Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sinhalese

(Encyclopedia)Sinhalese sĭnˌhəlēzˈ [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. An alternate spelling for Sinhalese is Singhalese. See In...

Derrida, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Derrida, Jacques zhäkˈ dĕrˌrēdäˈ [key], 1930–2004, French philosopher, b. El Biar, Algeria. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he taught there and at the Sorbonne, the Éc...

Prakrit

(Encyclopedia)Prakrit präˈkrĭt [key], any of a number of languages belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian). The Prakrits are usually...

slang

(Encyclopedia)slang, vernacular vocabulary not generally acceptable in formal usage. It is notable for its liveliness, humor, emphasis, brevity, novelty, and exaggeration. Most slang is faddish and ephemeral, but s...

Euphrates

(Encyclopedia)Euphrates yo͞ofrāˈtēz [key], Turkish Frat, Arabic Al Furat, river of SW Asia, c.1,700 mi (2,740 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Kara and the Murad rivers, E central Turkey, and flowing g...

King Horn

(Encyclopedia)King Horn, probably the earliest English-language romance, written c.1250 and containing about 1,500 lines. It is by an anonymous author and is based on an earlier work in French. Emphasizing action a...

Gollancz, Sir Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Gollancz, Sir Hermann gŏlˈənts [key], 1852–1930, English rabbi and authority on Hebrew language and literature. He was professor of Hebrew (1902–24) at University College, London. In 1902 he ed...

Collier, John Payne

(Encyclopedia)Collier, John Payne, 1789–1883, English critic, editor, and forger. The marginal notes and signatures supposedly discovered by him on original documents, especially those concerned with Shakespeare,...

Tibeto-Burman languages

(Encyclopedia)Tibeto-Burman languages, subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. See Sino-Tibetan languages; Burmese; Tibetan language. ...

Vulgar Latin

(Encyclopedia)Vulgar Latin, vernacular form of the Latin language spoken in ancient Rome and the Roman Empire, as distinguished from classical or literary Latin. Vulgar Latin, rather than classical Latin, is the tr...