Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Australian languages

(Encyclopedia)Australian languages, aboriginal languages spoken on the continent of Australia. The Australian languages do not appear to be related to any other linguistic family. The exact number of these language...

Weir, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Weir, Peter wēr [key], 1944–, Australian film director, b. Sydney. His early work helped to bring Australian film to world attention; his later films, made in Hollywood, mingle American movie techn...

Barnum, P. T.

(Encyclopedia)Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor Barnum) fĭnˈēəs, bärˈnəm [key], 1810–91, American showman, b. Bethel, Conn. As a youth Barnum worked at diverse sales jobs and managed a boardinghouse. He made h...

draft riots

(Encyclopedia)draft riots, in the American Civil War, mob action to protest unfair Union conscription. The Union Conscription Act of Mar. 3, 1863, provided that all able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 45 w...

Coysevox, Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Coysevox, Antoine äNtwänˈ kwäzĕvōksˈ [key], 1640–1720, French sculptor. He enjoyed the patronage of Louis XIV and produced a great part of the sculpture at Versailles. His Winged Horses, at t...

Ctesias

(Encyclopedia)Ctesias tēˈshēəs, tēˈsēəs [key], fl. 400 b.c., Greek historian and physician of Cnidus. He lived many years in the Persian court. He tended Artaxerxes II when he was wounded in the battle of C...

Fontana, Lavinia

(Encyclopedia)Fontana, Lavinia, 1552–1614, Italian painter, daughter of Prospero Fontana, who trained her in the Mannerist style. Noted for her sensitivity in color and detail, she was a fashionable portrait pain...

Flotow, Friedrich von

(Encyclopedia)Flotow, Friedrich von frēˈdrĭkh fən flōˈtō [key], 1812–83, German operatic composer. Flotow's operas show the influence of French opéra comique, which set the tone for light opera in the 19t...

Norris, John

(Encyclopedia)Norris, John, 1657–1711, English clergyman and philosopher. As the most prominent follower of Malebranche he wrote, in exposition of that philosopher's system, An Essay towards the Theory of the Ide...

Lebedev, Pyotr Nikolaevich

(Encyclopedia)Lebedev, Pyotr Nikolaevich pyôˈtə nyĭkəlīˈəvĭch lāˈbyədyəf [key], 1866–1912, Russian physicist. The most noted Russian physicist of his time, he studied at Strasbourg and Berlin and was...