Corfu incident (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 Mus¬ solini to order a naval bombardment of Corfu. After the Greeks appealed to the League of Nations, the Italians were ordered to evacuate but Greece was forced to pay Italy an indemnity.
coriander or cilantro Feathery annual herb ( Coriandrum sativum ) of the parsley family, and its dried fruit, native to the Mediterranean and Middle East. The seeds go by the name coriander; they have a mild, fra¬ grant aroma and aromatic taste and are used to flavour many foods. The delicate young leaves—known in the U.S. by their Spanish name, cilantro—are widely used in Latin American, Indian, and Chinese dishes.
Corinth Vk6r-anth\ Greek Korinthos Vk6r-en-th6s\ Ancient city of the Peloponnese, Greece. Located on the Gulf of Corinth, the site was occu¬ pied before 3000 bc but developed as a commercial centre only in the 8th century bc. In the late 6th century bc, it was outstripped by Athens. Occu¬ pied in 338 bc by Philip II, it was destroyed in 146 bc by Rome. In 44 bc Julius Caesar reestablished Corinth as a Roman colony; the New Testa¬ ment includes the letters addressed to its Christian community by St. Paul. It declined in the later Middle Ages; its ruins are near the modem city of Corinth.
Corinth, League of Alliance established at Corinth in 337 bc. It com¬ prised the ancient Greek states except Sparta, and was led by Philip II of Macedonia. Delegates, elected in proportion to their state’s military power, decided federal policies. The league declared war on Persia, but under Alexander the Great it contributed little to the war effort. Its major act was to condemn the Thebans to slavery and distribute their lands among other states following revolts in 336 and 335. It was disbanded after Alexander’s death (323).
Corinth \ko-'rint\, Lovis (b. July 21, 1858, Tapiau, East Prussia—d. July 12, 1925, Zandvoort, Neth.) German painter and graphic artist. He trained in Paris with the painter William Bouguereau. In 1902 he settled in Berlin and, with Max Liebermann, became a leading exponent of Impres¬ sionism in Germany. After recovering from a stroke in 1911, his style became much looser and more powerfully Expressionist. He was best known for his landscapes and portraits, including numerous powerfully expressive self-portraits, and he produced many etchings and lithographs (e.g., Apocalypse, 1921).
Coriolanus \,k6r-e-9-'la-n3s\, Gnaeus Marcius Legendary Roman hero. He is said to have lived in the late 6th and early 5th century bc and to have owed his surname to his courage at the siege of Corioli (493 bc) in the war against the Volsci. For trying to have the office of tribune abol¬ ished during a famine in Rome, he was sent into exile. Taking refuge with the king of the Volsci, he led the Volscian army against Rome but turned back in response to pleas from his family. He is the subject of William Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus.
Coriolis \,kor-e-'o-bs\ force Apparent force that must be included if Newton's laws of motion are to be used in a rotating system. First described by Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis (1792-1843) in 1835, the force acts to the right of the direction of body motion for counterclockwise rotation and to the left for clockwise rotation. On Earth an object that moves along a north-south path, or longitudinal line, will be apparently deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. The deflection is related to the motion of the object, the motion of the Earth, and latitude. The Coriolis effect is important in meteorology and oceanography as well as ballistics; it also has great sig¬ nificance in ASTROPHYSICS.
Cork Seaport city (pop., 2002 prelim.: 123,338), southwestern Ireland. The seat of County Cork, it is situated on Cork Harbour at the mouth of the River Lee. Founded as a monastery in the 7th century, it was often raided and was eventually settled by the Danes. It passed to Henry II of England in 1172. The city was taken by Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell (1649) and by the duke of Marlborough (1690). It was heavily damaged in 1920 during the Irish uprising against England. Its industries include leatherworking, brewing, and distilling.
cork Outer bark of the evergreen cork oak ( Quercus suber ), native to the Mediterranean. In its broad sense, cork consists of the irregularly shaped,
El Cordobes
MICHAEL KUH/BLACK STAR
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
466 I corm ► Cornell University
thin-walled, wax-coated cells that make up the peeling bark of many trees, but commercially only cork- oak bark is called cork. Cork is obtained from the new outer sheath of bark that forms after the original rough outer bark has been removed.
This outer sheath can be stripped repeatedly without hurting the tree.
Cork is unique because it is made of air-filled, watertight cells that are a remarkably effective insulating medium. The air pockets make cork very light in weight. Though special¬ ized plastics and other artificial sub¬ stances have replaced cork in some of its former uses, it has retained its traditional importance as a stopper for bottles of wine and other alcoholic beverages.
corm Vertical, fleshy, underground stem that acts as a vegetative repro¬ ductive 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 bulbo-tubers, but they are dis¬ tinguished from true bulbs and tubers.
Corman, Roger (William) (b. April 5, 1926, Detroit, Mich., U.S.) U.S. film director and producer. He directed his first films. Five Guns West and Apache Woman, in 1955, and by 1960 he was one of the most prolific makers of low-budget “exploitation” films. His film versions of stories by Edgar Allan Poe, including The House of Usher (1960) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964), won him a cult following as a master of the macabre. In 1970 he formed New World Pictures, an independent distri¬ bution company that produced the work of such struggling young direc¬ tors as Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese.
cormorant Vkor-mo-ronA Any of the 26-30 species of water birds, constituting the family Phalacrocoracidae, that dive for and feed on fish, mainly those of little value to humans. In the Orient and elsewhere, these glossy black underwater swimmers have been tamed for fishing. Their guano is valued as a fertilizer. Cormorants live on seacoasts, lakes, and some rivers, nesting on cliffs or in bushes or trees. They have a long, hook-tipped bill, patches of bare skin on the face, and a small throat pouch (gular sac). The most widespread species is the common, or great, cor¬ morant (Phalacrocorax carbo), which grows up to 40 in. (100 cm) long and breeds from eastern Canada to Iceland, across Eurasia to Australia and New Zealand, and in parts of Africa.
corn or maize Cereal plant {Zea mays) of the family Poaceae (or Gramineae). It originated in the New World and has been introduced glo¬ bally. American Indians taught colonists to grow corn, including some varieties of yellow com that are still popular as food, as well as varieties with red, blue, pink, and black kernels, often banded, spotted, or striped, that today are regarded as ornamental and in the U.S. are called Indian com. The tall, annual grass has a stout, erect, solid stem and large nar¬ row leaves with wavy margins. Corn is used as livestock feed, as human food, and as raw material in industry. Though it is a major food in many parts of the world, it is inferior to other cereals in nutritional value. Ined¬ ible parts of the plant are used in industry—stalks for paper and wall- board; husks for filling material; cobs for fuel, to make charcoal, and in the preparation of industrial solvents. Corn husks also have a long his¬ tory of use in the folk arts for objects such as woven amulets and corn- husk dolls. Corn is one of the most widely distributed of the world’s food plants. In the U.S. com is the most important crop, but slightly more acres of soybeans are planted.