Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lang, Fritz läng [key], 1890–1976, German-American film director, b. Vienna. His silent and early sound films, notably the iconic masterpiece Metropolis (1926) with its dystopian vision of the futu...

(Encyclopedia) Picts, ancient inhabitants of central and N Scotland, of uncertain origin. First mentioned (a.d. 297) by the Roman writer Eumenius as northern invaders of Roman Britain, they were probably descendants...

(Encyclopedia) Delibes, Miguel mēgĕlˈ dālēˈbās [key], 1920–2010, Spanish novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, b. Valladolid. Prolific and widely translated, he is known for his descriptions of prov...

(Encyclopedia) Booth, William, 1829–1912, English religious leader, founder and first general of the Salvation Army, b. Nottingham. Originally a local preacher for the Wesleyan Methodists, he went (1849) to London...

(Encyclopedia) Carman, Harry James, 1884–1964, American historian and educator, b. Greenfield, Saratoga co., N.Y. He was a elementary-school teacher and a high-school principal before becoming an instructor and th...

(Encyclopedia) hydrofoil, flat or curved finlike device, attached by struts to the hull of a watercraft, that lifts the moving watercraft above the water's surface. The term is often extended to include the vessel i...

(Encyclopedia) inn, in Great Britain, any hotel, public house, tavern, or coffeehouse where lodging is provided. In American usage, the inn is generally a small rural lodging house for transients. Among the earliest...

(Encyclopedia) fiat money fīˈət, fīˈăt [key], inconvertible money that is made legal tender by the decree, or fiat, of the government but that is not covered by a specie reserve. It is commonly understood to b...

(Encyclopedia) vigilantes vĭjĭlănˈtēz [key], members of a vigilance committee. Such committees were formed in U.S. frontier communities to enforce law and order before a regularly constituted government could b...

(Encyclopedia) Roman de la Rose, Le lə rōmäNˈ də lä rōz [key], French poem of 22,000 lines in eight-syllable couplets. It is in two parts. The first (4,058 lines) was written (c.1237) by Guillaume de Lorris a...