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) Pius XII, 1876–1958, pope (1939–58), an Italian named Eugenio Pacelli, b. Rome; successor of Pius XI. Ordained a priest in 1899, he entered the Vatican's secretariat of state. He became (1912) und...

(Encyclopedia) capital, in economics, the elements of production from which an income is derived, usually defined with the exception of land and labor. As originally used in business, capital denoted interest-bearin...

(Encyclopedia) Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) lo͞oˈkən [key], a.d. 39–a.d. 65, Latin poet, b. Córdoba, Spain, nephew of the philosopher Seneca. At first in Nero's favor, he was later forced to kill himself whe...

(Encyclopedia) Libby Prison, in Richmond, Va., a Confederate prison for captured Union officers in the American Civil War. It was previously a tobacco warehouse. Living conditions were extremely bad; the food, somet...

(Encyclopedia) Tonson, Jacob tŏnˈsən [key], 1656?–1736, English publisher. He and his brother Richard purchased the publication rights to Milton's Paradise Lost, a transaction later claimed as the firm's most p...

(Encyclopedia) Elgar, Sir Edward William ĕlˈgär [key], 1857–1934, English composer. He received his training from his father, who was an organist, music seller, and amateur violinist. In 1885 he succeeded his f...

(Encyclopedia) Dooley, Thomas Anthony, 1927–61, American physician and author, b. St. Louis, Mo., grad. Univ. of Notre Dame, M.D. St. Louis Univ., 1953. In 1954, Dooley supervised the care and treatment of thousan...

(Encyclopedia) Rawls, John Bordley, 1921–2002, American philosopher and political theorist, b. Baltimore, grad. Princeton (A.B., 1943; Ph.D., 1950). He taught at Princeton (1950–52), Cornell (1953–59), and the...

(Encyclopedia) Muir, John, 1838–1914, American naturalist, b. Dunbar, Scotland, studied at the Univ. of Wisconsin. He came to the United States in 1849 and settled in California in 1868. In recognition of his effo...