Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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 ...

Smith, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Joseph, 1805–44, American Mormon leader, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, b. Sharon, Vt. When he was a boy his family moved to Palmyra, N.Y., where he experienc...

Weill, Kurt

(Encyclopedia)Weill, Kurt ko͝ortˈ vīl [key], 1900–1950, German-American composer, b. Dessau, studied with Humperdinck and Busoni in Berlin. He first became known with the production of two short satirical surr...

Anthony Rodney, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Rodney, Walter, 1942–1980, Scholar and revolutionary, b. Georgetown, British Guiana. Ph.D. School of African and Oriental Studies, 1966. A Pan-African...

forestry

(Encyclopedia)forestry, the management of forest lands for wood, water, wildlife, forage, and recreation. Because the major economic importance of the forest lies in wood and wood products, forestry has been chiefl...

Harijans

(Encyclopedia)Harijans hârˈĭjănzˌ [key] [children of God], in India, individuals who are at the bottom of or outside the Hindu caste system. They were traditionally sweepers, washers of clothes, leatherworkers...

Gandhi, Sonia

(Encyclopedia)Gandhi, Sonia gänˈdē [key], 1946–, Indian politician, b. Turin, Italy, as Sonia Maino. She met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965 when they were students in Cambridge, England. They were married in 1968 and se...

Botticelli, Sandro

(Encyclopedia)Botticelli, Sandro älĕssänˈdrō dē märēäˈnō fēlēpāˈpē [key]. He was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, whose delicate coloring can be seen in such early works as the Adoration of the Kin...

Vico, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Vico, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēˈstä vēˈkō [key], 1668–1744, Italian philosopher and historian, also known as Giambattista Vico, b. Naples. In 1699, Vico became professor of rhetor...

vasectomy

(Encyclopedia)vasectomy, male sterilization by surgical excision of the vas deferens, the thin duct that carries sperm cells from the testicles to the prostate and the penis. Vasectomy is a popular method of birth ...