Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dogon

(Encyclopedia)Dogon dōgänˈ [key], African people who live on the bend of the Niger River in the Republic of Mali in West Africa. A patrilineal, sedentary agricultural people, they number over 360,000. They depen...

Fabritius, Carel

(Encyclopedia)Fabritius, Carel bärˈənt [key], 1624–73, worked in a similar though less accomplished manner, influenced by Maes as well as Rembrandt. Barent's portrait of the Van der Helm family (1655) is in th...

Farmington

(Encyclopedia)Farmington. 1 Town (2020 pop. 26,712), Hartford co., central Conn., on the Farmington River; inc. 1645. It is mainly residential with some light ...

Fates

(Encyclopedia)Fates, in Greek religion and mythology, three goddesses who controlled human lives; also called the Moerae or Moirai. They were: Clotho, who spun the web of life; Lachesis, who measured its length; an...

Amazon, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Amazon ămˈəzŏn [key], in Greek mythology, one of a tribe of warlike women who lived in Asia Minor. The Amazons had a matriarchal society, in which women fought and governed while men performed the...

Fenian movement

(Encyclopedia)Fenian movement fēˈnēən [key] or Fenians, secret revolutionary society organized c.1858 in Ireland and the United States to achieve Irish independence from England by force. It was known variously...

fire escape

(Encyclopedia)fire escape, in architecture, device, either fixed or movable, to facilitate escape from a burning building. In the United States the term usually is applied to the common iron balconies and stairways...

fire fighting

(Encyclopedia)fire fighting, the use of strategy, personnel, and apparatus to extinguish, to confine, or to escape from fire. Ancient Rome is known to have had a fire department consisting by the 1st cent. of app...

first aid

(Encyclopedia)first aid, immediate and temporary treatment of a victim of sudden illness or injury while awaiting the arrival of medical aid. Proper early measures may be instrumental in saving life and ensuring a ...

Fitch, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Fitch, Thomas, c.1700–1774, colonial governor of Connecticut, b. Norwalk, Conn. A lawyer, Fitch was an assistant in the colony (1734–35, 1740–50). The assembly elected him deputy governor in 175...