Difference between revisions of "O"

Latest revision as of 16:05, 15 March 2010

Oafery, Ludowick
228; [O.E.D.: Oaf. An elf's child; a changeling left by the elves or fairies; hence a misbegotten, deformed or idiot child; a half-wit, dolt or booby]; 232; transformation, 237; hit by lightning, 463; 603; 757

Oafery, Ma
232; Lud's mother

Oakboys
721; Insurgents in Ireland in 1763 who rose against forced labor on the roads and the exacting of tithes. Their badge was a sprig of oak worn in the hat.

Oast
132; "from Bush to Oast unmediated"; this would refer to the brewing of beer, from the hops to the oast which is a conical kiln used for drying hops, malt or tobacco.

Obra, La
522; Spanish: "the work"

O'Brian, Pat
54; this is a reference to Patrick O'Brian, the novelist of the Napoleonic Wars whose nautical tales of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin qualify him as "the best Yarn-Spinner in all the Fleets"

167; big cheese; Check this out!N.B. that is not the cheese rolling Pynchon is describing, though. He is talking about the cheese rolling at [1]. Pychon is repeating a common fallacy that Double and Single Gloucester refer to the size of the cheese. In fact they refer to chese made from double or single milk (whole or skimmed).

Ogham
497; an ancient Irish & British writing "invented by Hu Gadarn the Mighty"; 600; MORE

Ohio Company
281

Oily Leon
342

Old Clasher
503

Old Q, the Star of Piccadilly
260; Douglas, William, third Earl of March and fourth Duke of Queensberry — 'Old Q' — (1724 - 1810): Only son of William, second Earl of March, and his wife, Lady Anne Hamilton. He succeeded his father to the Earldom of March in 1731, and his cousin to the Dukedom in 1786. An inveterate speculator, he was notorious for his behaviour on the Turf. As an early mentor of Fox, he was blamed for teaching the future political his extravagant gambling habits. He lived in Picadilly, London, and was indeed known as "Old Q, the Star of Piccadilly" or "Old Q, the Rake of Piccadilly."

Thanks to The Robert Burns Encyclopedia

Onandaga
532; on of the five nations of North American Indians, near what is now Syracuse; the name is variously translated as "keepers of the flame," "people of the hills" and "people of the mountains"; Hiawatha was an Indian belonging to the Onandaga tribe and was recruited by a prophet who brought the people of the five nations to peace after extensive war.

O.O.
138; Once Over

Oölite
440; a rock consisting of small round grains, usually of calcium carbonate cemented together. These small grains or "ooids" are formed in concentric layers. "see" Wikipedia, or Tox's take on Force Intensifiers

Oortman
154; a gun

Ophelia
351; in Hamlet

Orchid Tavern
292; by Dock Creek, in Philadelphia

Ordure
668; shit, or something that is morally degrading

Orleanist
377; any of the constitutional monarchists in 18th- and 19th-century France who favoured the Orléans branch of the house of Bourbon (the descendants of Philippe, duke d'Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV). Its zenith of power occurred during the July Monarchy (1830-48) of Louis-Philippe (duke d'Orléans from 1793 to 1830). (From [http://www.britannica.com" target="_blank">Encyclopedia Britannica Online</a>)

Ormazd
219; also Ormudz, Mithraic god of light and good, one of two gods in the ancient Persian religion Zoroastrianism, the other being Ahriman, god of darkness and evil. Zoroastrians were known as Fire and Sun worshippers because their ritual identifies Ormudz with fire and with the Sun. Fire was used in some of their religious ceremonies.

O'Rooty
441; Crimp (An agent or contractor for unloading coal-ships; agent whose business was to entrap men for service in the army, navy, etc, esp by decoying or pressing them; a deceptive or coercive agent) on M-D Line crew

147; In Greek myth, the Thracian poet who could move even inanimate things by his music. When his wife Eurydice died, he journeyed to the underworld and so charmed Pluto that Eurydice was released on the condition that Orpheus not look back to see if she was following him when he led her out. He did and she immediately vanished. Thracian women, enraged at Orpheus' prolonged grieving, tore him to pieces; See also Eurydice; Orpheus myth in Gravity's Rainbow

Orpiment
689; native orange to lemon yellow arsenic trisulfide, a pigment

Orrery
94; an apparatus showing the relative positions and motions of bodies in the solar system by balls moved by wheelwork; 209; of Engagement, 536

Osnabrigs
510; A course unbleached linen or hempen cloth first made in Osnabruck, Germany. It was commonly used for trousers, sacking, and bagging. Osnabrigs were used at Williamsburg to strengthen wallpaper. They are to have been made in brown, blue, and white although other colors were probably available. In the colonial period (1767) Osnabrig was woven in Germany, Lancashire, and Scotland.

Otick Catarrh
420; "otick" means of the ear; "catarrh" refers to any Inflammation of a mucous membrane, caused by one of many factors, including the common cold. Mason's sarcastic description of Dixon loudly and 'moistly' whispering in his ear.

Oven
86; 205

Owl
210; "terrible massed beat of their wings [...] Snowy Owl Year [...] white visitors from afar" 513; 597

Oxenstjerna, Axel (1583-1654)
272; Swedish chancellor (1612-54) who, while head of the regency during the minority of Queen Christina, caused the founding of a trading and colonizing agency, the New South Company, giving it a land grant in the area of Delaware Bay. Fort Christina, at the present site of Wilmington, DE, was erected in 1638, and several other forts subsequently. However, Swedish influence in America was ended in 1655 when Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherland, captured the forts with ease.

Oxford
557