Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Medan, city, Indonesia

(Encyclopedia)Medan mādänˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 1,730,052), capital of North Sumatra prov., NE Sumatra, Indonesia, on the Deli River, c.15 mi (25 km) from its mouth, where the city's port (Belawan) is situated...

labor, in economics

(Encyclopedia)labor, term used both for the effort of performing a task and for the workers engaged in the activity. In ancient times much of the work was done by slaves (see slavery). In the feudal period agricult...

Karan, Donna

(Encyclopedia)Karan, Donna, 1948–, American fashion designer, b. Forest Hills, N.Y., as Donna Faske. Daughter of a tailor and a garment saleswoman, she started to design clothes as a teenager and studied at New Y...

fetishism

(Encyclopedia)fetishism, in psychiatry, a paraphilia (see perversion, sexual) in which erotic interest and satisfaction are centered on an inanimate object or a specific, nongenital part of the anatomy. Generally o...

Wellington

(Encyclopedia)Wellington, city (1996 pop. 157,647; urban agglomeration 334,051), capital of New Zealand, extreme S North Island, on Port Nicholson, an inlet of Cook Strait. Socially and economically linked with Hut...

balance of power

(Encyclopedia)balance of power, system of international relations in which nations seek to maintain an approximate equilibrium of power among many rivals, thus preventing the preponderance of any one state. Crucial...

Yoshida, Shigeru

(Encyclopedia)Yoshida, Shigeru shēgāˈro͞o yōˈshēdä [key], 1878–1967, Japanese statesman. He was until 1954 the most powerful political figure in postwar Japan. He was ambassador to Italy (1930–32) and t...

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(Encyclopedia)European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), international financial institution that invests primarily in the private sector to promote entrepreneurship and foster the development of demo...

Love, Alfred Henry

(Encyclopedia)Love, Alfred Henry, 1830–1913, American pacifist, b. Philadelphia. Love, a Quaker, remained firm in his principles at the outbreak of the Civil War, refusing even to hire a substitute when he was dr...

Ethical Culture movement

(Encyclopedia)Ethical Culture movement, originating in the Society for Ethical Culture, founded in New York City in 1876, by Felix Adler. Its aim is “to assert the supreme importance of the ethical factor in all ...