Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Chartier, Alain

(Encyclopedia)Chartier, Alain älăNˈ shärtyāˈ [key], b. c.1385, d. c.1433, French writer, secretary to Charles VII. His most popular work was the love poem La Belle Dame sans mercy (1424), which provided Keats...

chili con carne

(Encyclopedia)chili con carne chĭlˈē kŏn kärˈnē [key] [Span.,=hot peppers with meat], Mexican food popular in the United States and now manufactured and canned commercially. It consists mainly of beef, beans...

Cinco de Mayo

(Encyclopedia)Cinco de Mayo, May 5, the anniversary of Mexico's victory over France in 1862 in the Battle of Puebla, in which Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza's small, ill-equipped Mexican forces defeated a much larger French...

chapbook

(Encyclopedia)chapbook, one of the pamphlets formerly sold in Europe and America by itinerant agents, or “chapmen.” Chapbooks were inexpensive—in England often costing only a penny—and, like the broadside, ...

Epsom and Ewell

(Encyclopedia)Epsom and Ewell yo͞oˈəl [key], borough and district, Surrey, SE England. Epsom salts were first ...

eThekwini

(Encyclopedia)eThekwini, metropolitan municipality, 885 sq mi (2,291 sq km), KwaZulu-Natal prov., E South Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Durban is the municipal seat; o...

Grampians, the

(Encyclopedia)Grampians, the, or Grampian Mountains, highest mountain system of Great Britain, extending northeast to southwest along the southern fringe of the Highlands, central Scotland. Ben Nevis (4,411 ft/1,34...

Valerius Maximus

(Encyclopedia)Valerius Maximus vəlērˈēəs măkˈsĭməs [key], c.20 b.c.–c.a.d. 50, Roman author. Little is known of his life. His Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX [nine books of memorable deeds and...

Varese

(Encyclopedia)Varese värāˈzā [key], city (1991 pop. 85,687), capital of Varese prov., Lombardy, N Italy, near the Swiss border. Situated in the Alpine foothills, near several Italian lakes, it is a popular tour...

Qinhuangdao

(Encyclopedia)Qinhuangdao or Chinwangtao both: chĭnˈhwängˈdouˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 412,500), NE Hebei prov., China, on the Bohai, an arm of the Yellow Sea. It is an ice-free port that exports large qua...