Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) leather, skin or hide of animals, cured by tanning to prevent decay and to impart flexibility and toughness. Prehistoric and primitive peoples preserved pelts with grease and smoke and used them chief...

(Encyclopedia) Wends or Sorbs, Slavic people (numbering about 60,000) of Brandenburg and Saxony, E Germany, in Lusatia. They speak Lusatian (also known as Sorbic or Wendish), a West Slavic language with two main dia...

(Encyclopedia) commercial revolution, in European history, a fundamental change in the quantity and scope of commerce. In the later Middle Ages steady economic expansion had seen the rise of towns and the advent of ...

(Encyclopedia) citrus fruits, widely used edible fruits of plants belonging to Citrus and related genera of the family Rutaceae (orange family). Included are the tangerine, citrange, tangelo, orange, pomelo, grapefr...

(Encyclopedia) hose, covering for the legs and feet. In the Middle Ages the leg was bound from the ankle to the knee with hides or cloth and then cross-gartered with thongs or strips of cloth; later a loose trouser,...

(Encyclopedia) cosmetics, preparations externally applied to change or enhance the beauty of skin, hair, nails, lips, and eyes. The use of body paint for ornamental and religious purposes has been common among primi...

(Encyclopedia) kitchen, separate room or other space set aside for the cooking or preparation of meals. When cooking first moved indoors, it was performed, with other domestic labors, in the common room, where the f...

(Encyclopedia) Basilicata bäzēlēkäˈtä [key], region, 3,856 sq mi (9,987 sq km), S Italy, bordering on the ...

(Encyclopedia) Utrecht, city (1994 pop. 234,106), capital of Utrecht prov., central Netherlands, on a branch of the Lower Rhine (Neder Rijn) River. It is a transportation, financial, and industrial center. Manufactu...

(Encyclopedia) zoology, branch of biology concerned with the study of animal life. From earliest times animals have been vitally important to man; cave art demonstrates the practical and mystical significance animal...