Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Baal-peor bāˈəl-pēˈôr [key], in the Bible, local divinity (the Baal) of Peor. According to the Book of Numbers, the Hebrews stayed at Shittim during the wilderness wanderings. While there, Hebre...

(Encyclopedia) Krauskopf, Joseph krousˈkŏpf [key], 1858–1923, American rabbi and humanitarian, b. Prussia. He went to the United States in 1872, enrolling (1875) in the first class of the Hebrew Union College, C...

(Encyclopedia) Sodom sŏdˈōmə [key], in the Bible, the principal of the Cities of the Plain (the others being Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar, which was spared) destroyed by fire from heaven because of their w...

(Encyclopedia) Bar Kokba, Simon, or Simon Bar Cochba kōkˈbə [key] [Heb.,=son of the star], d. a.d. 135, Hebrew hero and leader of a major revolt against Rome under Hadrian (132–135). He may have claimed to be a...

(Encyclopedia) Whitney, William Dwight, 1827–94, American Sanskrit scholar and lexicographer, b. Northampton, Mass. After studying in Germany, Whitney became professor of Sanskrit and of comparative philology at Y...

(Encyclopedia) Lithuanian lĭthˌo͞oāˈnēən [key], a language belonging to the Baltic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Baltic languages). The official language of Lithuania since 1918, Lit...

(Encyclopedia) Backus, John Warner, 1924–2007, American computer scientist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Columbia (M.A. 1950). Trained as a mathematician, he was hired (1950) by IBM Corp. as a computer programmer. From ...

(Encyclopedia) Quechua, Kechua kēchˈwä [key], linguistic family belonging to the Andean branch of the Andean-Equatorial stock of Native American languages (mainly in South America). Encompassing far more native ...

(Encyclopedia) Occitan prôväNsälˈ [key], member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages). The language label Provençal is often restricted in...

(Encyclopedia) Ido ēˈdō [key], short name of Esperandido, an artificial language that is a simplified version of Esperanto. See international language. ...