Columbia Encyclopedia

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Coffin, Sir Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Coffin, Sir Isaac, 1759–1839, British naval officer, b. Boston, Mass. From a loyalist family, he fought for the British in the American Revolution and in the French Revolutionary Wars; at the end of...

Isidorus of Miletus

(Encyclopedia)Isidorus of Miletus ĭzĭdôrˈəs, mīlēˈtəs [key], name of two architects of the time of Justinian. The elder was associated with Anthemius of Tralles in rebuilding Hagia Sophia, a.d. 532–37; t...

Issachar

(Encyclopedia)Issachar ĭsˈəkər [key], in the patriarchal narratives of the Bible, son of Jacob and Leah and the ancestor of one of the 12 tribes. The territory allotted to the tribe of Issachar at the time of t...

Hopkins, Lemuel

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Lemuel, 1750–1801, American poet and physician, b. Waterbury, Conn. One of the Connecticut Wits, he collaborated with several others in writing popular political satires. He was one of the ...

Montgomerie, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Montgomerie, Alexander məntgŭmˈərē [key], c.1556–c.1610, Scottish poet. His principal poem, The Cherry and the Sloe (1597), is a pedestrian and ambiguous allegory that enjoyed considerable popu...

Lalo, Édouard Victor Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Lalo, Édouard Victor Antoine ādwärˈ vēktôrˈ äNtwänˈ lälōˈ [key], 1823–92, French composer. Lalo's opera, Le Roi d'Ys (1888), Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra (1875), and bal...

Rodoreda, Mercè

(Encyclopedia)Rodoreda, Mercè, 1909–83, Spanish novelist writing in Catalan. Exiled for several decades in Paris and Geneva following the Spanish Civil War, Rodoreda focuses her novel Time of the Doves (1962, tr...

Zoba

(Encyclopedia)Zoba or Zobah both: zōˈbə [key], in the Bible, Aramaean state, NE of ancient Palestine, at the time of Saul, David, and Solomon. It waged war on Israel. An alternate form is is Hamath-zobah. Aramzo...

prickly heat

(Encyclopedia)prickly heat (miliaria), inflammatory skin eruption due to obstruction of the sweat glands by keratin, the substance that forms the horny cells of the epidermis. It consists of blisterlike elevations ...

promissory note

(Encyclopedia)promissory note, unconditional written promise to pay a certain sum of money at a definite time to bearer or to a specified person on his order. Promissory notes are generally used as evidence of debt...