Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Swanson, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Swanson, Howard, 1909–78, American composer, b. Atlanta. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Among his compositions are three symphonies, Night Music fo...

diving, springboard and platform

(Encyclopedia)diving, springboard and platform, sport of entering the water from a raised position, often while executing tumbles, twists, and other acrobatic maneuvers. In most dives the upper part of the body ent...

Edirne

(Encyclopedia)Edirne āˌdrēənōˈ pəl [key], city, capital of Edirne prov., NW Turkey, in Thrace. It is the ...

Chinook, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Chinook shĭno͝okˈ, chĭ– [key], Native American tribe of the Penutian linguistic stock. Altogether twelve main tribes spoke Chinook languages; all were in the Columbia River valley. The Chinook t...

Istria

(Encyclopedia)Istria ĭsˈtrēə [key], Croatian Istra, mountainous peninsula c.1,500 sq mi (3,900 sq km), in Slovenia and Croatia, projecting into the N Adriatic between the gulfs of Trieste and Fiume. A section o...

Gullah

(Encyclopedia)Gullah gŭlˈə [key], a creole language formerly spoken by the Gullah, an African-American community of the Sea Islands and the Middle Atlantic coast of the United States. The word is probably a corr...

Joseph, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Joseph, one of the heroes of the patriarchal narratives of the Book of Genesis. He is presented as the favored son of Jacob and Rachel, sold as a boy into slavery by his brothers, who were jealous of ...

Jimson weed

(Encyclopedia)Jimson weed or Jamestown weed, large, coarse annual plant (Datura stramonium) of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family), native to warm-temperate and tropical regions of the New World, but long wid...

Ndebele

(Encyclopedia)Ndebele mătəbēˈlē [key], Bantu-speaking people inhabiting Matabeleland North and South, W Zimbabwe. The Ndebele, now numbering close to 2 million, originated as a tribal following in 1823, when M...

Manchu

(Encyclopedia)Manchu mănˈcho͞o [key], people who lived in Manchuria for many centuries and who ruled China from 1644 until 1912. These people, related to the Tungus, were descended from the Jurchen, a tribe know...