Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

slide rule

(Encyclopedia)slide rule, instrument for making numerical computations and readings, the results of which may be read easily and quickly after performing simple mechanical manipulations. Multiplication and division...

Home Rule

(Encyclopedia)Home Rule, in Irish and English history, political slogan adopted by Irish nationalists in the 19th cent. to describe their objective of self-government for Ireland. Escalating violence between Prot...

Golden Rule

(Encyclopedia)Golden Rule, in the New Testament, saying of Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew he says, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” The Gospe...

Rule, Britannia

(Encyclopedia)Rule, Britannia, English patriotic song. The music was composed by Thomas Augustine Arne for his masque Alfred, first performed August 1, 1740, in commemoration of the accession of George I. The words...

home rule, municipal

(Encyclopedia)home rule, municipal, system adopted in many states of the United States by which a city is given the right to draft and amend its own charter and to regulate purely local matters without interference...

equal-time rule

(Encyclopedia)equal-time rule, a Federal Communications Commission rule that requires equal air time for all major candidates competing for political office. It was preceded by the fairness doctrine, abolished in 1...

Salic law, rule of succession

(Encyclopedia)Salic law sāˈlĭk [key], rule of succession in certain royal and noble families of Europe, forbidding females and those descended in the female line to succeed to the titles or offices in the family...

National Gallery

(Encyclopedia)National Gallery, London, one of the permanent national art collections of Great Britain, est. 1824. The nucleus of museum was the 38-picture collection of the late English banker John Julius Angerste...

national assembly

(Encyclopedia)national assembly, name of a number of past and present constituent or legislative bodies. In France, under the constitutions of the Fourth and Fifth republics, the lower house of parliament has been ...

Browse by Subject