Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Festus (Sextus Pompeius Festus), fl. some time between a.d. 100 and 400, Roman lexicographer; his surviving work, On the Meaning of Words, is an abridgment of the lost glossary of Marcus Verrius Flacc...

(Encyclopedia) Jael jāl [key], in the Bible, heroine of the time of Deborah. She murdered Sisera, her guest. ...

(Encyclopedia) Benda, Julien zhülyăNˈ bäNdäˈ [key], 1867–1956, French novelist and critic. A humanist and rationalist, he led a sustained attack against the romantic philosophy of his time, especially that o...

(Encyclopedia) Tulare Lake, intermittent lake, in the Central Valley, central Calif. The Kings, Kaweah, and Kern rivers at one time flowed into the lake, but their waters have been diverted for irrigation. The land ...

(Encyclopedia) William or Frederick William, 1882–1951, crown prince of Germany, son of William II. In World War I he commanded (1914) an army on the Western Front and was nominal commander in the German attack (1...

(Encyclopedia) Enfield, town (2020 pop. 42,141), Hartford co., N Conn., on the Connecticut River at the Mass. line; settled c.1680. The town has varied manufacturing, ...

(Encyclopedia) Gardner, Erle Stanley, 1889–1970, American detective-story writer, b. Malden, Mass. He served as a trial lawyer for many years. About 1921 he began writing detective stories for magazines; after tha...

(Encyclopedia) Fürst, Julius yo͞oˈlyo͝os fürst [key], 1805–73, German Orientalist. Fürst was a distinguished scholar of Semitic languages and literature of his time. During his years as chairman of the depar...

(Encyclopedia) Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954–, English novelist, b. Nagasaki. His family left Japan in 1960 and immigrated to England, where he attended the universities of Kent (B.A., 1978) and East Anglia (M.A., 1980). ...

(Encyclopedia) hippopotamus, herbivorous, river-living mammal of tropical Africa. The large hippopotamus, Hippopotamus amphibius, has a short-legged, broad body with a tough gray or brown hide. The male stands about...