Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Briggs, Clare A.

(Encyclopedia)Briggs, Clare A., 1875–1930, American cartoonist, b. Reedsburg, Wis. He won a national reputation with the contributions he made to the Chicago Tribune from 1907 to 1914. From 1914 until his death h...

Pheidippides

(Encyclopedia)Pheidippides fīdĭpˈĭdēz [key], fl. 490 b.c., semilegendary Athenian courier sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon. He ran 150 miles in two days. At the conclusion of...

Dąbrowska, Marja

(Encyclopedia)Dąbrowska, Marja märˈyä dôNbrôfˈskä [key], 1889–1965, Polish sociologist and novelist. Dąbrowska worked as a militant publicist to further social and economic reform. Her works of fiction, ...

Fabre d'Églantine, Philippe François Nazaire

(Encyclopedia)Fabre d'Églantine, Philippe François Nazaire fēlēpˈ fräNswäˈ näzĕrˈ fäˈbrə dāgläNtēnˈ [key], 1755–94, French dramatist and revolutionist. His chief work, Le Philinte de Molière (1...

Guy of Warwick

(Encyclopedia)Guy of Warwick wŏrˈĭk [key], English legendary hero, popularized by an anonymous 14th-century rhymed romance. Guy won the earl of Warwick's daughter and saved England from the Danes by killing the ...

Forester, C. S.

(Encyclopedia)Forester, C. S. (Cecil Scott Forester), 1899–1966, British novelist, b. Cairo, Egypt, educated in England. A prolific and popular author, C. S. Forester is best known for his novels of the royal nav...

omen

(Encyclopedia)omen, sign or augury believed to foreshadow the future. Almost any occurrence can be interpreted as an omen. The typical omen was a natural phenomenon, such as a meteor, an eclipse, or the flight of b...

Terrassa

(Encyclopedia)Terrassa tär-räˈsä [key], town (1990 pop. 161,682), Barcelona prov., NE Spain, in Catalonia. It is an industrial town, long famous for its woolen textiles. The town dates back to Roman days. It ha...

sty

(Encyclopedia)sty, in medicine, acute localized infection of one or more of the glands of the eyelid, with pain, swelling, and redness of the lid margin, usually caused by a staphylococcus infection. An external st...

Sainte Anne de Bellevue

(Encyclopedia)Sainte Anne de Bellevue săNtănˈ də bĕlvüˈ [key], town (1991 pop. 4,030), S Que., Canada, on Montreal Island, SW of Montreal. The town has woodworking plants and a publishing house. In fur-tradi...