Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

452 results found

Vambery, Arminius

(Encyclopedia)Vambery, Arminius or Hermann ärˈmĭn [key], 1832–1913, Hungarian philologist and traveler. In Constantinople (1857–63) he learned several languages and dialects of Asia Minor and then traveled t...

hominy

(Encyclopedia)hominy [Algonquian], hulled corn with the germ removed and served either ground or whole. The pioneers in North America prepared it by soaking the kernels in weak wood lye until the hulls floated to t...

Vischer, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Vischer, Peter fĭshˈər [key], the elder, c.1455–1529, German sculptor, foremost of the bronze founders in Germany. Beginning as the assistant of his father, Hermann Vischer, Peter set up his own...

Louis, Morris

(Encyclopedia)Louis, Morris, 1912–62, American painter, b. Baltimore. A practitioner of color-field painting, Louis was noted for soaking poured paint through unsized and often unstretched canvas. Prior to 1960 h...

Menzel, Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von

(Encyclopedia)Menzel, Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von äˈdôlf frēˈdrĭkh ĕrtˈmän fən mĕnˈtsəl [key], 1815–1905, German painter and illustrator. Self-taught, Menzel made lithographic illustrations for Goet...

Asser

(Encyclopedia)Asser ăsˈər [key], d. 909, Welsh clergyman, monk of St. David's Abbey, Pembrokeshire. He went c.884 to the court of King Alfred, helped Alfred learn Latin, and later was made a bishop. He is rememb...

pancake

(Encyclopedia)pancake, thin, flat cake, made of batter and baked on a griddle or fried in a pan. Pancakes, probably the oldest form of bread, are known in different forms throughout the world. The relative ease of ...

Ladd, George Trumbull

(Encyclopedia)Ladd, George Trumbull, 1842–1921, American philosopher, b. Painesville, Ohio, grad. Western Reserve Univ., 1864, and Andover Theological Seminary, 1869. He taught at Yale from 1881 until his retirem...

Æthelred, king of Wessex

(Encyclopedia)Æthelred ĕˈthəlrĕd, ăˈ– [key], d.871, king of Wessex (865–71), son of Æthelwulf and brother of Alfred. He succeeded his brother Æthelbert as king of Wessex and as overlord of Kent and pos...

Du Pont, Pierre Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Du Pont, Pierre Samuel, 1870–1954, American industrialist, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890. Du Pont worked as a chemist with the family's company, helping to d...

Browse by Subject