Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Achelous ăkˌəlōˈəs [key], in Greek mythology, river god; son of Oceanus and Tethys. He possessed the power to appear as a bull, a serpent, or a bullheaded man. Hercules defeated him and broke of...

(Encyclopedia) Nazarite năzˈərītˌ [key] [Heb. nazir=consecrated], in the Bible, a man dedicated to God. The Nazarite, after taking a special vow, abstained from intoxicating beverages, never cut his hair, and a...

(Encyclopedia) Manu'a mäno͞oˈä [key], island group and district (2010 pop. 1,143) of American Samoa comprising Ta'u, Ofu, and Olosega islands, with a total area of 22 sq mi (57 sq km). According to Samoan tradit...

(Encyclopedia) Map or Mapes, Walter, c.1140–c.1210, English author, b. Wales. A favorite of Henry II, he traveled with the king and became archdeacon of Oxford. The one work indubitably his, De nugis curialium [co...

(Encyclopedia) Brigham, Albert Perry, 1855–1932, American geographer, b. Perry, N.Y., grad. Colgate Univ., 1879, M. A. Harvard, 1892. After nine years in the Baptist ministry (1882–91) he became professor of geo...

(Encyclopedia) Steele, Wilbur Daniel, 1886–1970, American author, b. Greensboro, N.C., grad. Univ. of Denver, 1907. He studied art in Boston, Paris, and New York City. He was particularly noted for his short stori...

(Encyclopedia) Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell, 7th earl of, 1797–1868, British general. In the Crimean War he led the disastrous cavalry charge at Balaklava (1854) that Tennyson immortalized in The Charge of the...

(Encyclopedia) Charles of Blois (Charles of Châtillon) blwä, shätēyôNˈ [key], c.1319–1364, duke of Brittany; nephew of Philip VI of France. He was one of the chief participants in the War of the Breton Succe...

(Encyclopedia) Ferguson, city (2020 pop. 20,359), St. Louis co., E Mo., a suburb of St. Louis; inc. 1894. It is primarily residential. In Aug. 2014, the shooting of an...

(Encyclopedia) Frank, Bruno bro͞oˈnō frängk [key], 1887–1945, German novelist and dramatist. His popular works include the historical novels The Days of the King (1924, tr. 1927), Trenck (1926, tr. 1928), and ...