Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Amram ben Scheschna

(Encyclopedia)Amram ben Scheschna gäˈōn [key], d. c.875, Hebrew scholar, head of the Jewish academy at Sura in Persia. He is chiefly known as the author of the Seder Rab Amram, a compilation of the order of pray...

barograph

(Encyclopedia)barograph, instrument used to make a continuous recording of atmospheric pressure. The pressure-sensitive element, a partially evacuated metal cylinder, is linked to a pen arm in such a way that the v...

literary frauds

(Encyclopedia)literary frauds, manuscripts that are presented to the public as works of famous authors but that are actually forgeries or imitations. Literary frauds are perpetrated for various reasons—occasional...

metamorphism

(Encyclopedia)metamorphism, in geology, process of change in the structure, texture, or composition of rocks caused by agents of heat, deforming pressure, shearing stress, hot, chemically active fluids, or a combin...

limerick, in poetry

(Encyclopedia)limerick, type of humorous verse. It is always short, often nonsensical, and sometimes ribald. Of unknown origin, the limerick is popular rather than literary and has even been used in advertising. Th...

income tax

(Encyclopedia)income tax, assessment levied upon individual or corporate incomes. Although personal incomes were occasionally taxed in medieval Italian cities, the income tax is essentially a modern form of taxatio...

Lydd

(Encyclopedia)Lydd lĭd [key], town (1991 pop. 4,721), Kent, SE England. A military training center, Lydd gave its name to lyddite (picric acid), an explosive that was tested at the military camp there in 1888. Lyd...

Dewdney, Anna

(Encyclopedia)Dewdney, Anna, 1965–2016, American children's book author and illustrator, b. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., as Anna Elizabeth Luhrmann, B.A. Wellesley, 1987. After illustrating adult and children's books ...

Ecclesiastes

(Encyclopedia)Ecclesiastes ēklēˌzēăsˈtēz [key], book of the Bible, the name of which is a latinized derivation of the Hebrew Qohelet [the Preacher]. Although traditionally ascribed to Solomon (who is identif...

Brookner, Anita

(Encyclopedia)Brookner, Anita, 1928–2016, English writer and art critic. After establishing an academic career at London's Courtauld Institute of Art and becoming the first woman appointed (1968) Slade Professor ...