Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Lilburne, John

(Encyclopedia)Lilburne, John, 1614?–1657, English political leader and pamphleteer of the Levelers. He was tried before the court of the Star Chamber as early as 1638 for printing and distributing antiepiscopal w...

tattoo

(Encyclopedia)tattoo, the marking of the skin with punctures into which pigment is rubbed. The word originates from the Tahitian tattau [to mark]. The term is sometimes extended to scarification, which consists of ...

Wilson, William Lyne

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, William Lyne, 1843–1900, American legislator, cabinet member, and university president, b. Jefferson co., Va. (now in W.Va.). He was a private in the Confederate army in the Civil War, and a...

Peter III, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Peter III, 1728–62, czar of Russia (1762), son of Charles Frederick, dispossessed duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great. He succeeded to the throne on the death...

Italic languages

(Encyclopedia)Italic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages that may be divided into two groups. The first group consists of the ancient Italic languages and dialects that were once spoken in...

pidgin

(Encyclopedia)pidgin pĭjˈən [key], a lingua franca that is not the mother tongue of anyone using it and that has a simplified grammar and a restricted, often polyglot vocabulary. The earliest documented pidgin i...

Idalium

(Encyclopedia)Idalium īdāˈlēəm [key], ancient town in Cyprus. It had a well-known temple of Aphrodite. An inscription in Phoenician and Cypriote, found on a temple site at Idalium, gave the key to the Cypriote...

Assamese

(Encyclopedia)Assamese ăsˌəmēzˈ [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian languages. ...

Moncton, University of

(Encyclopedia)Moncton, University of, at Moncton, N.B., Canada; French language; founded 1864 as St. Joseph's Univ. Its name was changed in 1963. It has faculties of arts, sciences and engineering, business adminis...

Marathi

(Encyclopedia)Marathi məräˈtē [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian. ...