Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Chickasaw chĭkˈəsô [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They occupied N Mississippi an...

(Encyclopedia) Strathclyde străthˌklīdˈ [key] [Gaelic,=Clyde valley], one of several early medieval Celtic or Welsh kingdoms in present-day S Scotland and N England. Strathclyde was in SW Scotland. To the east w...

(Encyclopedia) Kwakiutl kwäˈkēo͞oˌtəl [key], group of closely related Native North Americans who inhabit N Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland of British Columbia, Canada. They, together with the Nootka...

(Encyclopedia) Beyazid II, 1447–1513, Ottoman sultan (1481–1512), son and successor of Muhammad II to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). With the help of the corps of Janissaries he put down the revolt o...

(Encyclopedia) Gaul gôl [key], Lat. Gallia, ancient designation for the land S and W of the Rhine, W of the Alps, and N of the Pyrenees. The name was extended by the Romans to include Italy from Lucca and Rimini no...

(Encyclopedia) gospel music, American religious musical form that owes much of its origin to the Christian conversion of West Africans enslaved in the American South. Gospel music partly evolved from the songs slave...

(Encyclopedia) nectarine nĕkˌtərēnˈ [key], name for a tree (Prunus persica var. nectarina) of the family Rosaceae (rose family) and for its fruit, a smooth-skinned variety of the peach. The nectarine is a class...

(Encyclopedia) Versace, Gianni (Giovanni Maria Versace), 1946–97, Italian fashion designer, b. Reggio Calabria. A dressmaker's son, Versace worked for several Italian designers before opening (1978) his own Milan ...

(Encyclopedia) Burroughs, John, 1837–1921, American naturalist and author, b. Roxbury, N.Y.; son of a farmer. He was a journalist, a treasury clerk in Washington, and a bank examiner, before settling in 1874 on a ...

(Encyclopedia) Arte Povera [Ital.,=poor art], influential art movement that arose in Italy in the late 1960s. It was championed by the Italian art critic Germano Celant, who also named (1967) the movement. It was ch...