Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Van Halen, Eddie

(Encyclopedia)Van Halen, Eddie (Edward Lodewijk Van Halen), 1955–2020, American rock musician and song writer, b. Amsterdam, Netherlands; his family moved to California when he was young. He and brother Alex form...

vegetable

(Encyclopedia)vegetable, term originally used for any plant, now the name for many food plants, most of them annuals, and for their edible parts. There is no clear botanical distinction between vegetables and fruit...

Ostrom, Elinor Awan

(Encyclopedia)Ostrom, Elinor Awan, 1933–2012, American political economist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1965. She was on the faculty of the Univ. of Indiana, Bloomington, from 1965 unt...

palomino horse

(Encyclopedia)palomino horse, American light horse that, contrary to popular opinion, is not a breed but a color type. The palomino is a characteristic golden, creamy tan, with an almost white mane and tail. White ...

Pan, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Pan, in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of Saturn. Also known as Saturn XVIII (or S18), Pan is 12.5 mi (20 km) in diameter, orbits Saturn at a mean distance of 83,000 mi (133...

Jackson, Helen (Fiske) Hunt

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, Helen (Fiske) Hunt, 1830–85, American writer whose pseudonym was H. H., b. Amherst, Mass. She was a lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson. In 1863, encouraged by T. W. Higginson, Jackson began...

apricot

(Encyclopedia)apricot [Arabic from Lat.,=early ripe], tree, Prunus armeniaca, and its fruit, of the plum genus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), native to temperate Asia and long cultivated in Armenia. The frui...

Joshua Tree National Park

(Encyclopedia)Joshua Tree National Park, 1,022,703 acres (414,050 hectares), S California. Lying between the high Mojave Desert and the low Colorado Desert, this park has a unique ecosystem in which are preserved r...

Karman, Theodor von

(Encyclopedia)Karman, Theodor von tāˈōdôrˌ fôn kärˈmän [key], 1881–1963, American aeronautical engineer, b. Hungary, grad. Royal Technical Univ., Budapest (1902), and Univ. of Göttingen, Germany (Ph.D.,...

King, Clarence

(Encyclopedia)King, Clarence, 1842–1901, American geologist, b. Newport, R.I., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1862. After serving as a volunteer assistant in the California state geological survey (1863...

Browse by Subject