Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

247 results found

Prendergast, Maurice Brazil

(Encyclopedia)Prendergast, Maurice Brazil, 1859–1924, American painter, b. St. John's, N.L., Canada, educated in Boston. In 1886 he worked his way to Europe on a cattle boat and studied in Paris at Julian's and a...

op art

(Encyclopedia)op art ŏp [key], movement that became prominent in the United States and Europe in the mid-1960s. Deriving from abstract expressionism, op art includes paintings concerned with surface kinetics. Colo...

Valentinian I

(Encyclopedia)Valentinian I vălˌəntĭnˈēən [key], 321–75, Roman emperor of the West (364–75). He held high military rank under Julian and Jovian. After the death of Jovian, Valentinian was proclaimed empe...

Apted, Michael David

(Encyclopedia)Apted, Michael David, 1941-2021, British filmmaker, b. Aylesbury, Bucks, England. Apted began his career as a documentary filmmaker, beginning with the television program, Seven Up!, docum...

Pauling, Linus Carl

(Encyclopedia)Pauling, Linus Carl pôˈlĭng [key], 1901–94, American chemist, b. Portland, Oreg. He was one of the few recipients of two Nobel Prizes, winning the chemistry award in 1954 and the peace prize in 1...

Merezhkovsky, Dmitri Sergeyevich

(Encyclopedia)Merezhkovsky, Dmitri Sergeyevich dəmēˈtrē syĭrgāˈyəvĭch mârĭshkôfˈskē [key], 1865–1941, Russian critic and novelist. His principal critical study is Tolstoi as Man and Artist; with an ...

Gödel, Kurt

(Encyclopedia)Gödel, Kurt göˈdəl [key], 1906–78, American mathematician and logician, b. Brünn (now Brno, Czech Republic), grad. Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1930). He came to the United States in 1940 and was na...

misdemeanor

(Encyclopedia)misdemeanor, in law, a minor crime, in contrast to a felony. At common law a misdemeanor was a crime other than treason or a felony. Although it might be a grave offense, it did not affect the feudal ...

Key, Sir John Phillip

(Encyclopedia)Key, Sir John Phillip, 1961–, New Zealand investment banker and political leader, b. Auckland, studied Univ. of Canterbury (B.Comm., 1982) and Harvard. Trained as an accountant, Key worked for a lar...

chelating agents

(Encyclopedia)chelating agents kēˈlātĭng [key]. Certain organic compounds are capable of forming coordinate bonds (see chemical bond) with metals through two or more atoms of the organic compound; such organic ...

Browse by Subject