Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rabelais, François

(Encyclopedia)Rabelais, François răbˈəlā, Fr. fräNswäˈ räblāˈ [key], c.1490–1553, French writer and physician, one of the great comic geniuses in world literature. His father, a lawyer, owned several e...

Stoppard, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Stoppard, Tom, 1937–, English playwright, b. Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic), as Tomas Straussler. During his childhood he and his family moved to Singapore, later (1946) settling ...

labor, in economics

(Encyclopedia)labor, term used both for the effort of performing a task and for the workers engaged in the activity. In ancient times much of the work was done by slaves (see slavery). In the feudal period agricult...

nonlinear dynamics

(Encyclopedia)nonlinear dynamics, study of systems governed by equations in which a small change in one variable can induce a large systematic change; the discipline is more popularly known as chaos (see chaos theo...

Scott, Sir Walter

(Encyclopedia)Scott, Sir Walter, 1771–1832, Scottish novelist and poet, b. Edinburgh. He is considered the father of both the regional and the historical novel. Scott's narrative poems introduced a form of v...

Garfield, James Abram

(Encyclopedia)Garfield, James Abram, 1831–81, 20th President of the United States (Mar.–Sept., 1881). Born on a frontier farm in Cuyahoga co., Ohio, he spent his early years in poverty. As a youth he worked as ...

Conrad, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Conrad, Joseph, 1857–1924, English novelist, b. Berdichev, Russia (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), originally named Jósef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski. Born of Polish parents, he is considered one of...

Trollope, Anthony

(Encyclopedia)Trollope, Anthony trŏlˈəp [key], 1815–82, one of the great English novelists. After spending seven unhappy years in London as a clerk in the general post office, he transferred (1841) to Ireland ...

spiritual

(Encyclopedia)spiritual, a religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States. The African-American spiritual, characterized by syncopati...

nativism

(Encyclopedia)nativism, in anthropology, social movement that proclaims the return to power of the natives of a colonized area and the resurgence of native culture, along with the decline of the colonizers. The ter...