Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cresap, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Cresap, Michael krēˈsăp [key], 1742–75, American frontiersman and soldier, b. Allegany co., Md. A Native American fighter, he was accused by Thomas Jefferson and others of massacring the family o...

court tennis

(Encyclopedia)court tennis, indoor racket and net game of ancient origin. It is believed to have originated (about the 14th cent.) in medieval France and is the forerunner of most modern racket games. In its early ...

Chanzy, Antoine Eugène Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Chanzy, Antoine Eugène Alfred äNtwänˈ özhĕnˈ älfrĕdˈ shäNzēˈ [key], 1823–83, French general. After service in Algeria, Italy, and Syria, he was refused a major command in the Franco-Pru...

Heller, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Heller, Joseph, 1923–99, American writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Heller is best known for his first novel, Catch-22 (1961). Set in World War II, it is a darkly humorous commentary on the illogic of war a...

anomalistic year

(Encyclopedia)anomalistic year ənŏmˌəlĭsˈtĭk [key], time required for the earth to go from the perihelion point once around the sun and back to the perihelion point. It is 365 days, 6 hr, 13 min, 53.0 sec of...

hand, foot, and mouth disease

(Encyclopedia)hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), infectious viral disease that most commonly occurs in children under five years of age. Symptoms include fever, poor appetite, and a sore throat, followed by pain...

Glanvill, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Glanvill or Glanvil, Joseph glănˈvĭl [key], 1636–80, English clergyman and philosopher. He was chaplain in ordinary to Charles II and prebendary of Worcester Cathedral. An exponent of occasionali...

Ghost Dance

(Encyclopedia)Ghost Dance, central ritual of the messianic religion instituted in the late 19th cent. by a Paiute named Wovoka. The religion prophesied the peaceful end of the westward expansion of whites and a ret...

Johnson, Eyvind

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Eyvind üˈvĭnt [key], 1900–1976, Swedish novelist and short-story writer. After working as a laborer in the north of Sweden, Johnson moved to Stockholm in 1919 and began to write. He is b...

Pelée

(Encyclopedia)Pelée pəlāˈ [key], volcano, 4,429 ft (1,350 m) high, on N Martinique, in the West Indies. On May 8, 1902, the day after the eruption of Soufrière on St. Vincent, Pelée also erupted, engulfing Sa...