Columbia

Note: The similar sounding country uses a different spelling--see Colombia.

Columbia is a name used in the English language for many things and places. The name is derived from that of Christopher Columbus. The term "Pre-Columbian" is used for American cultures before the arrival of Columbus and other European explorers.

Columbia, late 19th century
from a Columbia Records phonograph cylinder package

The name "Columbia" is/was a poetic name for the United States of America, which largely fell out of use in the early 20th century. This was the origin of the name District of Columbia.

Columbia was also a female personification of the USA, similar to the male Uncle Sam and the British female Britannia, often seen in political cartoons through the early 20th century (similar to the illustration at right) and still used by Columbia Pictures.

The term Columbian has been occasionally used as an alternative word for American when referring to someone from the United States, but has not entered general use, not least because of its confusing similarity to Colombian.

Things named Columbia include:

Columbia University (in the New York City)
Columbia College (in Chicago)
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
Columbia Motors, early 20th century automobile company
Columbia Records (now part of Sony Music Entertainment)
Columbia Pictures, film production company
Hail, Columbia, a song which was once considered to be the unofficial national anthem of the USA. The Star Spangled Banner was adopted as the official national anthem in 1931.
Mt. Columbia (4290m/14,073'), mountain in Colorado
Mt. Columbia (3747m/12,294'), highest point in Alberta
Space shuttle Columbia
Columbia, the command module of the Apollo 11 mission, which stayed in orbit around the moon.
USS Columbia, several ships of the US Navy
Columbium, a former name for the element niobium.
Columbia Data Products was a PC manufacturer founded in 1976 CDP
Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd., shipmanager company in Cyprus CSM
Columbia, a supercomputer owned by NASA.
Several engines have been named Columbia in science fiction:
- Columbiad, the fictional cannon that was used to travel to the moon in Jules Verne's novel From the Earth to the Moon.
- Columbia was also the name of a Spacechip in Wally Wood's comic story Dark Side of the Moon, published in Weird Fantasy #14 in 1950.
- Columbia NX-02, a fictional starship on the television series Star Trek: Enterprise (named in honor of the space shuttle).

Places named "Columbia" include:

There is also the constellation Columba, the dove.

Columbia is also the name of a character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The term Columbia is also used to identify a type of railroad locomotive. In the Whyte notation, a Columbia is a type 2–4–2.

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Categories: National emblems | Disambiguation