Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Magellanic Clouds

(Encyclopedia)Magellanic Clouds măjˌəlănˈĭk [key], two dwarf galaxies located in the far southern sky and visible to the unaided eye; they are classified as irregular because they show no definite symmetry or...

accent

(Encyclopedia)accent, in speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems in linguistics. There are three basic accentual methods: stress, tone, and length. In English each word has at least one p...

Margaret of Valois

(Encyclopedia)Margaret of Valois välwäˈ [key], 1553–1615, queen of France and Navarre, daughter of King Henry II of France and of Catherine de' Medici. She was known as Queen Margot. Her wedding (1572) with He...

kitchen

(Encyclopedia)kitchen, separate room or other space set aside for the cooking or preparation of meals. When cooking first moved indoors, it was performed, with other domestic labors, in the common room, where the f...

Horace

(Encyclopedia)Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) hôrˈəs [key], 65 b.c.–8 b.c., Latin poet, one of the greatest of lyric poets, b. Venusia, S Italy. He studied at Rome and Athens and, joining Brutus and the repu...

Grodon, Charles Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Grodon, Charles Sidney, 1935-2021, American film actor, writer, and director, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. Grodon briefly attended the Univ. of Miami and then be...

Della Robbia

(Encyclopedia)Della Robbia dĕlˌə rŏbˈēə, Ital. dĕlˈlä rôbˈbyä [key], Florentine family of sculptors and ceramists famous for their enameled terra-cotta or faience. Many of the Della Robbia pieces are s...

Copland, Aaron

(Encyclopedia)Copland, Aaron kōpˈlənd [key], 1900–1990, American composer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Copland was a pupil of Rubin Goldmark and of Nadia Boulanger, who introduced his work to the United States when she ...

cliff dwellers

(Encyclopedia)cliff dwellers, Ancestral Pueblo people, sometimes called Anasazi, who were builders of the ancient cliff dwellings found in the canyons and on the mesas of the U.S. Southwest, principally on the trib...

Price, Vincent Leonard, Jr.

(Encyclopedia) Price, Vincent Leonard, Jr., 1911-93, American film actor, b. St. Louis, Mo., Yale Univ. (B.A., 1933). Price studied English and art in college and th...