Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

alternative medicine

(Encyclopedia)alternative medicine, the treatment and prevention of disease by techniques that are regarded by modern Western medicine as scientifically unproved or unorthodox. The term alternative medicine can enc...

Schillebeeckx, Edward Cornelius Florentius

(Encyclopedia)Schillebeeckx, Edward Cornelius Florentius skĭlˈəbāks [key], 1914–2009, Belgian Roman Catholic theologian, b. Antwerp. He entered the Dominican order in 1934 and was ordained in 1941. After stud...

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

(Encyclopedia)Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, established in 1805, incorporated in 1806. It is supported by private endowment. The academy grew out of a proposal by Charles Willson Peale for an...

republic

(Encyclopedia)republic [Lat. res publica,=public affair], today understood to be a sovereign state ruled by representatives of a widely inclusive electorate. The term republic formerly denoted a form of government ...

Onetti, Juan Carlos

(Encyclopedia)Onetti, Juan Carlos, 1909–94, Uruguayan novelist and short story writer, b. Montevideo. One of the great 20th-century Latin American novelists, Onetti wrote of the dissipation of modern urban societ...

Yamagata, Aritomo

(Encyclopedia)Yamagata, Aritomo ärēˈtōmō yämäˈgätä [key], 1838–1922, Japanese soldier and statesman, chief founder of the modern Japanese army. A samurai of Choshu, he took part in the Meiji restoration...

Brancusi, Constantin

(Encyclopedia)Brancusi, Constantin bränkyo͞oˈzē, Rom. bränˈko͞osh [key], 1876–1957, Romanian sculptor. Brancusi is considered one of the foremost of modern artists. In 1904 he went to Paris, where he worke...

French language

(Encyclopedia)CEE French language, member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages). It is spoken as a first language by more than 70 million p...

German language

(Encyclopedia)German language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). It is the official language of Germany and Austria and i...

Lisieux

(Encyclopedia)Lisieux lēzyöˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 24,056), Calvados dept., N France. It is one of the oldest towns in Normandy. Its modern importance dates from the canonization (1925) of St. Theresa, whose sh...