Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

translation

(Encyclopedia)translation [Lat.,=carrying across], the rendering of a text into another language. Applied to literature, the term connotes the art of recomposing a work in another language without losing its origin...

Romance languages

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Romance languages, group of languages belonging to the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Italic languages). Also called Romanic, they are spoken by about 670 millio...

Romani

(Encyclopedia)Romani or Romany both: rŏmˈənē, rōˈ– [key], people known historically in English as Gypsies and their language. 1 A traditionally nomadic people with particular folkways and a unique language,...

Singer, Isaac Bashevis

(Encyclopedia)Singer, Isaac Bashevis bäshĕvˈĭs [key], 1904–91, American novelist and short-story writer in the Yiddish language, younger brother of I. J. Singer, b. Leoncin, Poland (then in Russia). The son o...

South African literature

(Encyclopedia)South African literature, literary works written in South Africa or written by South Africans living in other countries. Populated by diverse ethnic and language groups, South Africa has a distinctive...

chorale

(Encyclopedia)chorale kōrălˈ, –rälˈ [key], any of the traditional hymns of the German Protestant Church. The form was developed after the Reformation to replace the plainsong of the earlier service and as a ...

essence

(Encyclopedia)essence, in philosophy, the nature of a thing. Aristotle maintained that there is a distinction between the form of a thing—its intelligible, verbally formulable character—and the essence of a thi...

Haskalah

(Encyclopedia)Haskalah häˌskəläˈ [key], [Heb.,=enlightenment] Jewish movement in Europe active from the 1770s to the 1880s. Beginning in Germany in the circle of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn...

Hood, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Hood, Thomas, 1799–1845, English poet. He was an editor of various prominent magazines and periodicals. The greater proportion of his work was written in a humorous vein, and he was celebrated for h...

Habima Theater

(Encyclopedia)Habima Theater häbēˈmä [key], [Heb.,=the stage], the national theater of Israel. Founded in 1917 in Moscow by Nahum Zemach and at first affiliated with the Moscow Art Theatre, it was one of the fi...

Browse by Subject