Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen

(Encyclopedia)Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen skōˈĭn [key], 1840–1922, English poet and political writer. After retiring c.1872 from the diplomatic service, he began a career of travel and political crusading. He wrote ...

Strangford Lough

(Encyclopedia)Strangford Lough străngˈfərd lŏkh [key], inlet of the Irish Sea, 17 mi (27 km) long and 4 mi (6.4 km) wide, between Ards and Down dists., E Northern Ireland, entered through a 5-mi (8-km) strait, ...

Solway Firth

(Encyclopedia)Solway Firth sŏlˈwā [key], arm of the Irish Sea, c.40 mi (60 km) long, separating NW England from SW Scotland. The waterway, which has a tidal bore, receives the Esk, Annan, Urr, Eden, and Derwent ...

Hopper, Grace

(Encyclopedia)Hopper, Grace, 1906–92, American computer scientist, b. New York City as Grace Brewster Murray. She was educated at Vassar College and Yale (Ph.D., 1934). After teaching at Vassar (1931–1943), she...

Strawson, Peter Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Strawson, Peter Frederick, 1919–2009, British philosopher, grad. Oxford 1940. An influential advocate for so-called ordinary language philosophy, he began teaching at Oxford in 1947 and from 1968 to...

harp

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Harp harp, stringed musical instrument of ancient origin, the strings of which are plucked with the fingers. Harps were found in paintings from the 13th cent. b.c. at Thebes. In different form...

Goldsmith, Oliver

(Encyclopedia)Goldsmith, Oliver, 1730?–1774, Anglo-Irish author. The son of an Irish clergyman, he was graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1749. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and Leiden, but his career ...

McDonagh, Martin

(Encyclopedia)McDonagh, Martin məkdŭnˈə [key], 1970–, Anglo-Irish playwright, b. London to Irish parents. During summer visits he became acquainted with W Ireland, and without any formal training he wrote a s...

Sweet, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Sweet, Henry, 1845–1912, English philologist and phonetician. An authority on Anglo-Saxon and the history of the English language, Sweet was also a pioneer in modern scientific phonetics. His Histor...

object-oriented programming

(Encyclopedia)object-oriented programming, a modular approach to computer program (software) design. Each module, or object, combines data and procedures (sequences of instructions) that act on the data; in traditi...