Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ifni

(Encyclopedia)Ifni ēfˈnē [key], former Spanish possession (580 sq mi/1,502 sq km), SW Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean. The main industry is fishing. Ifni was ceded by Morocco to Spain in 1860, but Spanish adminis...

Beaufort West

(Encyclopedia)Beaufort West bōˈfərt [key], town and local municipality, Western Cape prov., S South Africa, in ...

Rogation Days

(Encyclopedia)Rogation Days, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are Apr. 25, the Major Rogation, coinciding with St. Mark's D...

Scranton, George Whitefield

(Encyclopedia)Scranton, George Whitefield, 1811–61, American manufacturer, b. Madison, Conn. With his brother Selden he bought (1839) the lease and stock of the ironworks of Oxford Furnace, near Washington, N.J. ...

colophon

(Encyclopedia)colophon kŏlˈəfŏnˌ [key] [Gr.,=finishing stroke]. Before the use of printing in Western Europe a manuscript often ended with a statement about the author, the scribe, or the illuminator. The firs...

Chuquicamata

(Encyclopedia)Chuquicamata cho͞oˌkēkämäˈtä [key], former town, Antofagasta region, N Chile, on the western slopes of the Andes. At an elevation of 10,435 ft (3,181 m), the location is the site of the world's...

cittern

(Encyclopedia)cittern sĭtˈərn [key], stringed musical instrument of the guitar family having an oval body, a flat back, and a fretted neck. Its strings, made of wire and varying in number, were plucked. It was f...

Daugavpils

(Encyclopedia)Daugavpils douˈgäfpēls [key], Ger. Dünaburg, city, SE Latvia, on the Western Dvina River....

Amanullah

(Encyclopedia)Amanullah ăməno͝olˈə [key], 1892–1960, emir (1919–26) and king (1926–29) of Afghanistan. To win popular support for his rule he invaded India in an attempt to free Afghanistan from British-...

F

(Encyclopedia)F, sixth letter of the alphabet. The Greek letter corresponding to it, digamma, which probably represented a sound like w, disappeared before the classical period. In Western alphabets f has usually r...