Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gioia, Melchiorre

(Encyclopedia)Gioia or Gioja, Melchiorre both: mālkyôrˈrā jōˈyä [key], 1767–1829, Italian economist and political theorist. An early advocate of the unification of Italy, he was several times imprisoned, o...

Kirkcaldy

(Encyclopedia)Kirkcaldy kərkôˈdē, –kôlˈ– [key], town (1991 pop. 46,356) and district, Fife, E Scotland, on the Firth of Forth. Industries textiles and furniture manufacture and light electrical engineerin...

Thornhill, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Thornhill, Sir James, 1676–1734, English decorative artist. George I made him court painter and later knighted him. He executed decorations in Hampton Court and the cupola of St. Paul's, London; the...

Gimbel

(Encyclopedia)Gimbel gĭmˈbəl [key], family of American merchants and philanthropists. Adam Gimbel, 1815–96, b. Bavaria, emigrated (1835) to the United States and traveled up and down the Mississippi River pedd...

Girl Scouts

(Encyclopedia)Girl Scouts, recreational and service organization founded (1912) in Savannah, Ga., by Juliette Gordon Low. It was originally modeled after the Boy Scouts (see Scouts) and Girl Guides, organizations c...

Bearden, Romare

(Encyclopedia)Bearden, Romare rōmâr bĭrˈdən [key], 1911–88, American painter and collagist, b. Charlotte, N.C. Bearden grew up in Harlem and studied at New York Univ. and the Art Students League, New York Ci...

Ruth

(Encyclopedia)Ruth, book of the Bible. It tells a story, set in the days of the judges, of the fidelity of a Moabite widow (Ruth) to her widowed mother-in-law (Naomi). After the death of her husband in Moab, Ruth r...

Cozzens, James Gould

(Encyclopedia)Cozzens, James Gould kŭzˈənz [key], 1903–78, American novelist, b. Chicago. His novels usually concern upper-middle-class professional men who are faced with moral dilemmas that require compromis...

Lilith

(Encyclopedia)Lilith lĭlˈĭth [key], female demon of Jewish mythology, originally probably the Assyrian storm demon Lilitu. In Talmudic tradition many evil attributes were given to this supposedly nocturnal creat...

astronaut

(Encyclopedia)astronaut, crew member on a U.S. manned spaceflight mission; the Soviet term is cosmonaut. Candidates for manned spaceflight are carefully screened to meet the highest physical and mental standards, a...