Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Southwell

(Encyclopedia)Southwell sŭᵺˈəl, southˈəl [key], town (1991 pop. 61,200), Nottinghamshire, central England. It includes the small civil parish of Southwell, which since 1884 has been the cathedral town of Not...

Trobriand Islands

(Encyclopedia)Trobriand Islands trōˈbrēăndˌ, trōˌbrēăndˈ [key], small volcanic island group off SE New Guinea, part of Papua New Guinea. Kiriwana is the largest of the group's 22 islands. Yams, pearl shel...

toby jug

(Encyclopedia)toby jug tōˈbē [key], small pottery pitcher or mug modeled in the form of a jolly, stout man wearing a cocked hat, a corner of which serves as pourer. The jug is also called fillpot, both names tak...

Theodotians

(Encyclopedia)Theodotians, small heretical sect, formed c.190 by Theodotus, a Byzantine. It lasted until the end of the 4th cent. The Theodotians taught that Jesus was a man, who became the Christ only after his ba...

Ptolemaïs, town, Greece

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemaïs ptôlĭmīsˈ [key], town (1991 pop. 25,195), N Greece, in Macedonia. It was a small market town until 1958, when it began to be developed as an industrial center. Lignite, mined there in v...

broom rape

(Encyclopedia)broom rape, common name for plants of the Orobanchaceae, the broom rape family. They are parasitic on the roots of other plants; they have small leaves and little or no green color. In some species th...

Zuccarelli, Francesco

(Encyclopedia)Zuccarelli, Francesco fränchĕsˈkō tso͞ok-kärĕlˈlē [key], 1702–88, Florentine landscape painter and decorator. He twice visited London, where he decorated the Opera House and was well known ...

Bertoldo di Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Bertoldo di Giovanni bārtôlˈdō dē jōvänˈnē [key], c.1420–91, Italian sculptor. A pupil and assistant to Donatello and later the teacher of Michelangelo, Bertoldo was employed by the Medici ...

pillbox

(Encyclopedia)pillbox, small, low fortification that houses machine guns and antitank weapons. Similar to a blockhouse, it is usually made of concrete, steel, logs, or filled sandbags. Pillboxes came into use durin...

Spitzweg, Carl

(Encyclopedia)Spitzweg, Carl kärl shpĭtsˈvĕk [key], 1808–85, German genre painter and draftsman. Self-taught, he depicted the daily life of his native Munich in small, charming pictures in which realism, fanc...