A-Z Browse

Previous Next

Corelli, Franco (Italian singer)
Italian tenor (b. April 8, 1921, Ancona, Italy—d. Oct. 29, 2003, Milan, Italy), thrilled opera audiences throughout the world with his passion, power, and charisma, particularly in heroic roles. Corelli made his opera debut in 1951 at Spoleto as Don José in Carmen, first sang at Milan’s La Scala i...
Corelli, Marie (British author)
best-selling English author of more than 20 romantic melodramatic novels....
Coren, Alan (British humorist)
June 27, 1938 Barnet, Herfordshire, Eng.Oct. 18, 2007 London, Eng.British humorist who was admired for his quick and unflagging wit as the editor (1978–87) of the satiric periodical Punch, as a longtime contributor (1988–2007) of humorous columns to ...
Corentyne River (river, South America)
river in northern South America, rising in the Akarai Mountains and flowing generally northward for 450 miles (700 km) to the Atlantic Ocean near ...
coreodramma (dance)
Italian dancer and choreographer whose innovations included the synthesis of dance and pantomime, which he called “coreodramma,” in highly dramatic ballets based on historical and mythological themes and Shakespearean plays....
Coreopsis (plant)
any ornamental summer-blooming plant of the genus Coreopsis of the family Asteraceae, consisting of about 115 species of annual and perennial herbs native to North America. Members of the genus have flower heads with yellow ...
Coreopsis rosea (plant)
Tickseed leaves often are lobed and usually are opposite each other on the stem. Golden coreopsis (C. tinctoria) is a popular garden plant, and swamp tickseed (C. rosea) is grown in wildflower gardens....
Coreopsis tinctoria (plant)
Tickseed leaves often are lobed and usually are opposite each other on the stem. Golden coreopsis (C. tinctoria) is a popular garden plant, and swamp tickseed (C. rosea) is grown in wildflower gardens....
Coresi, Deacon (Romanian author)
The first book printed in Walachia in 1508 was a Slavonic liturgical book. A certain Deacon Coresi printed Romanian translations of the Acts of the Apostles (1563). Other publications of his that survive are the Tîlcul evangheliilor şi molitvenic (“Sermons and Book of Prayers”) and Evanghelia cu......
Corey, Elias James (American chemist)
American chemist, director of a research group that developed syntheses of scores of complicated organic molecules and winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his original contributions to the theory and methods of organic synthesis....
Corey, Jeff (American actor)
Rock Hudson (Antiochus [“Tony”] Wilson)Salome Jens (Nora Marcus)John Randolph (Arthur Hamilton)Will Geer (Old Man)Jeff Corey (Mr. Ruby)...
Corey, Robert B. (American chemist)
...its determination of the number of amino acids per turn of the helix. During this same period he became interested in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and early in 1953 he and protein crystallographer Robert Corey published their version of DNA’s structure, three strands twisted around each other in ropelike fashion. Shortly thereafter James Watson and Francis Crick published DNA’s co...
Corfe Castle (castle, Dorset, England, United Kingdom)
parish and castle, Purbeck district, county of Dorset, England. The medieval castle, commanding a gap in the Purbeck chalk ridge, is now an imposing ruin. It was built for King William I (reigned 1066–87) and was royal property until Queen Elizabeth I sold it in 1572. The original structure was a Norman tower-and-keep design, extended later along the li...
Corfu (island, Greece)
island in the Ionian Sea (Modern Greek: Ióvio Pélagos), with adjacent small islands making up the nomós (department) of Kérkyra (also called Corfu), Greece. Lying just off the coast of Epirus (Ípeiros), it is about 36 miles (58 km) long, while its greatest breadth is about 17 miles (...
Corfu Channel (law case)
...the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” This has led to arguments—as in the Corfu Channel case between Britain and Albania in 1949 and in the attack by Israeli aircraft against an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981—that although there had been a use of force in certain......
Corfu Declaration (Balkan history)
(July 20, 1917), statement issued during World War I calling for the establishment of a unified Yugoslav state (the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) after the war. It was signed by Premier Nikola Pašić of the Serbian government-in-exile (located in Corfu) and by dele...
Corfu incident (Italian-Greek history [1923])
(1923) brief occupation of the Greek island of Corfu by Italian forces. In August 1923 Italians forming part of an international boundary delegation were murdered on Greek soil, leading Benito Mussolini to order a naval bombardment of Corfu. After the Greeks appealed to the League of Nations, the Italians were ordered to evacuate but Greece ...
Corgan, Billy (American musician)
...to overshadow her music. Nobody’s Daughter was released in 2010 as a Hole album, although it was essentially a Love solo effort. In spite of songwriting assistance from Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, the album was met with a poor critical reception....
corgi, Welsh (dog)
either of two breeds of working dogs developed to handle cattle. They are similar in appearance but are of different origins. Their resemblance results from crosses between the two breeds....
Cori (people)
region on the Baltic seacoast, located south of the Western Dvina River and named after its inhabitants, the Latvian tribe of Curonians (Kurs, Cori, Cours; Latvian: Kursi). The duchy of Courland, formed in 1561, included this area as well as Semigallia (Zemgale), a region located east of Courland proper....
Cori (Italy)
town, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy, on the lower slopes of the Lepini Mountains, 28 miles (45 km) southeast of Rome. Traditionally of Latin foundation, it played an active part in Rome’s early wars with the Volsci and Aurunci peoples, but the site lost much of its importance when bypassed by the Appian Wa...
Cori, Carl (American biochemist)
Krebs received a medical degree from Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.) in 1943 and did research there from 1946 to 1948 under the biochemists Carl and Gerty Cori. In 1948 he joined the faculty of biochemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, and became a full professor in 1957. He moved in 1968 to the University of California at Davis and returned to the University of Washington......
Cori, Carl; and Cori, Gerty (American biochemists)
American biochemists, husband-and-wife team whose discovery of a phosphate-containing form of the simple sugar glucose, and its universal importance to carbohydrate metabolism, led to an understanding of hormonal influence on the interconversion of sugars and starches in the animal organism. Their discover...
Cori, Carl Ferdinand (American biochemist)
Krebs received a medical degree from Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.) in 1943 and did research there from 1946 to 1948 under the biochemists Carl and Gerty Cori. In 1948 he joined the faculty of biochemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, and became a full professor in 1957. He moved in 1968 to the University of California at Davis and returned to the University of Washington......
Cori cycle (biochemistry)
...responsible for catalyzing the glycogen-Cori ester reaction, and with it they achieved the test-tube synthesis of glycogen in 1943. Proof of the interconversion allowed them to formulate the “Cori cycle,” postulating that liver glycogen is converted to blood glucose that is reconverted to glycogen in muscle, where its breakdown to lactic acid provides the energy utilized in muscle...
Cori, Gerty (American biochemist)
Krebs received a medical degree from Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.) in 1943 and did research there from 1946 to 1948 under the biochemists Carl and Gerty Cori. In 1948 he joined the faculty of biochemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, and became a full professor in 1957. He moved in 1968 to the University of California at Davis and returned to the University of Washington......
Cori, Gerty Theresa (American biochemist)
Krebs received a medical degree from Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.) in 1943 and did research there from 1946 to 1948 under the biochemists Carl and Gerty Cori. In 1948 he joined the faculty of biochemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, and became a full professor in 1957. He moved in 1968 to the University of California at Davis and returned to the University of Washington......
cori spezzati (music)
...The principle is also used in large polychoral compositions (for two or more choirs) by such composers as Giovanni Gabrieli and Johann Sebastian Bach. The term cori spezzati (“split choirs”) was used to describe polychoral singing in Venice in the later 16th century. Compare responsorial singing....
coriander (herb)
dried fruit, common name of the seed of Coriandrum sativum, a feathery annual herb of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). Native to the Mediterranean and Middle East regions, the herb is cul...
Coriandrum sativum (herb)
dried fruit, common name of the seed of Coriandrum sativum, a feathery annual herb of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). Native to the Mediterranean and Middle East regions, the herb is cul...
Coriaria (plant genus)
Members of Coriariceae are shrubby plants. There is a single genus, Coriaria, in the family, with five species that grow around the southern part of the Pacific Ocean to China, the Himalayas, and the Mediterranean region; the plants also grow in the Andes from Chile northward, continuing into the mountains of Mexico. The branches of Coriaria often look like compound leaves of fern......
Coriariaceae (plant family)
...type of endosperm, repeated nuclear divisions take place before cell wall formation. Nuclear endosperm occurs in the Myristicaceae (Magnoliales); Ranunculaceae, Berberidaceae, Menispermaceae, and Coriariaceae (Ranunculales); and Papaveraceae and Fumariaceae (Papaverales). Both cellular and nuclear endosperm have been found among the Lauraceae (Laurales), Piperaceae (Piperales), and......
Coricancha (ancient Incan shrine, Cuzco, Peru)
The church of Santo Domingo, consecrated in 1654, incorporates the foundations and several walls of the Koricancha (Coricancha), a Quechua name meaning “Golden Enclosure,” or “Golden Garden”; the site was dedicated to Viracocha, the creator deity, and Inti, the sun god, and is also known as the Temple of the Sun. It also contained shrines to a variety of other deities.....
Corigliano, John (American composer)
American composer who drew from eclectic influences to create music that was generally tonal, accessible, and often highly expressive. Corigliano, who composed works for orchestra, solo instruments, and chamber groups, as well as operas, choral works, and film scores, won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his ...
Corillidae (gastropod family)
...PolygyraceaCommon woodland snails of eastern North America (Polygyridae), plus a Neotropical group (Thysanophoridae) and a relict group of Asia (Corillidae).Superfamily OleacinaceaCarnivorous (Oleaciniidae) and herbivorous (Sagdidae) snails of the Neotropical......
Corineus (Cornish legendary figure)
legendary eponymous hero of Cornwall. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (1135–39), he was a Trojan warrior who accompanied Brutus the Trojan, the legendary founder of Britain, to England. Corineus killed Gogmagog (Goëmagot), the greatest of the giants inhabiting Cornwall, by hurling him from a cliff. A cliff near Totnes, D...
Corinium (England, United Kingdom)
town (“parish”), Cotswold district, administrative and historic county of Gloucestershire, England, on the River Churn. Cirencester occupies the site of the Romano-British Corinium, capital city of the Dobuni tribe, at the junction of the important Roman and British roads known as Fo...
Corinna (Greek poet)
(date uncertain), Greek lyric poet of Tanagra in Boeotia, traditionally considered a contemporary and rival of the lyric poet Pindar (flourished c. 500 bc) though some scholars have put her date as late as about 200 bc. Surviving fragments of her poetry, written in Boeotian dialect, include a song contest between the mountain gods Cithaeron and Helicon. Written ...
Corinne (novel by Staël)
...that the Nordic and classical ideals were basically opposed and supported the Nordic, although her personal taste remained strongly classical. Her two novels, Delphine (1802) and Corinne (1807), to some extent illustrate her literary theories, the former being strongly sociological in outlook, while the latter shows the clash between Nordic and southern mentalities....
“Corinne, or Italy” (novel by Staël)
...that the Nordic and classical ideals were basically opposed and supported the Nordic, although her personal taste remained strongly classical. Her two novels, Delphine (1802) and Corinne (1807), to some extent illustrate her literary theories, the former being strongly sociological in outlook, while the latter shows the clash between Nordic and southern mentalities....
Corinth (Greece)
an ancient and a modern city of the Peloponnesus, in south-central Greece. The remains of the ancient city lie about 50 miles (80 km) west of Athens, at the eastern end of the Gulf of Corinth, on a terrace some 300 feet (90 metres) above sea level. The ancient city grew up at the base of the citadel of the Acrocorinthus...
Corinth (Mississippi, United States)
city, seat (1870) of Alcorn county, northeastern Mississippi, U.S. It is situated 85 miles (137 km) east of Memphis, Tennessee, near the Tennessee border. Founded in about 1855 as the junction of the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio railroads, it was called Cross City until...
Corinth, Battle of (United States history)
(October 3–4, 1862), in the American Civil War, a battle that ended in a decisive victory of Union forces over Confederate forces in northeastern Mississippi. Believing that the capture of the strategically important town of Corinth would break the Union hold on the Corinth-Memphis railroad and drive Union General Ulysses S. Grant from western Tennessee...
Corinth Canal (waterway, Greece)
tidal waterway across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece, joining the Gulf of Corinth in the northwest with the Saronic Gulf in the southeast. The isthmus was first crossed by boats in 600 bc when Periander built a ship railway, small boats being carried on wheeled cradles running in grooves. This system may ha...
Corinth, Isthmus of (isthmus, Greece)
isthmus dividing the Saronic Gulf (an inlet of the Aegean Sea) from the Gulf of Corinth (Modern Greek: Korinthiakós), an inlet of the Ionian Sea. The Isthmus of Corinth conn...
Corinth, League of (ancient Greece)
at Corinth under the leadership of Philip II of Macedon. A “council of the Greeks,” to which each state elected delegates proportionate to its military and naval strength, decided all matters of federal government, including foreign policy. At its first meeting, the league decided to conduct a war against Persi...
Corinth, Lovis (German painter)
German painter known for his dramatic figurative and landscape paintings....
Corinthian order (architecture)
one of the classical orders of architecture. Its main characteristic is an ornate capital carved with stylized acanthus leaves. See order....
Corinthian War (Greek history)
...empire (a strong and well-attested motive that should be emphasized), were to be exploited by Thebans at Athens in 395 in their appeal to Athens to join in war against Sparta. This war, called the Corinthian War (395–386) because much of it took place on Corinthian territory, was fought against Sparta by a coalition of Athens (with help from Persia), Boeotia, Corinth, and Argos. Sparta.....
Corinthians, The Letter of Paul to the (works by Saint Paul)
either of two New Testament letters, or epistles, addressed from the apostle Paul to the Christian community that he had founded at Corinth, Greece. The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians and The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians are now respectively the seventh and eighth books of the New Testament canon....
Corinto (Nicaragua)
port, northwestern Nicaragua. The country’s principal port on the Pacific Ocean, Corinto is located in sheltered Corinto Bay, which lies at the southeastern end of low-lying Aserradores (Punta Icaco) Island, connected by bridges with the mainland. It is the main port of entry for passengers and carg...
Coriolanus (work by Shakespeare)
the last of the so-called political tragedies by William Shakespeare, written about 1608 and published in the First Folio of 1623 seemingly from the playbook, which had preserved some features of the authorial manuscript. The five-act play, based on the life of Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, a legendary Roman hero of the late 6th and early 5th c...
Coriolanus, Caius Marcius (fictional character)
The action of the play follows Caius Marcius (afterward Caius Marcius Coriolanus) through several phases of his career. He is shown as an arrogant young nobleman in peacetime, as a bloodstained and valiant warrior against the city of Corioli, as a modest victor, and as a reluctant candidate for consul. When he refuses to flatter the Roman citizens, for whom he feels contempt, or to show them......
Coriolanus, Gnaeus Marcius (Roman legendary figure)
legendary Roman hero of patrician descent who was said to have lived in the late 6th and early 5th centuries bc; the subject of Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus. According to tradition, he owed his surname to his bravery at the siege of Corioli (493 bc) in the war against the Volsci. In 491, when there was a famine in Rome, he advised that ...
Coriolis effect (physics)
...points on the rotating Earth. As seen from a fixed point in space, such a parcel would be moving in a straight line. This apparent force on the motion of a fluid (in this case, air) is called the Coriolis effect. As a result of the Coriolis effect, air tends to rotate counterclockwise around large-scale low-pressure systems and clockwise around large-scale high-pressure systems in the......
Coriolis force (physics)
in classical mechanics, an inertial force described by the 19th-century French engineer-mathematician Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis in 1835. Coriolis showed that, if the ordinary Newtonian laws of motion of bodies are to be used in a rotating frame of reference, an inertial force—acting to the right of ...
Coriolis, Gustave-Gaspard (French physicist)
French engineer and mathematician who first described the Coriolis force, an effect of motion on a rotating body, of paramount importance to meteorology, ballistics, and oceanography....
Coriolis parameter (meteorology)
...to yield the mathematical relationship ... where u is the zonal wind speed (+ eastward), v the meridional wind speed (+ northward), f = 2ωおめが sin ϕ (Coriolis parameter), ωおめが the angular velocity of Earth’s rotation, ϕ the latitude, ρろー the air density (mass per unit volume), p the pressure, and x and y...
Corippus, Flavius Cresconius (Latin poet)
important Latin epic poet and panegyrist....
Cori’s disease (pathology)
rare hereditary disease in which the the metabolic breakdown of glycogen to the simple sugar glucose is incomplete, allowing intermediate compounds to accumulate in the cells of the liver. Affected persons lack the enzyme amylo-1,6-glucosidase, one of several enzymes inv...
Corish, Brendan (Irish politician)
A cautious, conservative, and surprisingly rural party considering its origins in the trade union movement, the Labour Party moved leftward in the 1960s under a new leader, Brendan Corish, and attracted urban intellectuals. The party hoped to take advantage of the modernization of Irish society and outgrow its status as a minor party. Although it governed as a junior partner with Fine Gael in......
corium (anatomy)
the thicker, deeper layer of the skin underlying the epidermis and made up of connective tissue. It is present in varying degrees of development among various vertebrate groups, being relatively thin and simple in aquatic animals and progressively thicker and more complex...
Corixidae (insect)
any of more than 300 species of insects in the true bug order, Heteroptera, that are named for their flat, boat-shaped bodies and long, fringed, oarlike hindlegs. Members of this cosmopolitan family are usually less than 13 mm (0.5 inch) long. They can be found from high elevations in the Himalayas to the lowest parts of ...
Corizza (Albania)
city, southeastern Albania. It began as a feudal estate in the 13th century, and in 1484 the local lord, Koja Mirahor İlyas Bey, a Muslim convert active in the Ottoman siege of Constantinople (1453), returned to the site and built the mosque that bears his name. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries Korçë was a centre of commerce and trade. The first school ...
cork (plant anatomy)
the outer bark of an evergreen type of oak tree called the cork oak (species Quercus suber) that is native to the Mediterranean region. Cork consists of the irregularly shaped, thin-walled, wax-coated cells th...
Cork (county, Ireland)
county in the province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. The largest county in Ireland, Cork is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean (south) and by Counties Waterford and Tipperary (east), Limerick (north), and Kerry (we...
Cork (Ireland)
county borough, seaport, and county town (seat) of County Cork, in the province of Munster, Ireland. It is located at the head of Cork Harbour on the River Lee. Cork is, after Dublin, the Irish republic’s second largest city....
Cork and Orrery, Mary Monckton, countess of (English society hostess)
society hostess whose “conversation parties” were attended by leading figures from the worlds of politics and letters. She is supposed to have been the original of “Lady Bellair” in British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli’s novel Henrietta Temple and of “Mr...
cork cambium (plant anatomy)
Secondary, or lateral, meristems, which are found in all woody plants and in some herbaceous ones, consist of the vascular cambium and the cork cambium. They produce secondary tissues from a ring of vascular cambium in stems and roots. Secondary phloem forms along the outer edge of the cambium ring, and secondary xylem (i.e., wood) forms along the inner edge of the cambium ring. The cork......
Cork City–Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award
annual short-story award first bestowed in 2005 by the Munster Literature Centre (Tigh Litríochta) of Cork, Ire., in honour of Cork native Frank O’Connor, an Irish short-story writer, novelist, and playwright....
cork elm (plant)
...smaller distribution, has a gluelike substance in the inner bark, which was formerly steeped in water as a remedy for throat ailments, powdered for use in poultices, and chewed as a thirst-quencher. Rock, or cork, elm (U. thomasii) has hard wood and twigs that often develop corky ridges....
cork oak (plant)
the outer bark of an evergreen type of oak tree called the cork oak (species Quercus suber) that is native to the Mediterranean region. Cork consists of the irregularly shaped, thin-walled, wax-coated cells that make up the peeling bark of the birch and many other trees, but, in the restricted commercial sense of the word, only the bark of the cork oak merits the designation of cork. The......
cork palm (plant)
a genus of palmlike cycads (plants of the family Zamiaceae), native to Cuba. The only species, corcho (M. calocoma), is columnar in habit and occasionally branched; it reaches heights of 9 metres (30 feet) or more and is often mistaken for a palm....
Cork, Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of (English colonist)
English colonizer of Munster (southwestern Ireland) who became one of the most powerful landed and industrial magnates in 17th-century Ireland....
cork rump (clothing)
...worn at the back, was popular in the 1860s and ’70s and revived a fashion that had originated in France in the 1780s. Padded rolls at the hips were known as “bum rolls” and “bearers” in the 16th and 17th centuries, as “cork rumps” in the 18th, and finally as “dress improvers” in Victorian times....
cork tree (plant)
(genus Phellodendron), any of several eastern Asian trees in the rue family (Rutaceae) having corklike bark. Two are useful as lawn and shade trees. The Amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense) may reach a height of 15 m (50 feet); the Japanese cork tree (P. japonicum) grows to 9 m. Greenish yellow flowers appear in summer. Female trees bear small grapelike clusters of black f...
Cork Yacht Club (Irish yacht club)
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with much naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765 and in 1828 became, after merging.....
corked bat (baseball)
Some batters, for their part, have looked for illegal advantage by drilling a hole down the barrel of a bat and filling it with cork or rubber balls; although this procedure lightens the bat, its effect on bat speed and “liveliness” is questionable....
corkscrew (roller coaster design)
...ride (a water ride) and the runaway mine ride (set in a faux mine), which arrived in 1966 at Six Flags over Texas. Toomer, who designed some 80 rides for Arrow, worked on the company’s helix-shaped corkscrew coaster, which first appeared at Knott’s Berry Farm (Buena Park, Calif.) in 1975. It added 360-degree rolls to the coaster design canon—the first inversion of the moder...
corkwood (plant)
fruit tree of tropical America valued for its roots. See custard apple....
Corleone (Italy)
city, western Sicily, Italy. The name Qurliyūn is found in Arab sources of the 9th century ad; the city was probably an earlier Byzantine foundation. Made a military centre by the Hohenstaufen rulers of Sicily from the 10th century, it later passed under Spanish rule. Corleone took an active part in the anti-Bourbon revolutions of 1820 and 1848 and rallied t...
Corliss, George Henry (American inventor)
American inventor and manufacturer of the Corliss steam engine. His many improvements to the steam engine included principally the Corliss valve, which had separate inlet and exhaust ports, and he introduced springs to speed the opening and closing of valves. His Corliss Engine Co. (founded 1856) supplied the 1,400-horsepowe...
Corliss steam engine
American inventor and manufacturer of the Corliss steam engine. His many improvements to the steam engine included principally the Corliss valve, which had separate inlet and exhaust ports, and he introduced springs to speed the opening and closing of valves. His Corliss Engine Co. (founded 1856) supplied the 1,400-horsepower engine that drove all the machines at the Philadelphia Centennial......
Corliss valve (engine part)
American inventor and manufacturer of the Corliss steam engine. His many improvements to the steam engine included principally the Corliss valve, which had separate inlet and exhaust ports, and he introduced springs to speed the opening and closing of valves. His Corliss Engine Co. (founded 1856) supplied the 1,400-horsepower engine that drove all the machines at the Philadelphia Centennial.........
corm (plant anatomy)
vertical, fleshy, underground stem that acts as a vegetative reproductive structure in certain seed plants. It bears membranous or scaly leaves and buds. Typical corms are those of the crocus and gladiolus. Corms are sometimes called solid bulbs, or bu...
Cormac (king of Munster)
festival held on the first day of May in Ireland and Scotland, celebrating the beginning of summer and open pasturing. Beltane is first mentioned in a glossary attributed to Cormac, bishop of Cashel and king of Munster, who was killed in 908. Cormac describes how cattle were driven between two bonfires on Beltane as a magical means of protecting them from disease before they were led into......
Cormac, Anne (Irish American pirate)
Irish American pirate whose brief period of marauding the Caribbean during the 18th century enshrined her in legend as one of the few to have defied the proscription against female pirates....
Cormack, Allan MacLeod (American physicist)
South African-born American physicist who, with Godfrey Hounsfield, was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work in developing the powerful new diagnostic technique of computerized axial tomography (CAT). Cormack was unusual in the field of Nobel laureates because he never earne...
Corman, Roger (American writer and director)
motion picture director, producer, and distributor known for his highly successful low-budget exploitation films and for launching the careers of several prominent directors and actors....
Corman, Roger William (American writer and director)
motion picture director, producer, and distributor known for his highly successful low-budget exploitation films and for launching the careers of several prominent directors and actors....
cormel (plant)
...(bulblets) that when grown to full size are known as offsets. Corms are short, fleshy, underground stems without fleshy leaves. The gladiolus and crocus are propagated by corms. They may produce new cormels from fleshy buds. Rhizomes are horizontal, underground stems that are compressed, as in the iris, or slender, as in turf grasses. Runners are specialized aerial stems, a natural agent of......
Cormier, Robert Edmund (American author)
American children’s writer (b. Jan. 17, 1925, Leominster, Mass.—d. Nov. 2, 2000, Boston, Mass.), was an award-winning journalist for the Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel before making his name as one of the first writers to explore the darker realms of teenage life in such works as The Chocolate War (1974), the controversial story about the abuse heaped on a Roman Cath...
Cormon, Fernand (French painter)
...condemned the slapdash approach of the Impressionists, and judged Toulouse-Lautrec’s drawing “atrocious.” His work received a more positive reaction in 1883, when he joined the studio of Fernand Cormon....
cormophyte (plant)
...and was widely adopted on the European continent for a time. His Genera Plantarum, in which he divided the plant kingdom into thallophytes (including the algae, fungi, and lichens) and cormophytes (including the mosses, ferns, and seed plants), remained a valuable descriptive index to plant families and genera for more than a half century....
cormorant (bird)
any member of about 26 to 30 species of water birds comprising the family Phalacrocoracidae (order Pelecaniformes). In the Orient and elsewhere these glossy black underwater swimmers have been tamed for fishing. Cormorants dive for and feed mainly on fish of little value to man. Guano produced by cormorants is valued as a fertilizer....
corn (callus)
in skin disease, horny thickening of the skin on the foot or toes, produced by repeated friction or pressure. Extensive proliferation of the stratum corneum, the horny layer of the epidermis, results in a conical callus with its broad end on the surface and its point dir...
corn (plant)
in agriculture, cereal plant of the tribe Maydeae of the grass family Poaceae, originating in the Americas, and its edible grain....
Corn, Alfred (American poet)
American poet known for meditative lyrics that show a mastery of traditional forms....
Corn, Alfred Dewitt, III (American poet)
American poet known for meditative lyrics that show a mastery of traditional forms....
Corn Belt (region, United States)
traditional area in the midwestern United States, roughly covering western Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and eastern Kansas, in which corn (maize) and soybeans are the dominant crops. Soils are deep, fertile, and rich in organic material and nitrogen, and the land is relatively leve...