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Ba·con 1 (bākən), Francis First Viscount Saint Albans. 1561-1626.
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English philosopher, essayist, courtier, jurist, and statesman. His writings include The Advancement of Learning (1605) and the Novum Organum (1620), in which he proposed a theory of scientific knowledge based on observation and experiment that came to be known as the inductive method.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Ba·con 2 (bākən), Francis 1909-1992.
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Irish-born British painter best known for his portraits in which subjects are distorted and invested with feelings of terror.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Bacon, Roger Known as "Doctor Mirabilis." 1214?-1292.
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English friar, scientist, and philosopher whose Opus Majus (1267) argued that Christian studies should encompass the sciences.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Bacon, Nathaniel 1647?-1676.
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English-born American colonist who led Bacon's Rebellion (1676), in which a group of frontiersmen captured and burned Jamestown in an attempt to gain reforms and greater participation in the government of Virginia.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
ba·con (bākən)
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n.
The salted and smoked meat from the back and sides of a pig.

[Middle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English bæc, back.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.