Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Taylor, Edward Thompson, 1793–1871, American Methodist missionary preacher among seamen, known as Father Taylor, b. Richmond, Va. He was licensed in 1814 to preach and ordained in 1819 in the Method...

(Encyclopedia) Garcilaso de la Vega gärsēläˈsō dā lä vāˈgä [key], 1539–1616, Peruvian historian; son of the Spanish conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and an Incan princess and therefore called...

(Encyclopedia) Angell, James Burrill jāmz bûrˈəl ānˈjəl [key], 1829–1916, American educator, editor, and diplomat, b. Scituate, R.I., grad. Brown, 1849, and studied abroad. He became professor of modern lan...

(Encyclopedia) Frederick III or Frederick the Wise, 1463–1525, elector of Saxony (1486–1525). At Wittenberg he founded (1502) the university where Martin Luther and Melanchthon taught. At a crucial period for th...

(Encyclopedia) evergreen, term commonly used as synonymous with conifer and applied also to all those broad-leaved plants that bear green leaves throughout the year. Of the latter, most are plants of the tropics, su...

(Encyclopedia) Dmitri dĭmēˈtrēəs [key], 1582–91, czarevich, son of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) of Russia. His brother, Feodor I, succeeded Ivan in 1584, but Boris Godunov actually ruled Russia for the period ...

(Encyclopedia) dream, mental activity associated with the rapid-eye-movement (REM) period of sleep. It is commonly made up of a number of visual images, scenes or thoughts expressed in terms of seeing rather than in...

(Encyclopedia) inclosure or enclosure, in British history, the process of inclosing (with fences, ditches, hedges, or other barriers) land formerly subject to common rights. Such land included fields cultivated by t...

(Encyclopedia) fetus, term used to describe the unborn offspring in the uterus of vertebrate animals after the embryonic stage (see embryo). In humans, the fetal stage begins seven to eight weeks after fertilization...

(Encyclopedia) synagogue sĭnˈəgŏg [key] [Gr.,=assembly], in Judaism, a place of assembly for worship, education, and communal affairs. The origins of the institution are unclear. One tradition dates it to the Ba...