Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

serf

(Encyclopedia)serf, under feudalism, peasant laborer who can be generally characterized as hereditarily attached to the manor in a state of semibondage, performing the servile duties of the lord (see also manorial ...

commercial law

(Encyclopedia)commercial law, the laws that govern business transactions, except those relating to the maritime transportation of goods (see maritime law). Commercial law developed as a distinct body of jurispruden...

witchcraft

(Encyclopedia)witchcraft, a form of sorcery, or the magical manipulation of nature for self-aggrandizement, or for the benefit or harm of a client. This manipulation often involves the use of spirit-helpers, or fam...

Saint Vincent, Gulf

(Encyclopedia)Saint Vincent, Gulf, inlet of the Indian Ocean, 90 mi (145 km) long and 45 mi (72 km) wide, SE South Australia state, Australia. Port Adelaide is on the eastern shore. ...

Scapa Flow

(Encyclopedia)Scapa Flow skăpˈə [key], area of water, 15 mi (24 km) long and 8 mi (12.9 km) wide, in the Orkney Islands, off N Scotland. It is bounded by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsa...

Salisbury, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Salisbury. 1 City (1990 pop. 20,592), seat of Wicomico co., Md., on the Eastern Shore, at the head of the Wicomico River; settled 1732, inc. 1872. Poultry raising and processing is the major industry....

Great Dividing Range

(Encyclopedia)Great Dividing Range, crest line of the Eastern Highlands of Australia. For the most part it separates rivers draining into the Pacific Ocean from those flowing into the Indian Ocean and the Arafura S...

Bates College

(Encyclopedia)Bates College, at Lewiston, Maine; coeducational; founded 1855 as Maine State Seminary, chartered as a college 1864. It was the first Eastern college to admit women students. The Edmund S. Muskie Arch...

Eustachian tube

(Encyclopedia)Eustachian tube yo͞ostāˈshən [key] [for Bartolomeo Eustachi], a hollow structure of bone and cartilage extending from the middle ear to the rear of the throat, or pharynx, technically known as the...

Browse by Subject