Glossary - Reflexions

Glossary

Vous trouverez dans ce glossaire les définitions de termes présents dans les différents articles, classés de manière alphabétique.

Quadriceps

Large front muscle of the thigh, muscular antagonist of the hamstring. The quadriceps is the largest muscle by volume in the human body; it is made up of four fascia (bundles) of muscle tissue, hence the name.

Quaghebeur, Marc (1947 - )

Belgian essayist and poet, director of the Archives et Musée de la littérature. His work concerns primarily francophone literatures. He has published Balises pour l'histoire des lettres belges (1998); he edited in collaboration with others the anthology Un pays d'irréguliers (1990) and he directed the collectively authored volume Analyse et enseignement des littératures francophones : tentatives, réticences, responsabilités (2008). He is the author of “Littérature et fonctionnement idéologique en Belgique francophone”, which appeared in Jacques Sojcher (éd.), La Belgique malgré tout. Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1980).

Quark

An elementary particle sensitive to strong interactions. They are six in number (see the table). They got their name (which has no meaning in any language) after a line “Finnegan's Wake”, a novel by the Irish writer James Joyce: 'Three quarks for Muster Mark'.

quasar

A quasar is a very luminous and distant celestial body whose flux can vary spectacularly. It is an active nucleus of a galaxy, i.e. a supermassive black hole, exerting a considerable force of attraction on all the surrounding objects and which accretes matter. This accretion forms a disc of particles rotating at very high speeds before being swallowed up. Quasars emit radiation that can be seen several billions of light years away.

Quaternary

The Quaternary period is the most recent geological era. It is referred to as an era of glaciation because its beginning two million years ago is marked by a period of significant global cooling. It is also characterized by alternation between warmer and colder periods, and by the emergence of human beings (Homo sapiens).

Quattrocento

This title refers to the 1400s in Italy, and also to the First Italian Renaissance, which succeeded the Middle Ages and ushered in the historical period of the Renaissance.