Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

246 results found

abbreviation

(Encyclopedia)abbreviation, in writing, arbitrary shortening of a word, usually by cutting off letters from the end, as in U.S. and Gen. (General). Contraction serves the same purpose but is understood ...

Zorrilla y Moral, José

(Encyclopedia)Zorrilla y Moral, José hōsāˈ thôrēˈlyä ē mōrälˈ [key], 1817–93, Spanish poet and dramatist. His works and life epitomized the brief period of Spanish romanticism. One of the most honored...

Pinza, Ezio

(Encyclopedia)Pinza, Ezio ātsˈyō pēnˈtsä [key], 1892–1957, Italian bass, b. Rome, studied at the Bologna Conservatory. After military service (1915–19), he resumed his operatic career in Rome, later singi...

Pedersen, Charles John

(Encyclopedia)Pedersen, Charles John, 1904–89, American chemist, b. Busan, Korea, M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1927. After finishing his studies, Pedersen began work as a research chemist for the D...

Grabbe, Christian Dietrich

(Encyclopedia)Grabbe, Christian Dietrich krĭsˈtēän dēˈtrĭkh gräbˈə [key], 1801–36, German dramatist and journalist. Critical of “Shakespearomania,” Grabbe strove for a national German drama and wrot...

mandolin

(Encyclopedia)mandolin mănˌdəlĭnˈ, mănˈdəlĭnˌ [key], musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with...

Kerr, Jean Collins

(Encyclopedia)Kerr, Jean Collins, 1923–2003, American comic author and playwright, b. Scranton, Pa., wife of Walter Kerr. Kerr had a knack for finding wry humor in the worlds of marriage, suburbia, and show busin...

Kulikovo, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Kulikovo, battle of ko͞olyĭkôˈvə [key], 1380, victory of Grand Duke Dmitri Donskoi of Moscow over Khan Mamai of the Golden Horde. The battle was fought on a plain by the Don near the present vill...

Yelets

(Encyclopedia)Yelets yĭlyĕtsˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 120,000), E central Russia, on the Sosna River, a tributary of the Don. A rail junction in a black-earth agricultural district, the city exports livestock and...

Vierge, Daniel Urrabieta

(Encyclopedia)Vierge, Daniel Urrabieta dänyĕlˈ o͞oräbyāˈtä vyārˈhā [key], 1851–1904, Spanish illustrator. He went to Paris before 1870 and won recognition for his drawings of scenes of the Commune of P...