Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

God Save the King

(Encyclopedia)God Save the King (or Queen), the English national anthem. The words and music are both of doubtful origin. The air, possibly derived from a folk tune, has been attributed to Henry Carey (whose claim ...

Griboyedov, Aleksandr Sergeyevich

(Encyclopedia)Griboyedov, Aleksandr Sergeyevich əlyĭksänˈdər sĭrgāˈəvĭch grēbəyĕˈdəf [key], 1795–1829, Russian playwright and diplomat. His fame rests upon his finest play, Wit Works Woe (1825; tr....

Hogg, James Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Hogg, James Stephen, 1851–1906, governor of Texas (1891–95), b. Cherokee co., Tex. He was admitted (1875) to the Texas bar, and was county attorney (1879–81), district attorney (1881–85), and ...

Itasca, Lake

(Encyclopedia)Itasca, Lake ītăsˈkə [key], shallow lake, 2 sq mi (5.2 sq km), in a pine-wooded swampy region, NW Minn. Henry R. Schoolcraft identified the lake (1832) as the source of the Mississippi; stepping s...

maenads

(Encyclopedia)maenads mēˈnădz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, female devotees of Dionysus. They roamed mountains and forests, adorned with ivy and skins of animals, waving the thyrsus. When the...

Mesilla

(Encyclopedia)Mesilla māsēˈyä [key], town (1990 pop. 1,975), SW N.Mex., on the Rio Grande and near Las Cruces; settled c.1850. The whole Mesilla Valley became part of the United States under the Gadsden Purchas...

Chambers, William

(Encyclopedia)Chambers, William, 1800–1883, and Robert Chambers, 1802–71, Scottish authors and publishers. Their firm of W. and R. Chambers is best known for Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which William started ...

Dean, Jerome Herman

(Encyclopedia)Dean, Jerome Herman (Dizzy Dean), 1911–74, American baseball player, b. Lucas, Ark. His name was originally Jay Hanna Dean. A colorful right-handed pitcher, Dean performed brilliantly (1930–37) fo...

alpha particle

(Encyclopedia)alpha particle, one of the three types of radiation resulting from natural radioactivity. Alpha radiation (or alpha rays) was distinguished and named by E. R. Rutherford in 1909, who found by measurin...

Duncan, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Duncan, Robert, 1919–88, American poet, b. Oakland, Calif. He was a leading poet of the San Francisco renaissance during the late 1940s. His lyric style contains private allusions, gaps in syntax, a...
 

Browse by Subject