Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

406 results found

Brugmann, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Brugmann, Karl kärl bro͝okˈmän [key], 1849–1919, German philologist. A professor at Leipzig, Brugmann believed that scientific rules of linguistics do not admit of exceptions. With the help of o...

Pabst, G. W.

(Encyclopedia)Pabst, G. W. (Georg Wilhelm Pabst) gāˈôrkh vĭlˈhĕlm päpst [key], 1885–1967, German film director, b. Austria. He used montage in such works of social realism as The Joyless Street (1925), Pan...

Delitzsch, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Delitzsch, Franz fränts dāˈlĭch [key], 1813–90, German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. He was professor of theology at Rostock from 1846 to 1850, at Erlangen until 1867, and later at Leipzig. ...

contrabassoon

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Contrabassoon contrabassoon, large, deep-toned instrument of the oboe family, also called double bassoon. Its tube, over 16 ft (5 m) long, is doubled upon itself four times. It was first made ...

Kertész, Imre

(Encyclopedia)Kertész, Imre kĕrtĕshˈ [key], 1929–2016, Hungarian novelist, b. Budapest. Of Jewish descent, as a teenager Kertész spent two years in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, experien...

Tiryns

(Encyclopedia)Tiryns tīˈrĭnz [key], ancient city of Greece, in the NE Peloponnesus, 2.5 mi (4 km) N of Nauplia (now Návplion) and near Argos. The site seems to have been inhabited since the 3d millennium b.c. I...

Sophia Charlotte

(Encyclopedia)Sophia Charlotte zōfēˈä shärlôtˈə [key], 1668–1705, first queen of Prussia, second wife of King Frederick I, daughter of Electress Sophia of Hanover, and sister of King George I of England. ...

Humboldt, Alexander, Freiherr von

(Encyclopedia)Humboldt, Alexander, Freiherr von hŭmˈbōlt, Ger. älĕksänˈdər frīˈhĕr fən ho͝omˈbôlt [key], 1769–1859, German naturalist, inventor, explorer, and author, the most eminent scientist of ...

Carlos, prince of the Asturias

(Encyclopedia)Carlos, 1545–68, prince of the Asturias, son of Philip II of Spain and Maria of Portugal. Don Carlos, who seems to have been mentally unbalanced and subject to fits of homicidal mania, was imprisone...

Drygalski, Erich von

(Encyclopedia)Drygalski, Erich von āˈrĭkh fən drēgälˈskē [key], 1865–1949, German polar explorer. A professor of geography at the Univ. of Munich, he led an expedition that wintered (1892–93) in W Green...