Comanche \k9-'man-che\ Nomadic North American Indian group of southwest Oklahoma, Texas, California, and New Mexico, U.S. The name Comanche is derived from a Ute word meaning “anyone who wants to fight me all the time”; the people call themselves Numunuh (meaning
Doric columns on the Greek temple at Segesta, Sicily, c. 424-416 bc
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Comaneci ► comic book i 437
“The People”). Their language is of Uto-Aztecan stock. An offshoot of the Shoshone, they were organized into about 12 autonomous bands, local groups that lacked the lineages, clans, military societies, and tribal gov¬ ernment of most other Plains Indians. They roamed the southern Great Plains in the 18th and 19th century. Their staple food was buffalo meat. Their highly skilled horsemen set the pattern of equestrian nomadism on the Plains. In 1864 Col. Kit Carson led U.S. forces in an unsuccessful campaign against them. Treaties were signed in 1865 and 1867, but the federal government failed to keep whites off the land promised to them, which led to violent conflicts. In later years Comanche Code-Talkers, like other Native American Code-Talkers, played a notable role during both world wars. Some 10,000 people claimed sole Comanche descent in the 2000 U.S. census.
Comaneci \,ko-m9- , ne-che\ / Nadia (b. Nov. 12, 1961, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Rom.) Romanian-born gymnast. Comaneci entered her first international competition in 1972 and won three gold medals. In the 1976 Olympic Games, the first in which a perfect score of 10 was ever awarded in an Olympic gymnastic event, she received an astounding seven perfect scores and won the gold medals for the balance beam, uneven parallel bars, and all-around competitions. In the 1980 Olympics she won gold medals for the beam and the floor exercises. She retired from competition in 1984 and defected to the U.S. in 1989.
comb jelly See ctenophore
Combes \ko n b\, (Justin-Louis-) Emile (b. Sept. 6, 1835, Roque- courbe, France—d. May 25, 1921, Pons) French politician. He became mayor of Pons in 1875 and was elected to the Senate in 1885 as a mem¬ ber of the anticlerical Radical Party. As premier (1902-05), he presided over the separation of church and state in the wake of the Alfred Dreyfus affair. He agreed to laws exiling almost all religious orders from France and dismantling major aspects of the church’s public functions, especially in education. Admired by many republicans, he later served as minister without portfolio (1915), despite his advanced age.
combination See permutations and combinations
Combination Acts British acts of 1799 and 1800 that outlawed trade unions. The laws made it illegal for any workingman to combine with another to gain an increase in wages or a decrease in hours, to solicit any¬ one else to leave work, or to object to working with any other workman. They were repealed in 1824 through the efforts of the radical reformer Francis Place (1771-1854).
combinatorics V.kam-bo-no-'tor-iksV Branch of mathematics concerned with the selection, arrangement, and combination of objects chosen from a finite set. The number of possible bridge hands is a simple example; more complex problems include scheduling classes in classrooms at a large university and designing a routing system for telephone signals. No standard algebraic procedures apply to all combinatorial problems; a sepa¬ rate logical analysis may be required for each problem. Combinatorics has its roots in antiquity, but new uses in computer science and systems management have increased its importance in recent years. See also per¬ mutations AND COMBINATIONS.
combine harvester Farm machine used, mainly in developed coun¬ tries, to harvest wheat and often other cereals. The mechanical ancestor of today’s large combines was Cyrus H. McCormick’s reaper, introduced in 1831. Threshing machines were powered first by men or animals, often using treadmills, later by steam engines and internal-combustion engines. The modern combine harvester, originally introduced in California c. 1875, came into wide use in the U.S. in the 1920s and ’30s and in Brit¬ ain in the 1940s. The self-propelled combine was introduced in 1940. The combine cuts the standing grain, threshes out the grain from the straw and chaff, cleans the grain, and empties it into bags or grain-storage facilities. It has greatly reduced harvesting time and labour; whereas in 1829 har¬ vesting an acre of wheat required 14 man-hours, the modem combine requires less than 30 minutes.
combining weight See equivalent weight
Comden, Betty orig. Elizabeth Cohen (b. May 3, 1919, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. musical-comedy writer and lyricist. Comden formed a nightclub act in 1938 with Adolph Green (b. Dec. 2, 1915, Bronx, N.Y.—d. Oct. 23, 2002, New York, N.Y.), Judy Holliday (1922-65), and others. In 1944 Comden and Green wrote the book and lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town. They later collaborated with Jule Styne on musi¬
cals such as Peter Pan (1954), Bells Are Ringing (1956), and Hallelujah, Baby! (1967, Tony Award). Their lyrics for Wonderful Town (1953), Applause (1970), and On the 20th Century (1978) won them three more Tony Awards. Their screenplays include Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and Auntie Mame (1958). “Just in Time” and “The Party’s Over” are two of their best-known songs.
Comecon See Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
Comedie-Francaise yko-ma-'de-frau-'sezN National theatre of France. The world’s longest-established national theatre, it was founded in 1680 by the merger of two theatrical companies in Paris, one of them the troupe that had worked under Moliere. The French Revolution divided the com¬ pany’s loyalties, and the revolution’s supporters, led by Francois-Joseph Talma, moved to the theatre’s present home in 1791. The company was reconstituted in 1803. Under its rules of organization, established by Napoleon in 1812, its members share responsibilities and profits. Its illus¬ trious actors have included Sarah Bernhardt and Jean- Louis Barrault. The theatre is known for productions of the French classics, though it also performs contemporary plays.
comedy Genre of dramatic literature that deals with the light and amus¬ ing or with the serious and profound in a light, familiar, or satirical man¬ ner. Comedy can be traced to revels associated with worship in Greece in the 5th century bc. Aristophanes, Menander, Terence, and Plautus produced comedies in classical literature. It reappeared in the late Middle Ages, when the term was used to mean simply a story with a happy ending (e.g., Dante’s Divine Comedy ), the same meaning it has in novels of the last three centuries (e.g., the fiction of Jane Austen). Compare tragedy.
comedy of manners Witty, ironic form of drama that satirizes the manners and fashions of a particular social class or set. Comedies of man¬ ners were usually written by sophisticated authors for members of their own social class, and they typically are concerned with social usage and the ability or inability of certain characters to meet social standards, which are often exacting but morally trivial. The plot, usually concerning an illicit love affair or other scandalous matter, is subordinate to the play’s brittle atmosphere, witty dialogue, and pungent commentary on human foibles. Its notable exponents include William Congreve, Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, and Noel Coward.
Comenius \k3-'me-ne-3s\, John Amos Czech Jan Amos Komen-
sky (b. March 28, 1592, Nivnice, Moravia—d. Nov. 15, 1670, Amster¬ dam, Neth.) Czech educational reformer and religious leader. He favoured the learning of Latin to facilitate the study of European culture but empha¬ sized learning about things rather than about grammar per se. His Janua Linguarum Reserata (1631), a textbook that described useful facts about the world in both Latin and Czech, revolutionized Latin teaching and was translated into 16 languages. He also produced one of the first illustrated schoolbooks, Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1658).