Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) dingo dĭngˈgō [key], wild dog (Canis lupus dingo) of Australia, believed to have been introduced thousands of years ago from SE Asia by the aboriginal settlers of that continent; currently regarded...

(Encyclopedia) Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre or Alexandre dümäˈ, älĕksäNˈ– [key] 1762–1806, French revolutionary general, b. Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) as Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, father of Ale...

(Encyclopedia) damp, in mining, any mixture of gases in an underground mine, especially oxygen-deficient or noxious gases. The term damp probably is derived from the German dampf, meaning fog or vapor. Several disti...

(Encyclopedia) Chihuly, Dale Patrick chĭho͞oˈlē [key] 1941–, American glass artist, b. Tacoma, Wash.; grad. Univ. of Washington, Seattle (B.A., 1965), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD; M.F.A., 1967), Univ. ...

(Encyclopedia) citron sĭtˈrən [key], name for a tree (Citrus medica) of the family Rutaceae (orange family), and for its fruit, the earliest of the citrus fruits to be introduced to Europe from Asia. The small ev...

(Encyclopedia) inlaying, process of ornamenting a surface by setting into it material of different color or substance, usually in such a manner as to preserve a continuous plane. Inlay is employed in connection with...

(Encyclopedia) ferret, name for a domesticated polecat, Mustela putorius, common in the Old World. It has been used for centuries to hunt rats, mice, and rabbits. Domestic ferrets are found in many color types inclu...

(Encyclopedia) Klein, Yves, 1928–62, French painter. With critic Pierre Restany, he was a leader of the avant-garde movement called Nouveau Réalisme (founded 1960). In the 1950s Klein began to work in monochromes...

(Encyclopedia) shrub, any woody, perennial, bushy plant that branches into several stems or trunks at the base and is smaller than a tree. Shrubs are an important feature of permanent landscape planting, being used ...

(Encyclopedia) Bazille, Frédéric, 1841–70, early French impressionist painter. He abandoned medical school to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he met and became friends with Monet, Renoir, and oth...