Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dare, Virginia

(Encyclopedia)Dare, Virginia, b. 1587, first white child of English parents to be born in America. She was the daughter of Ananias and Elenor Dare, members of Sir Walter Raleigh's ill-fated colony that settled Roan...

Polish language

(Encyclopedia)Polish language, member of the West Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). Polish is spoken as a first language by about 38 million peopl...

illiteracy

(Encyclopedia)illiteracy, inability to meet a certain minimum criterion of reading and writing skill. Throughout most of history most people have been illiterate. In feudal society, for example, the ability to re...

Johnson, Emily Pauline

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Emily Pauline, 1862–1913, Canadian poet, b. near Brantford, Ont.; daughter of an indigenous chief and his English wife. Although she had little formal training, Johnson's early poems praisi...

Hiawatha

(Encyclopedia)Hiawatha hīˈəwäˈthə [key], fl. c.1550, legendary chief of the Onondaga of North America. He is credited with founding the Iroquois Confederacy. He is the hero of the well-known poem by Henry Wad...

calycanthus

(Encyclopedia)calycanthus kălˌĭkănˈthəs [key], any plant of the genus Calycanthus, aromatic shrubs of N North America, Asia, and Australia. An American type, the Carolina allspice, is cultivated for the aroma...

Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th earl of, 1831–90, British statesman. As colonial secretary (1866–67) under the earl of Derby he introduced the British North America Act, which made C...

Eocene epoch

(Encyclopedia)Eocene epoch ēˈəsēnˌ [key], second epoch of the Tertiary period in the Cenozoic era of geologic time, from approximately 54.9 to 38 million years ago. The Eocene in North America was marked by th...

Igorot

(Encyclopedia)Igorot ĭgərōtˈ, ēgə– [key], general name for the people of N central Luzon island, the Philippines. The Igorot form two subgroups: the largest group lives in the south, central, and western ar...

lotus-eaters

(Encyclopedia)lotus-eaters or Lotophagi lətŏfˈəjīˌ [key], a fabulous people who occupied the north coast of Africa and lived on the lotus, which brought forgetfulness and happy indolence. They appear in the O...