Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pearl, The, one of four Middle English alliterative poems, all contained in a manuscript of c.1400, composed in the West Midland dialect, almost certainly by the same anonymous author, who flourished ...

(Encyclopedia) Nore, the, sandbank in the Thames estuary, SE England, 3 mi (4.8 km) E of Sheerness. At the east end is Nore Lightship. The name is also applied to part of the Thames estuary, a famous anchorage. A mu...

(Encyclopedia) Damavand or Demavend both: dĕmˈəvĕnd [key], volcanic cone, 18,606 ft (5,671 m) high, in the Elburz range, N Iran. A permanently snow-covered volcano of recent geologic origin, it emits gases and s...

(Encyclopedia) Thebes thēbz [key], city of ancient Egypt. Luxor and Karnak now occupy parts of its site. The city developed at a very early date from a number of small villages, particularly one around modern Luxor...

(Encyclopedia)  Supremes, The, American vocal group, 1962-77. The Supremes were formed in Detroit, Mi., and were originally known as the Primettes—a female counterp...

(Encyclopedia) waxbill, common name for small, brightly colored weaver finches of the Estrildini tribe of the family Estrildidae. Most are African with the exception of two S Asian species of avadavats, and one Aust...

(Encyclopedia) flywheel, heavy metal wheel attached to a drive shaft, having most of its weight concentrated at the circumference. Such a wheel resists changes in speed and helps steady the rotation of the shaft whe...

(Encyclopedia) Bowery, the bouˈərē, –ˈrē [key] [Dutch Bouwerie=farm], section of lower Manhattan, New York City. The Bowery, the street that gives the area its name, was once a road to the farm of New Amsterd...

(Encyclopedia) Eight, the, group of American artists in New York City, formed in 1908 to exhibit paintings. They were men of widely different tendencies, held together mainly by their common opposition to academism....

(Encyclopedia) Owl and the Nightingale, The, Middle English poem written probably by Nicholas de Guildford of Dorsetshire about the beginning of the 13th cent. Written in 2,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets, it des...