Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

fiat money

(Encyclopedia)fiat money fīˈət, fīˈăt [key], inconvertible money that is made legal tender by the decree, or fiat, of the government but that is not covered by a specie reserve. It is commonly understood to b...

Pompidou, Georges Jean Raymond

(Encyclopedia)Pompidou, Georges Jean Raymond zhôrzh pôNpēdo͞oˈ [key], 1911–74. French political leader, president of France (1969–74). Georges Pompidou taught school and then served in World War II until t...

Cameron, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Cameron, Richard kămˈərən [key], 1648–1680, Scottish leader of the Cameronians, an extreme group of Covenanters. In 1672, under the influence of the open-air preacher John Welch, he became a Cov...

idealism

(Encyclopedia)idealism, the attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses. In art idealism is the tendency to represent...

Winnipeg, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Winnipeg wĭnˈĭpĕg [key], city (1991 pop. 616,790), provincial capital, SE Man., Canada, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It is the province's largest city and one of the world'...

Abengourou

(Encyclopedia)Abengourou äbĕng-go͞oˈro͞o [key], town (1988 pop. 59,114), E Côte d'Ivoire. It is the commercial center for a region producing cacao, coffee, kola nuts, plantains, yams, manioc, and timber. The ...

Fort Bragg

(Encyclopedia)Fort Bragg, U.S. army base, 11,136 acres (4,507 hectares), E N.C., N of Fayetteville; est. 1918. Originally an artillery post, it is now the principal U.S. army airborne-training center and the site o...

Fleet, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Fleet, Thomas, 1685–1758, American colonial printer, b. Shropshire, England. He arrived in Boston c.1712, a refugee because of his opposition to the High Church, and became a prominent printer and p...

Moisie

(Encyclopedia)Moisie mwäzēˈ [key], river, 210 mi (338 km) long, rising in E Que., Canada, near the Labrador border, and flowing S to the St. Lawrence. The Hudson's Bay Company has an important trading post at th...

Niles, Hezekiah

(Encyclopedia)Niles, Hezekiah, 1777–1839, American journalist, b. Jefferis's Ford, Pa. Editor (1805–11) of the Baltimore Evening Post and founder (1811) of Niles' Weekly Register, he was one of the most influen...