Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) executors and administrators. An executor is the person designated in the will of a deceased person to carry out the provisions of the will. An administrator is the person appointed by a probate court...

(Encyclopedia) Walton and Weybridge wāˈbrĭj [key], city (19981 pop. 50,031), Surrey, SE England. It is largely a residential suburb of London. There is market gardening, an aircraft works, and other industries. ...

(Encyclopedia) Troilus and Cressida troiˈləs, krĕsˈĭdə [key], a medieval romance distantly related to characters in Greek legend. Troilus, a Trojan prince (son of Priam and Hecuba), fell in love with Cressida ...

(Encyclopedia) oxidation and reduction, complementary chemical reactions characterized by the loss or gain, respectively, of one or more electrons by an atom or molecule. Originally the term oxidation was used to re...

(Encyclopedia) Motherwell and Wishaw wĭshˈô [key], town (1991 pop. 30,616), North Lanarkshire, S central Scotland. The two parts of the town were united in 1920. Formerly a center of heavy industry (coal and stee...

(Encyclopedia) Jachin and Boaz bōˈăz [key], in the Bible, two pillars in front of Solomon's Temple, probably symbolic of God's presence. ...

(Encyclopedia) husband and wife, the legal aspects of the married state (for the sociological aspects, see marriage). The former Anglo-American law of marriage was chiefly characterized by the view that husband an...

(Encyclopedia) parent and child, legal relationship, created by biological (birth) relationship or by adoption, that confers certain rights and duties on parent and child; in some states the courts have given the no...

(Encyclopedia) Conkling, Roscoe, 1829–88, American politician, b. Albany, N.Y. On his admission to the bar in 1850, he was immediately appointed district attorney of Albany. The son of Alfred Conkling, Congressman...

(Encyclopedia) Armagnacs and Burgundians, opposing factions that fought to control France in the early 15th cent. The rivalry for power between Louis d'Orléans, brother of the recurrently insane King Charles VI, an...