#76784 - 07/25/02 12:48 PM
Re: Orrery
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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Orrery An astronomical toy to show the relative movements of the planets, etc., invented by George
Graham, who sent his model to Rowley, an instrument maker, to make one for Prince Eugéne. Rowley
made a copy of it for Charles Boyle, third Earl of Orrery, and Sir Richard Steele named it an orrery out of
compliment to the earl. One of the best is Fulton's, in Kelvin Grove Museum, West End Park, Glasgow.
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#76785 - 07/25/02 12:52 PM
Re: Orts
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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Orts Crumbs; refuse. (Low German, ort- i.e. what is left after eating.)
I shall not eat your orts- i.e. your leavings.
On Boston radio there used to be ads for "Ort's Grille" I was not tempted
to patronize it.
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#76786 - 07/25/02 12:58 PM
Re: Osprey
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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Osprey or Ospray (a corruption of Latin Ossifragus the bone-breaker). The fish-eagle, or fishing hawk
(Pandion haeliaetis).
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#76787 - 07/25/02 01:02 PM
Re: Ossian
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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A famous literary hoax.
Ossian The son of Fingal, a Scottish warrior-bard who lived in the third century. The poems called
Ossian's Pooms were first published by James M'Pherson in 1760, and professed to be translations from
Erse manuscripts collected in the Highlands. This is not true. M'Pherson no doubt based the poems on
traditions, but not one of them is a translation of an Erse manuscript; and so far as they are Ossianic at all,
they are Irish, and not Scotch
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#76788 - 07/25/02 01:07 PM
Re: Ostler
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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A contradiction
Ostler jocosely said to be derived from oat-stealer, but actually from the French hostelier, an innkeeper.
hos[tler 7h9s4l!r, 9s$38
n.
5contr. of HOSTELER6
1 a person who takes care of horses at an inn, stable, etc.; groom
>2 a person who services a truck or a railroad engine at the end of a run
3 [Obs.] an innkeeper
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#76789 - 07/25/02 01:09 PM
Re: Ostracism
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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Ostracis'm Oyster-shelling, black-balling, or expelling. Clisthenes gave the people of Attica the power of
removing from the state, without making a definite charge, any leader of the people likely to subvert the
government. Each citizen wrote his vote on an earthen. ware table (ostracon), whence the term.
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#76790 - 07/25/02 01:12 PM
Re: Ostrich
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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I wonder how Brewer a hundred years ago would repeat this stupid hoax:
Ostrich When hunted the ostrich is said to run a certain distance and then thrust its head into a bush,
thinking, because it cannot see, that it cannot be seen by the hunters. (See Crocodile. )
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#76791 - 07/25/02 01:16 PM
Re: Otium
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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Brewer's take on retirement:
O'tium cum Dig [dignitate ]. Retirement after a person has given up business and has saved enough to
live upon in comfort. The words are Latin, and mean “retirement with honour.” They are more frequently
used in jest, familiarity, and ridicule.
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#76792 - 07/25/02 01:18 PM
Re: Oui?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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Oui (French for “yes”). A contraction of Hoc illud. Thus, hoc-ill', ho'-il, o'il, oïl, oï, oui.
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#76793 - 07/25/02 01:21 PM
Re: Nobody
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
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Outis (Greek, nobody). A name assumed by Odysseus in the cave of Polyphemos. When the monster
roared with the pain from the loss of his eye, his brother giants demanded from a distance who was
hurting him: “Nobody,” thundered out Polyphemos, and his companions went their way. Odysseus in
Latin is Ulysses.
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