Low
Juliette Gordon Low (October 31, 1860 – January 17, 1927) was an American socialite and humanitarian who founded the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912, establishing the largest voluntary organization for girls in the world dedicated to fostering leadership, self-reliance, and outdoor skills.[1][2][3] Born into a prominent Savannah, Georgia, family—her father, William Washington Gordon II, was a Confederate captain and cotton exporter, while her mother, Eleanor Kinzie, hailed from a socially connected Chicago lineage—Low experienced a privileged yet adventurous upbringing marked by frequent travels and early exposure to societal service.[2][4] After marrying British aristocrat William Mackay Low in 1886, which ended in separation following his infidelity and her partial deafness from chronic ear infections, she channeled her energies into philanthropy upon returning to the United States.[2][5] Inspired by a 1911 meeting with Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, Low organized the first Girl Guide troop in Savannah, adapting scouting principles to emphasize girls' empowerment through practical education, citizenship, and physical fitness, which rapidly expanded nationwide despite initial resistance to female-led initiatives. As the organization's first president from 1915 to 1920, Low secured its independence from the Boy Scouts, advocated for its growth during World War I by mobilizing girls for war bond drives and conservation efforts, and represented the United States at the inaugural International Council of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 1919, laying the groundwork for its global influence.[6][3] Her defining legacy endures in the Girl Scouts' enduring structure, which has enrolled tens of millions of members and produced numerous leaders, though her personal life included health struggles and financial strains from family estates that she overcame through persistent fundraising and volunteerism.[7][8]Linguistic and conceptual meanings
Primary definitions
The English word "low" derives from Old Norse lāgr, signifying "not high" or "below the usual level," which traces to Proto-Germanic *lēgaz, connoting something lying flat or positioned near the ground, akin to the concept of recumbency under gravity's influence.[9][10] This root emphasizes observable physical relations, such as vertical displacement from a datum plane, rather than abstract qualities. As an adjective, "low" describes entities or states below average elevation, magnitude, or intensity relative to established norms; for instance, it applies to terrain or structures near ground level, sounds with reduced amplitude or frequency due to shorter wavefront compressions, or temperatures reflecting diminished molecular agitation.[10][11] In quantifiable contexts, it denotes values inferior to medians in datasets, such as subdued economic metrics where supply exceeds demand, yielding outcomes like depressed prices through market equilibrium mechanics.[12] As a noun, "low" refers to a nadir or minimal extent in variation, including the trough in oscillatory patterns like pressure minima in air masses (below standard atmospheric baselines), which drive weather via density gradients and Coriolis forces.[10][12] It also names the guttural utterance of bovines, a resonant emission propagating as low-frequency vibrations for intraspecies signaling.[10] The verb "to low" means to emit such a bovine vocalization, an acoustic output characterized by prolonged, deep tones produced via laryngeal vibration in ruminants.[13] As an adverb, "low" indicates manner or position at inferior heights or intensities, such as motion proximate to surfaces governed by proximity to supportive planes.[10]Specialized usages in science and economics
In physics, low-frequency sound waves, known as infrasound, are defined as those with frequencies below 20 Hz, below the typical threshold of human audibility, and propagate over long distances due to minimal atmospheric absorption.[14] These waves arise from sources like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or large-scale human activities such as explosions, enabling applications in monitoring natural disasters and wildlife communication, as elephants utilize infrasound for long-range signaling.[15] In meteorology, low-pressure systems generate wind patterns through pressure gradient forces, where air converges toward the center of lower atmospheric pressure, rising and creating cyclonic flows—counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect.[16] This mechanism drives phenomena like cyclones and fronts, with surface winds accelerating as friction reduces near the ground, enhancing inflow and precipitation in such systems.[17] In physiology, low blood pressure, or hypotension, is clinically defined as systolic pressure below 90 mmHg or diastolic below 60 mmHg, resulting from causal factors including dehydration reducing blood volume, autonomic nervous system dysfunction impairing vascular tone, or cardiac issues limiting output.[18] Such conditions can lead to inadequate organ perfusion, with orthostatic variants triggered by positional changes exacerbating gravitational pooling in veins.[19] In economics, low-interest-rate policies, exemplified by the U.S. Federal Reserve's effective federal funds rate averaging 0.05% from March 2020 to March 2022 amid the COVID-19 recession, lower borrowing costs to stimulate investment and consumption via expanded liquidity from quantitative easing initiated post-2008.[20] These environments reduce the opportunity cost of capital, though prolonged lows risk asset bubbles by distorting savings incentives.[21] Low inflation regimes, such as the period from late 2008 through early 2021 when U.S. consumer price index growth persistently undershot the 2% target due to slack demand and global supply chain integration, preserve purchasing power but challenge monetary transmission if nearing deflationary spirals.[22] In telecommunications engineering, low-band 5G spectrum below 1 GHz exploits long wavelength propagation for broad coverage in rural and indoor settings, complementing higher bands for capacity, with deployments enhancing penetration in challenging terrains as of 2025.[23]People
Individuals surnamed Low
- David Low (7 April 1891 – 19 September 1963) was a New Zealand-born political cartoonist and caricaturist who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, producing satirical works that critiqued authoritarian leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during the 1930s.[24] His cartoons, published in newspapers like the Evening Standard, highlighted hypocrisies in totalitarian propaganda and contributed to growing public skepticism toward appeasement policies in Britain prior to World War II, with figures like Winston Churchill praising their impact on shaping resolve against Axis aggression.[25]
- Low Thia Khiang (born 5 September 1956) is a Singaporean politician who served as secretary-general of the Workers' Party from 2001 to 2018 and led the opposition in parliament from 2006 to 2020.[26] As leader, he guided the party to historic gains, including the 2011 capture of Aljunied Group Representation Constituency—the first opposition win of a GRC—while advocating for checks on government spending and transparency to combat potential corruption in a dominant-party system.[27]
- George M. Low (10 June 1926 – 17 July 1984) was an Austrian-born American aerospace engineer and NASA administrator who, as Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager from 1967 to 1970, implemented rigorous safety protocols following the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, enabling the success of Apollo 11's moon landing in 1969.[28] His oversight emphasized empirical testing and causal analysis of failures, contributing directly to the program's recovery and subsequent missions.[29]