Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) europium yo͝orōˈpēəm [key] [from Europe], metallic chemical element; symbol Eu; at. no. 63; at. wt. 151.964; m.p. about 820℃; b.p. about 1,600℃; sp. gr. 5.25 at 25℃; valence +2 or +3. Europ...

(Encyclopedia) Collins, Wilkie (William Wilkie Collins), 1824–89, English novelist. Although trained as a lawyer, he spent most of his life writing. He produced some 30 novels, the best known of which are two myst...

(Encyclopedia) commedia dell'arte kōm-māˈdēä dĕl-lärˈtā [key], popular form of comedy employing improvised dialogue and masked characters that flourished in Italy from the 16th to the 18th cent. The impac...

(Encyclopedia) Prohibition party, in U.S. history, minor political party formed (1869) for the legislative prohibition of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The temperance movement was...

(Encyclopedia) Rabelais, François răbˈəlā, Fr. fräNswäˈ räblāˈ [key], c.1490–1553, French writer and physician, one of the great comic geniuses in world literature. His father, a lawyer, owned several e...

(Encyclopedia) Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples Lewis), 1898–1963, English author, b. Belfast, Ireland. A fellow and tutor of English at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, C. S. Lewis was noted equally for hi...

(Encyclopedia) Hopper, DeWolf, 1858–1935, American singer and comedian, b. New York City. He made his debut in 1879 and thereafter became popular in musical comedy and light opera. He is best remembered for his re...

(Encyclopedia) Anthropocene Epoch, an unofficial term used by scientists to describe a period of time—up to the present—in which humanity has impacted the planet on a global scale. The phrase was fir...

(Encyclopedia) Office of Strategic Services (OSS), U.S. agency created (1942) during World War II under the jurisdiction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the purpose of obtaining information about enemy nations and ...

(Encyclopedia) Cambridge Platonists, group of English philosophers, centered at Cambridge in the latter half of the 17th cent. In reaction to the mechanical philosophy of Thomas Hobbes this school revived certain Pl...