Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

simile

(Encyclopedia)simile sĭmˈəlē [key] [Lat.,=likeness], in rhetoric, a figure of speech in which an object is explicitly compared to another object. Robert Burns's poem “A Red Red Rose” contains two straightfo...

vaudeville

(Encyclopedia)vaudeville vôdˈvĭl [key], originally a light song, derived from the drinking and love songs formerly attributed to Olivier Basselin and called Vau, or Vaux, de Vire. Similar to the English music ha...

Georgia Institute of Technology

(Encyclopedia)Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, Ga.; coeducational; state supported; chartered 1885, opened 1888. It is a member school in the university system of Georgia. Significant among its faciliti...

Friedlander, Lee

(Encyclopedia)Friedlander, Lee frēdˈlăndər [key], 1934–, American photographer, b. Aberdeen, Wash. Influenced by Walker Evans and Robert Frank, Friedlander is known for dense and often visually witty black-an...

Sabbatai Zevi

(Encyclopedia)Sabbatai Zevi säbätīˈ zāˈvē [key], 1626–76, Jewish mystic and pseudo-Messiah, founder of the Sabbatean sect, b. Smyrna. After a period of study of Lurianic kabbalah (see Luria, Isaac ben Solo...

Fröding, Gustaf

(Encyclopedia)Fröding, Gustaf gŭsˈtäv fröˈdĭng [key], 1860–1911, Swedish lyric poet. His first two volumes of poems, Guitar and Concertina (1891) and New Poems (1894), both translated into English in 1925,...

liquefied petroleum gas

(Encyclopedia)liquefied petroleum gas or LPG, mixture of gases, chiefly propane and butane, produced commercially from petroleum and stored under pressure to keep it in a liquid state. The boiling point of liquefie...

Guinevere

(Encyclopedia)Guinevere gwĭnˈəvĭrˌ, gwĕnˈ– [key], in Arthurian legend, wife of King Arthur. Her illicit and tragic love for Sir Launcelot, which foreshadowed the downfall of Arthur's kingdom, ends with her...

Lee of Fareham, Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Lee of Fareham, Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount fârˈəm [key], 1868–1947, British politician. He was (1900–1918) a Conservative member of the House of Commons. During World War I, Lee was mili...

napalm

(Encyclopedia)napalm nāˈpäm [key], incendiary material developed during World War II by Harvard scientists cooperating with the U.S. army and used in bombs and flame throwers. Napalm is based on a mixture of gas...