Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

polka

(Encyclopedia)polka, ballroom dance for couples in 2/4 time. Originated by Bohemian peasants about 1830 from steps of the schottische and other dances, the polka by 1835 reached the drawing rooms of Prague, from wh...

Safi

(Encyclopedia)Safi or Saffi both: säˈfē [key], city (1994 pop. 262,276), W central Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a center of the Moroccan fishing and canning industries. Phosphates are exported. Safi was...

Reinhardt, Ad

(Encyclopedia)Reinhardt, Ad (Adolph Reinhardt), 1913–67, American painter, b. New York City. Both a painter and an art theorist, Reinhardt is best known for his black paintings, begun in 1960. Associated with min...

Olean

(Encyclopedia)Olean ōˈlēănˌ [key], city (1990 pop. 16,946), Cattaraugus co., W N.Y., on the Allegheny River near the Pa. line; settled 1804, inc. 1893. The city formerly had an oil-based economy related to nea...

Hidatsa

(Encyclopedia)Hidatsa hēdätˈsä [key], Native North Americans, also known as the Minitari and the Gros Ventre. Their language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native America...

lares

(Encyclopedia)lares lârˈēz [key], in Roman religion, guardian spirits. According to some they were ghosts of the dead, destructive spirits who frequented crossroads and had to be propitiated. Others say that the...

El Cordobés

(Encyclopedia)El Cordobés ĕl kōrdōvāsˈ [key], 1936?–, Spanish bullfighter, b. Manuel Benítez Pérez. The predominant matador of the 1960s, he brought an unorthodox acrobatic and theatrical style to the rin...

Perlman, Selig

(Encyclopedia)Perlman, Selig, 1888–1959, American economist, b. Bialystok, Poland. His parents were active in the Zionist and labor movements of Eastern Europe. Perlman emigrated to the United States in 1918, whe...

Wieland, Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Wieland, Heinrich, 1877–1957, German chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Munich, 1901. Wieland was a professor at the Technical Univ. of Munich from 1913 to 1921, the Univ. of Freiburg from 1921 to 1925, and th...

Wenzhou

(Encyclopedia)Wenzhou or Wenchow both: wŭn-jō [key], city (1994 est. pop. 449,700), SE Zhejiang prov., SE China. It is a small deep-sea port on the Ou River 12 mi (19 km) from the East China Sea and a major trade...