength of the Lombard plains cereal crops, many displaced Jews fleeing Spanish harassment were attracted to the trade. They brought with them antique practices from the middle and Far East silk routes. Originally planned for the finance of long trading journeys, these methods were now utilized to finance the production of grain.

Culture

Culture from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate," usually refers to patterns of human activity and the representative structures that give such activity significant importance. Different definitions of "culture" reflect different theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for estimate, human activity.

Culture is manifest in music, literature, painting and statue, theater and film. Although some people differentiate culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods as in high culture, low culture, folk culture, or popular culture, anthropologists understand "culture" to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For them, cultures thus include technology, art, knowledge, as well as moral systems.