Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kahanamoku, Duke

(Encyclopedia)Kahanamoku, Duke, 1890–1968, American swimmer and surfer, b. Honolulu. A native Hawaiian, he was an excellent swimmer, surfer, and canoeist, and by 1911 he was setting Amateur Athletic Union swimmin...

Nurmi, Paavo

(Encyclopedia)Nurmi, Paavo päˈvō no͝orˈmē [key], 1897–1973, Finnish track star. Between 1920 and 1932 he set 20 world running records and won nine Olympic gold medals. His Olympic victories included the 10,...

Lars Porsena

(Encyclopedia)Lars Porsena or Lars Porsenna both: lärz pôrˈsənə, pôrsĕnˈə [key], semilegendary king of Clusium (modern Chiusi) in Etruria, who marched against Rome to reinstate the exiled Tarquinius Priscu...

Leavis, Q. D.

(Encyclopedia)Leavis, Q. D. (Queenie Dorothy Leavis), 1906–81, British literary critic; wife of F. R. Leavis. After studying at Cambridge, she wrote Fiction and the Reading Public (1932), which analyzed the marke...

Rogers, Bruce

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, Bruce, 1870–1957, American typographer and book designer, b. Lafayette, Ind. As printing adviser to Cambridge Univ. Press, Harvard Univ. Press, and to commercial houses specializing in limit...

degree, academic

(Encyclopedia)degree, academic, title bestowed upon a student on the fulfillment of certain requirements or given as an honor to an eminent person. The practice of awarding degrees originated in the universities of...

information storage and retrieval

(Encyclopedia)information storage and retrieval, the systematic process of collecting and cataloging data so that they can be located and displayed on request. Computers and data processing techniques have made pos...

Hubble, Edwin Powell

(Encyclopedia)Hubble, Edwin Powell, 1889–1953, American astronomer, b. Marshfield, Mo. He did research (1914–17) at Yerkes Observatory, and joined (1919) the staff of Mt. Wilson Observatory, Pasadena, Calif., o...

horsetail

(Encyclopedia)horsetail, any plant of the genus Equisetum [Lat.,=horse bristle], the single surviving genus of a large group (Equisetophyta) of primitive vascular plants. Like the ferns and club mosses, relatives o...

Elzevir, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Elzevir, Louis ĕlˈzəvər, –vēr [key], 1540–1617, Dutch printer and bookseller, whose name also appeared as Elsevier or Elzevier. He produced his first book at Leiden in 1583. Under his descend...