Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) semantics [Gr.,=significant] in general, the study of the relationship between words and meanings. The empirical study of word meanings and sentence meanings in existing languages is a branch of lingu...

(Encyclopedia) Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939–, Canadian novelist and poet. Atwood is a skilled and powerful storyteller whose novels, set mainly in the near future, sometimes make use of such popular genres as hi...

(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...

(Encyclopedia) nursery rhymes, verses, generally brief and usually anonymous, for children. The best-known examples are in English and date mostly from the 17th cent. A popular type of rhyme is used in “counting-o...

(Encyclopedia) Sherman, Roger, 1721–93, American political leader, b. Newton, Mass. Sherman helped to draft and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was long a member (1774–81, 1783–84) of the Continenta...

(Encyclopedia) Cornbury, Edward Hyde, Viscount kôrnˈbərē [key], 1661–1723, colonial governor of New York and New Jersey (1702–8). Appointed governor by William III, he became extremely unpopular, and his adm...

(Encyclopedia) Reed, Walter, 1851–1902, American army surgeon, b. Gloucester co., Va. In 1900 he was sent to Havana as head of an army commission to investigate an outbreak of yellow fever among American soldiers....

(Encyclopedia) Thomas, Martha Carey, 1857–1935, American educator and feminist, b. Baltimore, grad. Cornell, 1877, studied at Johns Hopkins and at Leipzig, the Sorbonne, and Zürich (Ph.D., 1882). In 1884 she was ...

(Encyclopedia) Giauque, William Francis jēōkˈ [key], 1895–1982, American chemist, b. Niagara Falls, Ont., Canada, grad. Univ. of California (B.S., 1920; Ph.D., 1922). A member of the faculty of the Univ. of Cal...

(Encyclopedia) Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860–1935, American feminist and reformer, b. Hartford, Conn.; great-granddaughter of Lyman Beecher. Prominent as a lecturer and writer on the labor movement and feminism,...