Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Purchas, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Purchas, Samuel pûrˈkəs, –chəs [key], 1577?–1626, English clergyman and compiler of travel literature, b. Essex. Chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, he later was rector of St. Martin's C...

Yiddish language

(Encyclopedia)Yiddish language yĭdˈĭsh [key], a member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages; German language). Although it is not ...

porcelain

(Encyclopedia)porcelain [Ital. porcellana], white, hard, permanent, nonporous pottery having translucence which is resonant when struck. Porcelain was first made by the Chinese to withstand the great heat generated...

Toul

(Encyclopedia)Toul to͞ol [key], town (1990 pop. 17,702), Meurthe-et-Moselle dept., NE France, on the Moselle River. It is largely an agricultural center but has clothing and glass industries. A Gallo-Roman city, i...

canonization

(Encyclopedia)canonization kănˌənĭzāˈshən [key], in the Roman Catholic Church, process by which a person is classified as a saint. It is now performed at Rome alone, although in the Middle Ages and earlier b...

fountain

(Encyclopedia)fountain, natural or artificially conveyed flow of water. In ancient Greece columnar shrines were built over springs and dedicated to deities or nymphs. In ancient Rome fountains fed by the great aque...

Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de

(Encyclopedia)Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de bĕrnärˈ lə bōvyāˈ də fôNtənĕl [key], 1657–1757, French writer; nephew of Corneille. His forte was the interpretation of science. His works include Dialogu...

Sabatier, Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Sabatier, Auguste ôgo͞ostˈ säbätyāˈ [key], 1839–1901, French Protestant theologian. He was professor (1867–72) of reformed dogmatics at Strasbourg, and from 1877 until his death he was a me...

Toy, Crawford Howell

(Encyclopedia)Toy, Crawford Howell, 1836–1919, American biblical scholar, b. Norfolk, Va., M.A. Univ. of Virginia, 1856. He also studied (1859–60) at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Greenville, S.C.,...

angel

(Encyclopedia)angel ānˈjəl [key], [Gr.,=messenger], bodiless, immortal spirit, limited in knowledge and power, accepted in the traditional belief of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and other religions. Angels a...