Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

African Methodist Episcopal Church

(Encyclopedia)African Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist denomination (see Methodism). It was established in 1816 in Philadelphia with Richard Allen as its first bishop. In 1991 there were about 3.5 million memb...

Gregory, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Gregory, Dick (Richard Claxton Gregory), 1932–2017, African-American civil-rights activist and comedian, b. St. Louis, Mo. A biting satirist who used the struggle for civil rights and other topical ...

Alamoth

(Encyclopedia)Alamoth ălˈəmōth [key], in the Bible, musical term, unknown in meaning, although some have guessed “soprano,” connecting it with a word for “maidens.” It occurs in First Chronicles and in ...

fire escape

(Encyclopedia)fire escape, in architecture, device, either fixed or movable, to facilitate escape from a burning building. In the United States the term usually is applied to the common iron balconies and stairways...

standpatters

(Encyclopedia)standpatters, in U.S. history, term used early in the 20th cent. to designate conservatives in the Republican party as against the Insurgents or progressive Republicans. The term is said to have origi...

folkways

(Encyclopedia)folkways, term coined by William Graham Sumner in his treatise Folkways (1906) to denote those group habits that are common to a society or culture and are usually called customs. The word provided a ...

affluent society

(Encyclopedia)affluent society, term coined by John Kenneth Galbraith in The Affluent Society (1958) to describe the United States after World War II. An affluent society, as the term was used ironically by Galbrai...

buckyball

(Encyclopedia)buckyball, colloquial term for buckminsterfullerene, a roughly spherical fullerene molecule consisting of 60 carbon atoms. Buckytube is a generic term for cylindrical fullerenes. ...

dementia

(Encyclopedia)dementia dĭmĕnˈshə [key] [Lat.,=being out of the mind], progressive deterioration of intellectual faculties resulting in apathy, confusion, and stupor. In the 17th cent. the term was synonymous wi...

Newman, Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Newman, Ernest, 1868–1959, English music critic. He joined the staff of the Manchester Guardian in 1905, the Birmingham Daily Post in 1906, the London Observer in 1919, and The Times of London in 19...