Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

flextime

(Encyclopedia)flextime, system of assigning hours for work that permits employees to choose, within specified limits, the hours that they will be at their place of employment. In many companies, there is a “core ...

Lenox

(Encyclopedia)Lenox, town (1990 pop. 5,069), Berkshire co., W Mass., in the Berkshire Mts., 7 mi (11 km) south of Pittsfield. It is primarily a summer resort. The Tanglewood Music Festival, one of the country's pre...

telecommuting

(Encyclopedia)telecommuting, an arrangement by which people work at home using a computer and telephone, accessing work-related materials at a business office, or transmitting materials to an office, by means of a ...

Aquileia

(Encyclopedia)Aquileia äkwēlĕˈyä [key], town, in Friuli–Venezia Giulia, NE Italy, near the Adriatic Sea. Founded in 181 b.c. by the Romans, it was a stronghold against the barbarians and a trade center. Late...

Media

(Encyclopedia)Media mēˈdēə [key], ancient country of W Asia whose actual boundaries cannot be defined, occupying generally what is now W Iran and S Azerbaijan. It extended from the Caspian Sea to the Zagros Mts...

Viriatus

(Encyclopedia)Viriatus vērēäˈtəs [key], d. 139 b.c., leader of the Lusitani (see Lusitania). One of the survivors of the massacre of the Lusitani by the Roman praetor Servius Sulpicius Galba, Viriatus rose as ...

primogeniture

(Encyclopedia)primogeniture, in law, the rule of inheritance whereby land descends to the oldest son. Under the feudal system of medieval Europe, primogeniture generally governed the inheritance of land held in mil...

Santo Domingo, former Spanish colony

(Encyclopedia)Santo Domingo sänˈtō dōmēngˈgō [key], former Spanish colony on the island of Hispaniola. The name has also been used for the Dominican Republic, and in early days it applied to Haiti. Columbus ...

Nakhon Pathom

(Encyclopedia)Nakhon Pathom näˈkôn pätŭmˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 44,999), capital of Nakhon Pathom prov., SW Thailand, on the Mekong River. It is a transportation and commercial center on the Bangkok-Singapor...

Parton, James

(Encyclopedia)Parton, James, 1822–91, American biographer, b. England. He came to the United States in 1827. In 1848 he joined the staff of N. P. Willis's Home Journal in New York City. His biographical writing b...