Encyclopedia

or ENCYCLOPÆDIA, (en'si-klo-pe'de-ah.) (Sometimes abbrev. CYCLOPEDIA.) (From Gr. en, in, kyklos, circle, and pad eia, instruction-literally, circular instruction.) (Lit.) Among the ancients, a term significatory of such an entire round of learning as was deemed e ential to a liberal education. It comprised, therefore, all the arts and sciences known in the earlier ages of the world. In the modern acceptation of the word, it is understood to expre a work whether summarized or exhaustively elaborated-which conveys a general fund of critical and practical information upon every branch of knowledge that comes within the compa of technology, and of scientific and philosophical nomenclature. [s. 330]