Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Purim

(Encyclopedia)Purim po͞oˈrĭm [key] [Heb.,=lots], Jewish festival celebrated on the 14th of Adar, the twelfth month in the Jewish calendar (Feb.–March). During leap years it is celebrated in Adar II. According ...

universal time

(Encyclopedia)universal time (UT), the international time standard common to every place in the world, it nominally reflects the mean solar time along the earth's prime meridian (renumbered to equate to civil time)...

Banning

(Encyclopedia)Banning, resort city (2020 pop. 31,193), Riverside co., S Calif., in a fruit-growing area between Mt. San Jacinto and Mt. San Gorgonio; inc. 1913. Consu...

Doddridge, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Doddridge, Philip, 1702–51, English nonconformist minister and noted hymn writer. His Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745) has been much translated. His many hymns include “Awake, My S...

Niles, Hezekiah

(Encyclopedia)Niles, Hezekiah, 1777–1839, American journalist, b. Jefferis's Ford, Pa. Editor (1805–11) of the Baltimore Evening Post and founder (1811) of Niles' Weekly Register, he was one of the most influen...

crescent

(Encyclopedia)crescent, emblematic representation of the quarter moon. The crescent and star, ancient Byzantine symbols that became the emblems of Constantinople, were also assumed as the standard of the Ottoman Tu...

Daberath

(Encyclopedia)Daberath dăbˈērăth [key], in the Bible, town, N ancient Palestine, probably the present-day Dabburiya, Israel, on the slope of Tabor E of Nazareth. ...

Folgore da San Geminiano

(Encyclopedia)Folgore da San Geminiano fôlˈgōrā dä sän jāmēnyäˈnō [key], fl. 1308–16, Italian poet. Mesi, his cycle of sonnets on the seasons and their appropriate pleasures, is interspersed with zestf...

patron

(Encyclopedia)patron [Lat.,=like a father], one who lends influential support to some person, cause, art or institution. Patronage existed in various ancient cultures but was primarily a Roman institution. In Roman...

Burton, Sir Richard Francis

(Encyclopedia)Burton, Sir Richard Francis, 1821–90, English explorer, writer, and linguist. He joined (1842) the service of the East India Company and, while stationed in India, acquired a thorough knowledge of t...
 

Browse by Subject