O OASIS. 



283 



O 



O ; the fourth vowel and the fifteenth letter in the 

 English alphabet, pronounced by pointing the lips, 

 and forming an opening resembling the letter itself: 

 the (so called) open o is pronounced with less pointed 

 lips. In proportion as the lips are more opened, the 

 sound passes over into that of a (pronounced as in 

 father.) In proportion as they are less pointed, yet 

 remain projected, the sound passes over into that of 

 K ; a consequence of which is, that o, in various dia- 

 lects, passes over into a and u, also into e (pronounced 

 as in met.) The English language designates not less 

 than four sounds by the character o, exemplified in 

 the words no, move, nor, not, whilst there exist, on 

 the other hand, other ways of denoting some of these 

 sounds, as au, eau. The French indicate the sound 

 o (pronounced as in no), by various signs. In Ger- 

 man, there is only a long and a short o, and no way 

 of designating these sounds, but by the letter itself; 

 in Italian, an open and a close o. The case is very 

 similar with the other languages of western Europe. 

 The Greeks, it is well known, had two different 

 signs for the long and the short o, the o (omicron, or 

 short o) and u (omega, the long o ; see Omega.) In 

 the article A, it was said that a (as in father) was 

 used more than any other letter to express various 

 and even opposite emotions. The use of o is next in 

 frequency to that of a : it is used particularly to ex- 

 press admiration, warning, pity, imploring ; and, in 

 general, as introductory to language expressive of 

 great emotion. In all languages, the interjection 

 is to be found ; in Greek, , j* ; in Latin, O ok. O ! 

 and oh ! are the common forms in modern languages. 

 The Romans change the Greek syllable o* into us; 

 and the Italians again made of us and um, o (see the 

 article M) bonus, for instance, they made bono: the 

 same change often takes place in Spanish. 



O in inscriptions signifies optimus ; as, /., or D. 

 O. M., Jovi, or Deo Optimo Maximo, the frequent in- 

 scription on temples ; O. P., optima principi. Oalso 

 is, on many coins, the initial of places and persons. 



is the name given to the nine anthems which are 

 sung in the Catholic church nine days before Christ- 

 mas. 



O, with an apostrophe after it, signifies son, in Irish 

 proper names ; as, O' Council (the son of Council), like 

 the prefix Mac. 



In French geography, stands for ouesl, that is, 

 ircst ; in German, for osf, that is, east. 



In masonry it is used for Orient. 



As a numeral, it signified 70 with the Greeks ; and 

 in middle Latin, it signified 11 ; with a dash over it, 

 1 1,000, according to the verse, 



O numerum gestat qui nunc extat widecimus. 



0, in several words of the Northern languages, has 

 the force of the Greek a (privative), having originated 

 from the negative syllable un, as otrogen (in Swedish), 

 faithless; osmaklig, tasteless. 



O, in Hungarian, signifies old, which is added to 

 many geographical names, in contradistinction to ui 

 (new). 



OAK (quercus). Among the most useful of the 

 productions of temperate climates are the ditt'ert-nt 

 species of oak, truly the pride of the northern hemi- 

 sphere, to which part of the globe they are almost 

 exclusively confined, with the exception of a fesv on 



the mountainous parts of the equatorial regions. They 

 are shrubs, or trees, many of them of the largest 

 size. More than eighty species are known. This 

 genus belongs to the natural family amentacece. The 

 leaves are alternate, simple, either entire, or, more 

 commonly, incised, or lobed. The flowers are mo- 

 noecious, inconspicuous, and the sterile ones are dis- 

 posed in loose aments. The fruit consists of an ovoid 

 nut, included at base by the cup-shaped, persistent 

 involucrum. The common European oak (Q. robur) 

 is a tree of the first consequence, on account of the 

 qualities of its wood. It attains the height of from 

 60 to 100 feet, with a trunk six to twelve, or more, 

 in circumference*. The wood is superior in solidity 

 and durability to any other in Europe, and is employed 

 for a vast variety of purposes, and, above all, for ship- 

 building ; indeed, it is the chief reliance of the Eu- 

 ropean navies. Before the introduction of mahogany, 

 it was very generally used for furniture, and, besides, 

 furnishes the best fuel. Exgept in the north of Rus- 

 sia, the bark is exclusively employed, throughout 

 Europe, for tanning ; and that from the small branches 

 is preferred, because the epidermis is thinner, and the 

 cellular integument, which contains the tannin, is 

 more abundant. In ancient times, the acorns formed 

 an important article of nutriment to some of the 

 northern nations, and, among others, to the former 

 inhabitants of Great Britain. 



OAKUM ; the substance into which old ropes are 

 reduced when they are untwisted, loosened, and drawn 

 asunder. It is principally used in calking the seams, 

 tree-nails, and bends of a ship, for stopping or pre- 

 venting leaks. 



OAR ; a long piece of timber, flat at one end, and 

 round or square at the other, used to make a vessel 

 advance upon the water. The flat part, which is 

 clipped into the water, is called the blade, and that 

 which is within the board is termed the loom, whose 

 extremity, being small enough to be grasped by the 

 rowers, is called the handle. To push the boat or 

 vessel forwards by means of this instrument, the row- 

 ers turn their backs forwards, and, dipping the blade 

 of the oar in the water, pull the handle forward, so 

 that the blade, at the same time, may move aft in the 

 water. But since the blade cannot be so moved 

 without striking the water, this impulsion is the same 

 as if the water were to strike the blade from the 

 stern towards the head : the vessel is therefore, neces- 

 sarily moved according to the direction. Hence it 

 follows, that she will advance with the greater rapi- 

 dity, by as much as the oar strikes the water more 

 forcibly ; consequently, an oar acts upon the side of 

 a boat or vessel like a lever of the second class, 

 whose fulcrum is the station upon which the oar rests 

 on the boat's gunwale. 



OASIS (Coptic, an inhabited place); a fertile spot, 

 situated in the midst of the uninhabitable deserts of 

 northern Africa: the name is also applied to a clus- 

 ter of verdant spots. They serve as stopping-places 

 for the caravans, and often contain villages. In the 

 desert of Sahara there are thirty-two of these regions 

 which contain fountains, and date, and palm-trees : 

 twenty of them are inhabited. Those of the Libyan 

 desert are the following : the Great Oasis, of which 

 the principal town is El Kargeh ; it consists of a 

 number of insulated spots, extending, for about a 



