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Possible definitions for popov

popolo
(Italian: "people") In the communes (city-states) of 13th-cent. Italy, a pressure group instituted to protect the interests of the commoners against the nobility. Until then noblemen had exclusively controlled the commune governments, and the popolo was the means by which wealthy merchants sought to extend their power. The popolo in Florence controlled the government 1250-60 and again after 1282. By the beginning of the 14th cent., its elders formed the supreme executive of the commune.


domovoy
In Slavic mythology and folklore, a spirit-guardian of home and family. It never leaves the household to which it belongs. It favors hardworking people; when displeased with its family, it may cause trouble with farm animals or make knocking or grating noises. Its weeping, moaning, or singing are interpreted as portents of evil or good.


Kosovo
Autonomous province (pop., 1991: 1,950,000), within the republic of Serbia, Yugoslavia. It occupies an area of 4,203 sq mi (10,887 sq km); its capital is Pristina. Before 1999, ethnic Albanians, most of whom are Muslims, made up nine-tenths of its population, with Serbs (mostly Christian) accounting for the remainder. In the late 1980s the Albanians protested when Serbia took control of Kosovo's administration, and in 1992 they voted to secede from Yugoslavia. Serbia responded by tightening its control of Kosovo, which led to the Kosovo conflict.

Name of two battles fought in the Serbian province of Kosovo. The first (June 13, 1389), between the Serbs and the Ottoman Turks led by their sultan, Murad I, ended in the collapse of Serbia and the encirclement of the crumbling Byzantine empire by Turkish armies, despite the assassination of Murad by subterfuge. The battle, which led to three centuries of Serbian vassaldom, has remained a central event to Serbian nationalists. In the second battle (Oct. 17-20, 1448), between the Ottomans and a Hungarian-Walachian coalition, halted the last major effort by Christian crusaders to free the Balkans from Ottoman rule. See also Ottoman empire.


polo
Game played by teams of players on horseback using mallets with long flexible handles to drive a wooden ball through goalposts. It was first played in Persia in the 6th cent. BC; from there it spread to Arabia, Tibet (polo is Balti for "ball"), S. Asia, and the Far East. The first British polo clubs were formed in India in the mid-19th cent.; the game came to the U.S. a few decades later. Polo has long been primarily played by the wealthy, because of the expense of acquiring and maintaining a stable of polo "ponies" (actually full-sized adult horses, bred for docility, speed, endurance, and intelligence). The standard team is made up of four players whose positions are numbered 1-4. A game consists of six 71 / 2-minute periods called chukkers or chukkas. The field is 300 yards (274.3 m) long by 160 yards (146.3 m) wide; an indoor version of the game is ...

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