Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

charade

(Encyclopedia)charade shərādˈ [key], verbal, written, or acted representation of a word, its syllables, or a number of words. The object is to guess the idea being conveyed. Winthrop M. Praed wrote many of the w...

Hiva Oa

(Encyclopedia)Hiva Oa hēˈvä ōˈä [key], volcanic island, 154 sq mi (399 sq km), South Pacific, second largest and the most important of the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. Hiva Oa is the seat of Atuona, f...

Gildersleeve, Virginia Crocheron

(Encyclopedia)Gildersleeve, Virginia Crocheron, 1877–1965, American educator, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., Barnard, 1899; Ph.D., 1908). She was professor of English at Barnard from 1900 to 1911, when s...

Mayflower Compact

(Encyclopedia)Mayflower Compact, in U.S. colonial history, an agreement providing for the temporary government of Plymouth Colony. The compact was signed (1620) on board the Mayflower by the adult male passengers; ...

Maremma

(Encyclopedia)Maremma märāmˈmä [key], coastal area in Tuscany, central Italy, along the Tyrrhenian Sea and extending E to the Apennines. A flourishing region in Etruscan and early Roman times, it became marshy ...

Kenny, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Kenny, Elizabeth, 1886–1952, Australian nurse, b. New South Wales, grad. St. Ursula's College, Australia, 1902. She became “Sister” Kenny as a first lieutenant nurse (1914–18) in the Australia...

lard

(Encyclopedia)lard, hog's fat melted and strained from the tissues, an important byproduct of the meatpacking industry. The highest grade, leaf lard, is from the fat around the kidneys; the next best is from the ba...

Aristippus

(Encyclopedia)Aristippus ărĭstĭpˈəs [key], c.435–c.360 b.c., Greek philosopher of Cyrene, first of the Cyrenaics. He held pleasure to be the highest good and virtue to be identical with the ability to enjoy....

Klein, Calvin Richard

(Encyclopedia)Klein, Calvin Richard klīn [key], 1942–, American fashion designer, b. New York City. In 1968 he established Calvin Klein Limited, which produced clothes and accessories bearing his hallmark of sim...

Wickram, Jörg

(Encyclopedia)Wickram, Jörg yörk vĭkˈräm [key], c.1505–62, German writer. Wickram wrote Meisterlieder, farces such as Der treue Eckart [faithful Eckart] (1538), biblical drama such as Tobias (1550), and the ...

Browse by Subject