Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ankara

(Encyclopedia)Ankara ăngˈkərə, Turk. ängˈkärä [key], city (2021 pop. 4,587,558), capital of Turkey and Ankara prov., W central Turkey, at an elevation of c.3,000 ft (910 m). Tur...

Keller, Helen Adams

(Encyclopedia)Keller, Helen Adams, 1880–1968, American author and lecturer, blind and deaf from an undiagnosed illness at the age of two, b. Tuscumbia, Ala. In 1887 she was put under the charge of Anne Sullivan (...

hex

(Encyclopedia)hex, witchcraft or one who works it. The word is of German origin, and beliefs connected with it spread from Europe to the United States, especially to the Pennsylvania Dutch country. The hex can be w...

body-marking

(Encyclopedia)body-marking, painting, tattooing, or scarification (cutting or burning) of the body for ritual, esthetic, medicinal, magic, or religious purposes. Evidence from prehistoric burials, rock carvings, an...

Ali Pasha

(Encyclopedia)Ali Pasha älēˈ päshäˈ [key], 1744?–1822, Turkish pasha [military governor] of Yannina (now Ioánnina, Greece), a province of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He was called the Arslan [lion] of Yan...

scalping

(Encyclopedia)scalping, taking the scalp of an enemy. The custom, comparable to head-hunting, was formerly practiced in Europe and Asia (Herodotus describes its practice by the Scythians, for example), but it is ge...

Zonguldak

(Encyclopedia)Zonguldak zôngˌgo͝oldäkˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 120,300), capital of Zonguldak prov., N Turkey, a port on the Black Sea. It is the center of the major coal-producing region of Turkey. ...

bow and arrow

(Encyclopedia)bow and arrow, weapon consisting of two parts; the bow is made of a strip of flexible material, such as wood, with a cord linking the two ends of the strip to form a tension from which is propelled th...

Diaspora

(Encyclopedia)Diaspora dīăsˈpərə [key] [Gr.,=dispersion], term used today to denote the Jewish communities living outside the Holy Land. It was originally used to designate the dispersal of the Jews at the tim...

Uralic and Altaic languages

(Encyclopedia)Uralic and Altaic languages yo͝orălˈĭk, ăltāˈĭk [key], two groups of related languages thought by many scholars to form a single Ural-Altaic linguistic family. However, other authorities hold ...