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  • Oswald of Wolkenstein (German composer)
    ...of polyphonic lieder for two or more voices or voice and instruments. One of the most popular polyphonic lieder is the two-voice “Wach auff myn Hort” (“Awake, my darling”) by Oswald of Wolkenstein (1377–1455)....
  • Oswald of York, Saint (English saint)
    Anglo-Saxon archbishop of Danish parentage who was a leading figure in the 10th-century movement of monastic and feudalistic reforms....
  • Oswald, Saint (king of Northumbria)
    Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria from 633 to 642 who introduced Celtic Christian missionaries to his kingdom and gained ascendancy over most of England....
  • Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (cartoon character)
    With Roy as business manager, Disney resumed the Alice series, persuading Iwerks to join him and assist with the drawing of the cartoons. They invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, contracted for distribution of the films at $1,500 each, and propitiously launched their small enterprise. In 1927, just before the transition to sound in motion pictures, Disney and Iwerks......
  • Oswald’s Tale (book by Mailer)
    ...Don’t Dance (1984), a contemporary mystery thriller; and the enormous Harlot’s Ghost (1991), a novel focusing on the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1995 Mailer published Oswald’s Tale, an exhaustive nonfictional portrayal of U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy’s assassin. Mailer’s final two novels intertwined religion and histori...
  • Oswego (New York, United States)
    port city, seat (1816) of Oswego county, north-central New York, U.S. It lies along Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Oswego River, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Syracuse. The name derives from the Iroquoian Indian word osh-we-geh, meaning “pouring-out place” (i.e., a ...
  • Oswego (Oregon, United States)
    city, Clackamas county, northwestern Oregon, U.S., on the Willamette River (and its western extension, 405-acre [164-hectare] Oswego Lake), just south of Portland. Ruins of the Willamette Iron Company’s Oswego blast furnace...
  • Oswego (county, New York, United States)
    county, north-central New York state, U.S., bordered by Lake Ontario to the northwest and the Oswego and Oneida rivers and Oneida Lake to the south. Other waterways include the Salmon and Little Salmon rivers and the New York State Canal System and its constituent Erie and Oswego canals. Most of the county consists of lowl...
  • Oswego tea (herb)
    M. fistulosa, growing to 1.5 m (5 feet) tall, has a minty aroma. The more sharply scented Oswego tea (M. didyma), shorter and with scarlet flowers, is native in eastern North America but is widely cultivated elsewhere....
  • Oswestry (England, United Kingdom)
    town and former borough (district), administrative and historic county of Shropshire, western England, bordered on three sides by Wales. Oswestry lies in a scenic setting in the foothills of the Berwyn Mountains between Wat’s Dyke (c. 700) and Offa’s Dyke (c. 784), defensive ear...
  • Oswestry (district, England, United Kingdom)
    town and former borough (district), administrative and historic county of Shropshire, western England, bordered on three sides by Wales. Oswestry lies in a scenic setting in the foothills of the Berwyn Mountains between Wat’s Dyke (c. 700) and Offa’s Dyke (c. 784), defensive earthworks formerly separating England and Wales. “Old” Oswestry, an Iron Age hill...
  • Oświęcim (Poland)
    city, Małopolskie województwo (province), southern Poland. It lies at the confluence of the Vistula and Soła rivers. A rail junction and industrial centre, the town became known as the site of an infamous Nazi extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświ...
  • Oświęcim (Auschwitz)
    ...
  • Oświęcim (concentration camp, Poland)
    Nazi Germany’s largest concentration camp and extermination camp. Located near the industrial town of Oświęcim in southern Poland (in a portion of the country that was annexed by Germany at the beginning of World War II), Auschwitz was actually thr...
  • Oswiu (king of Northumbria)
    Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria from 655 to 670....
  • Oswy (king of Northumbria)
    Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria from 655 to 670....
  • Őszikék (work by Arany)
    ...periods are fraught with melancholy. The earlier poems, written in the 1850s, are overshadowed by the loss of Petőfi and by Arany’s despair for the Hungarian nation and for himself. The Őszikék, his beautiful swan songs, written just before his death, poignantly reflect Arany’s sense of unfulfillment and solitude....
  • “Ot dvukh do pyati” (work by Chukovsky)
    ...doctrine (with a utopian slant) and quite standard Western humanistic ideas. It is in Korney Chukovsky’s remarkable book Malenkiye deti (1925) or Ot dvukh do pyati (Eng. trans., From Two to Five, 1963), however, that the opposition of two familiar forces, entertainment and instruction, can be sensed most clearly. The tension is typically expressed in Chukovsky...
  • OT level (scientology)
    ...by many practices to find the pathway to salvation. He has held the imperishable hope that someday in some way he would be free.” Consequently, the most sacred teachings of Scientology (the Operating Thetan, or OT, levels) are concerned with assisting the individual to operate as a fully conscious and functioning thetan....
  • Ōta (Japan)
    city, Gumma ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Tone River. During the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) it was a market town, a post town on the Nikkō Highway...
  • Otago (region, New Zealand)
    regional council, southeastern South Island, New Zealand, encompassing the Otago Mountains, a fragmented schist plateau. The region stretches westward across South Island from the south Pacific Ocean to include the eastern slopes of ...
  • Otago Daily Times (New Zealand newspaper)
    ...Victoria, Vogel emigrated to Australia in 1852 and became successful in business and journalism. He moved to Otago, N.Z., in 1861 after being badly defeated for public office and soon guided the Otago Daily Times to a leading position in the colony. Elected to Parliament in 1863, he led the opposition (1865–68) and became colonial treasurer in 1869 in the ministry of William Fox.....
  • Otago, University of (university, Dunedin, New Zealand)
    ...its green “Town Belt,” planned by the founders to surround the inner city with 500 acres (200 hectares) of forest. Other prominent features include a botanic garden, an art gallery, the University of Otago (1869; the oldest university in New Zealand), the Otago Museum, and the Early Settlers’ Museum. The city is also a religious centre with Roman Catholic and Anglican cathe...
  • Otaheite (island, French Polynesia)
    largest island of the Îles du Vent (Windward Islands) of the Society Islands, French Polynesia, in the central South Pacific Ocean. Its nearest neighbour is Moorea, 12 miles (20 km) to the northwest. The island of Tahiti consists of two ancient eroded volcanic cones, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti (the...
  • Otaheite gooseberry (plant)
    ...best showing this shedding adaptation are sometimes referred to two other genera, Cicca and Emblica, though many less-known Phyllanthus species have the same adaptation. Otaheite gooseberry (P. acidus, or Cicca disticha) is a small Indian tree bearing dangling clusters of light-yellow or green, vertically ribbed, acid-sour fruits, nearly 2 cm (0.8 inch)......
  • Otakar I (king of Bohemia)
    king of Bohemia (1198–1230), who won both Bohemia’s autonomy from the German king and the hereditary rights to the Bohemian crown for his house of Přemysl....
  • Otakar II (king of Bohemia)
    king of Bohemia (1253–78), who briefly established his crownland as the most powerful state of the Holy Roman Empire....
  • Ōtakine, Mount (mountain, Japan)
    ...(Abukuma Plateau) because much of the original surface in the south has been obliterated by erosion and broken by several parallel fault valleys that run from north-northwest to south-southeast. Ōtakine-san (Mt. Ōtakine) is the highest point in the range; it rises to 3,914 feet (1,193 m) above the surrounding eroded surfaces, which average 2,950 feet (900 m) in elevation. Since......
  • Ōtakine-san (mountain, Japan)
    ...(Abukuma Plateau) because much of the original surface in the south has been obliterated by erosion and broken by several parallel fault valleys that run from north-northwest to south-southeast. Ōtakine-san (Mt. Ōtakine) is the highest point in the range; it rises to 3,914 feet (1,193 m) above the surrounding eroded surfaces, which average 2,950 feet (900 m) in elevation. Since......
  • Otamadai (pottery style)
    ...produced by mountain dwellers, has a burnt-reddish surface and is noted especially for extensive and flamboyant applied decorative schemes, some of which may have been related to a snake cult. The Otamadai type, produced by lowland peoples, was coloured dirt-brown with a mica additive and is somewhat more restrained in design. The Kasori E type has a salmon-orange surface. During this period a....
  • Otaria byronia (mammal)
    The southern, or South American, sea lion (Otaria byronia) is generally brown with a yellowish orange belly. It swims in coastal waters from northern Peru southward to Tierra del Fuego and even around the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. The male is about 2.5 metres in length and weighs 200–350 kg; the female is about 1.8 metres long and 140 kg. South......
  • Otariidae (mammal)
    ...and related species), Mephitidae (skunks and stink badgers), Herpestidae (mongooses), Viverridae (civets, genets, and related species), and Hyaenidae (hyenas). There are three aquatic families: Otariidae (sea lions and fur seals), Phocidae (true, or earless, seals), and Odobenidae (the walrus). These aquatic families are referred to as pinnipeds....
  • Otaru (Japan)
    city, Hokkaido, Japan, on Ishikari Bay of the Sea of Japan. Its name is a corruption of the Ainu word otarunai, meaning “sandy beach.” Otaru developed as a modern town in the late 19th century. Provided with a good natural harbour, it is now the second most important seaport after Hako...
  • Otavalo (Ecuador)
    town, north-central Ecuador, in the Andean highlands at an elevation of 8,441 feet (2,573 metres). The area was densely settled by the Otavalo Indians prior to its conquest by the Incas and became a Spanish-controlled settlement in the 16th century. Largely destroyed in the 1868 earthquake, the town has since been rebuilt. The surrounding land, owned in small parcels by the Ota...
  • Otavi Mountains (mountains, Namibia)
    Namibia’s soils range from barren sand and rock to low-quality sand-dominated to relatively fertile soils. The best soils are in the north, in the Otavi Mountains, in parts of the central and southern portions of the plateau, and in the Caprivi Strip. Water—not soil fertility—is the primary constraint on agriculture. Both in the densely populated Ovambo region in the north and...
  • otavite (mineral)
    Namibia’s soils range from barren sand and rock to low-quality sand-dominated to relatively fertile soils. The best soils are in the north, in the Otavi Mountains, in parts of the central and southern portions of the plateau, and in the Caprivi Strip. Water—not soil fertility—is the primary constraint on agriculture. Both in the densely populated Ovambo region in the north and...
  • Otbert I (Italian feudal lord)
    marquis of eastern Liguria and count of Luni, powerful feudal lord of 10th-century Italy under King Berengar II and the Holy Roman emperor Otto I. His descendants, the Obertinghi, founded several famous Italian feudal clans. He was a Lombard and probabl...
  • OTC deficiency (pathology)
    ...in a given individual, with the resultant appearance of symptoms of disease in various degrees. Such females are known as manifesting heterozygotes. Examples of X-linked disorders include ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (an enzyme deficiency resulting in high blood levels of ammonia and impaired urea formation), X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (a disorder that is characterized by......
  • OTC trading (trading)
    trading in stocks and bonds that does not take place on stock exchanges; such trading is most significant in the United States, where requirements for listing stocks on the exchanges are quite strict. It is often called the “off-board market,” and sometimes the “unlisted market,” though the latter...
  • Otdeleniye po Okhraneniyu Obshchestvennoy Bezopasnosti i Poryadka (Russian police organization)
    (1881–1917), prerevolutionary Russian secret-police organization that was founded to combat political terrorism and left-wing revolutionary activity. The group’s principal mode of operation was through infiltration of labour unions, political parties...
  • OTEC (technology)
    form of energy conversion that makes use of the temperature differential between the warm surface waters of the oceans, heated by solar radiation, and the deeper cold waters to generate power in a conventional heat engine. The difference in temperature between the surface and the lower...
  • Otechestvenofront (political party, Europe)
    ...Dollfuss and the Heimwehr were victorious. The Social Democratic Party was declared illegal and driven underground. In the course of the same year, all political parties were abolished except the Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front), which Dollfuss had founded in 1933 to unite all conservative groups. In April 1934 the rump of the parliament was brought together and accepted an......
  • Oteiza Embil, Jorge (Spanish sculptor)
    Basque sculptor (b. Oct. 21, 1908, Orio, Spain—d. April 9, 2003, San Sebastián, Spain), examined the nature of space and emptiness in monumental minimalist sculptures that were influential in the art world of the mid-20th century. Oteiza began sculpting while studying medicine in Madrid. In 1935–48 he lived in South America...
  • Otellini, Paul (American businessman)
    Paul Otellini succeeded Barrett as Intel’s CEO in 2005. Jane Shaw replaced Barrett as chairman in 2009, when the company was ranked 61st on the Fortune 500 list of the largest American companies....
  • Otello (opera by Rossini)
    ...As with The Barber, this work uses a contralto for the heroine’s role (though both roles are often sung by sopranos); it proved no less successful. In between these two comedies came Otello (1816; Othello), a setting of William Shakespeare’s play that held the stage until superseded by Giuseppe Verdi’s greater opera of the same name. La gazza ladra...
  • Otello (opera by Verdi)
    ...finally opened at La Scala in 1887. In his 74th year, Verdi, stimulated by a libretto far superior to anything he had previously set, had produced his tragic masterpiece. In Otello the drama is absorbed into a continuous and flexible musical score vastly advanced in style over that of Aida, reflecting every aspect of the characters and......
  • Otemanu, Mount (mountain, Bora-Bora, French Polynesia)
    ...of French Polynesia. It lies in the central South Pacific Ocean, about 165 miles (265 km) northwest of Tahiti. The mountainous island, some 6 miles (10 km) long and 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, has Mount Otemanu (Temanu; 2,385 feet [727 metres]) and twin-peaked Mount Pahia (2,159 feet [658 metres]) as its highest peaks. It is surrounded by coral reefs. On the west side of Bora-Bora is a large......
  • Otero (county, New Mexico, United States)
    county, southern New Mexico, U.S., bordered on the south by Texas. The terrain comprises drastic extremes, including elevations to 11,997 feet (3,656 metres) at Sierra Blanca, extensive, waterless deserts, and tree-covered mountains. The county lies in the Basin and Range province, with its west in the Highland section. Western Otero county is the wide Tularosa Basin, site of Wh...
  • Otero, Alejandro (Venezuelan artist)
    ...colours and textures used by Venezuelan sculptors also related to the Op art movement of the early 1960s. Jesús Rafael Soto’s moving wire reliefs challenged the viewer’s perception, and Alejandro Otero’s works were sculptural and even architectural, as in his monumental stainless steel Solar Delta (1977) on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Mor...
  • Otero Pedrayo, Ramón (Spanish scholar)
    Other preeminent Galician cultural figures of the 20th century included Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968), a scholar whose works centred on Spanish philology and culture; Ramón Otero Pedrayo (1888–1976), who published much about Galician culture and wrote almost exclusively in Galician; author Camilo José Cela (1916–2002), winner of the Nobel Prize.....
  • Otero y Cintron, José Vincente Ferrer de (American actor)
    American actor and director, who was perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning performance in the title role of the film Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) and for his portrayal of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (1952)....
  • Otetiani (Seneca chief)
    Seneca chief whose magnificent oratory masked his schemes to maintain his position despite double-dealing against his people’s interests. His first Indian name was Otetiani, and he assumed the name Sagoyewatha upon becoming a chief. “Red Jacket” was his English name, a result of the succession of red coats he wore while on the British side during the American Revoluti...
  • “Otets Sergy” (work by Tolstoy)
    ...1886; The Death of Ivan Ilyich), a novella describing a man’s gradual realization that he is dying and that his life has been wasted on trivialities. Otets Sergy (written 1898; Father Sergius), which may be taken as Tolstoy’s self-critique, tells the story of a proud man who wants to become a saint but discovers that sainthood cannot be consciously sought. Reg...
  • OTF metering (photography)
    ...photocells behind a partly reflecting mirror), or they measure the light reflected from the film or from a specially structured first shutter blind at the beginning of, or during, the exposure. Such off-the-film (OTF) measurement is also used for electronic flash control (see below)....
  • Otfrid (German poet)
    monk of Weissenburg in Alsace and the first German poet known by name....
  • Otfried (German poet)
    monk of Weissenburg in Alsace and the first German poet known by name....
  • OTH radar
    ...(PPI) radar display, which provides the location and direction of a target on a maplike presentation that is easy to interpret. Page conceived and initiated the first successful demonstration of high-frequency over-the-horizon (HF OTH) radar, whose propagating waves are refracted by the Earth’s ionosphere. The detection of ships, aircraft, and ballistic missiles was thereby extended out ...
  • Othello (film by Welles)
    ...Chimes at Midnight (1966), based on the Henriad, Falstaff becomes self-referentially Welles himself, a misunderstood genius. Welles’s cinematic masterpiece is Othello (1952; restored 1992). Its skewed camera angles and film noir texture mirror Othello’s agony....
  • Othello (fictional character)
    a Moorish general in the service of Venice in Shakespeare’s Othello. Driven by jealousy that has been skillfully manipulated, Othello takes the life of Desdemona, his doting wife, and then his own....
  • “Othello” (opera by Rossini)
    ...As with The Barber, this work uses a contralto for the heroine’s role (though both roles are often sung by sopranos); it proved no less successful. In between these two comedies came Otello (1816; Othello), a setting of William Shakespeare’s play that held the stage until superseded by Giuseppe Verdi’s greater opera of the same name. La gazza ladra...
  • Othello (work by Shakespeare)
    tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written in 1603–04 and published in 1622 in a quarto edition from a transcript of an authorial manuscript. The text published in the First Folio of 1623 seems to have been based on a version revised by Shakespeare himself that sticks close to the original almost line by line but introduces numerous substituti...
  • “Othello, the Moor of Venice” (work by Shakespeare)
    tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written in 1603–04 and published in 1622 in a quarto edition from a transcript of an authorial manuscript. The text published in the First Folio of 1623 seems to have been based on a version revised by Shakespeare himself that sticks close to the original almost line by line but introduces numerous substituti...
  • Othello’s Tower (citadel, Famagusta, Cyprus)
    ...military architecture extant. The walls are 50 feet (15 metres) high and 27 feet (8 metres) thick in places, and north of the well-preserved sea gate (rebuilt 1492) stands the citadel known as Othello’s Tower, so called because a lieutenant-governor of Cyprus (1506–08) named Christoforo Moro was allegedly the model for the title character in Shakespeare’s play ......
  • Other Americas (work by Salgado)
    ...grounded in great formal beauty and strong compositions, which lend a sense of nobility to his often downtrodden subjects. He won the City of Paris/Kodak Award for his first photographic book, Other Americas (1986), which recorded the everyday lives of Latin American peasants. This was followed by Sahel: Man in Distress (1986), a book on the 1984–85 famine in th...
  • Other Criteria (essay by Steinberg)
    In the essay Other Criteria (1972), the American scholar and critic Leo Steinberg criticized Greenberg from an art-historical point of view, stating that in Greenberg’s “formalist ethic, the ideal critic remains unmoved by the artist’s expressive intention, uninfluenced by his culture, deaf to his irony or iconography, and so proceeds undistracted, p...
  • Other Inquisitions, 1937–1952 (1937–1952)
    ...of the Allies in World War II. With the help of friends, he earned his way by lecturing, editing, and writing. A 1952 collection of essays, Otras inquisiciones (1937–1952) (Other Inquisitions, 1937–1952), revealed him at his analytic best. When Perón was deposed in 1955, Borges became director of the national library, an honorific position, and als...
  • Other Minds (work by Austin)
    A well-known example of such a view was advanced by J.L. Austin (1911–60) in his 1946 paper Other Minds. Austin claimed that, when one says “I know,” one is not describing a mental state; in fact, one is not “describing” anything at all. Instead, one is indicating that one is in a position to assert that such and such is the case (one ha...
  • other minds, problem of (philosophy)
    in philosophy, the problem of justifying the commonsensical belief that others besides oneself possess minds and are capable of thinking or feeling somewhat as one does oneself. The problem has been discussed within both the analytic (Anglo-American) and the continental philosophical traditions, and since the 20th century it has provided a matter for dispute in epistemo...
  • Other Ones, the (American rock group)
    ...was used by Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. The Other Ones produced their debut studio album, The Strange Remain (1999), and toured regularly. In 2003 the band dubbed itself The Dead (dropping “Grateful” out of respect for Garcia) and added former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes to the lineup the following year. Personality conflicts sur...
  • Other People’s Money, and How the Bankers Use It (work by Brandeis)
    ...the Brandeis brief, in which economic and sociological data, historical experience, and expert opinions are marshaled to support the legal propositions. His most notable book, a volume of essays, Other People’s Money, and How the Bankers Use It (1914), dealt with the control exercised by investment bankers over American industry. His work attacking monopolies and interlocking dire...
  • Other Russia, the (political coalition, Russia)
    ...start a political organization, the United Civil Front, to oppose Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin. In 2006 Kasparov was one of the prime movers behind a broad coalition of political parties that formed the Other Russia, a group held together by only one goal: ousting Putin from power. In 2007, following several protest marches organized by the coalition in which Kasparov and other participants wer...
  • Other Side of the Street, The (film by Bernstein [2004])
    ...as a manipulative stepmother in the acclaimed miniseries Hoje é dia de Maria (2005; “Today is Maria’s Day”). The film O outro lado da rua (2004; The Other Side of the Street), a thriller inspired by the work of director Alfred Hitchcock, featured Montenegro as a lonely woman who believes she has witnessed a murder take place acr...
  • Other Voices, Other Rooms (work by Capote)
    ...and Reynolds Price, whose best novels were A Long and Happy Life (1961) and Kate Vaiden (1986). Initially known for his lyrical portraits of Southern eccentrics (Other Voices, Other Rooms [1948]), Truman Capote later published In Cold Blood (1966), a cold but impressive piece of documentary realism that contributed, along with the work of......
  • Other Woman, The (work by Ogot)
    ...House. Her stories—which appeared in European and African journals such as Black Orpheus and Transition and in collections such as Land Without Thunder (1968), The Other Woman (1976), and The Island of Tears (1980)—give an inside view of traditional Luo life and society and the conflict of traditional with colonial and modern cultures. Her......
  • other-directed personality (sociology)
    ...related to any wider social forces, and are also likely to remain unchanged. In heavily industrialized societies, where the population is dense and perhaps beginning to decline, the “other-directed” individual emerges. His life is in large part shaped by “peer groups” of persons whom he resembles in age, social class, or otherwise, and he adjusts his values to......
  • Othman (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan who came to the throne as an active and intelligent boy of 14 and who during his short rule (1618–22) understood the need for reform within the empire....
  • Othman (Ottoman sultan)
    ruler of a Turkmen principality in northwestern Anatolia who is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Turkish state. Both the name of the dynasty and the empire that the dynasty established are derived from the Arabic form (ʿUthmān) of his name....
  • Othniel (biblical figure)
    The third section relates the exploits of the various judges. Othniel, a member of the tribe of Caleb, delivered the erring Israelites from eight years of oppression by Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. The king, however, was most likely an area ruler, rather than a king of the Mesopotamian Empire. Another judge, Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite, delivered Israel from the oppression of the......
  • Otho (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from January to April 69....
  • Otho (king of Greece)
    first king of the modern Greek state (1832–62), who governed his country autocratically until he was forced to become a constitutional monarch in 1843. Attempting to increase Greek territory at the expense of Turkey, he failed and was overthrown....
  • Óthris, Óros (mountain range, Greece)
    ...summit rises to 9,570 feet (2,917 metres), the highest point in Greece—and the equally fine peaks of Mounts Kisszavos (Ossa) and Pílios (Pelion). The next spur to the west is the Óthris mountain range, which continues across the narrow Oreón Channel in the northern sector of the long, narrow island of Évvoia (Euboea). Between the two spurs lie the ancient......
  • Oti River (river, West Africa)
    river in West Africa, rising in the southern plain of Burkina Faso. It meanders southward, briefly flowing along the Togo-Benin border. It cuts south-southwest across northern Togo and then forms the Ghana-Togo border for about 60 miles (100 km) before...
  • Oti-Volta languages
    Most Gur languages fall into one of two groups: Central Gur and Senufo. Central Gur itself breaks down into two major subgroups, termed Oti-Volta (with some 25 languages in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso) and Grusi (with a further 20 languages, some to the west and others to the east of the Oti-Volta group). The largest languages in the Oti-Volta group include Moore, the principal......
  • otic capsule (anatomy)
    ...tube, which connects the middle ear with the nasopharynx (see Eustachian tube). The inner (medial) wall, which separates the middle ear from the inner ear, or labyrinth, is a part of the bony otic capsule of the inner ear. It has two small openings, or fenestrae, one above the other. The upper one is the oval window, which is closed by the footplate of the stapes. The lower one is the......
  • Otididae (bird)
    any of numerous medium-to large-sized game birds of the family Otididae, related to the cranes and rails in the order Gruiformes. There are about 23 species, confined to Africa, southern Europe, Asia, Australia, and part of New Guinea. Bustards have rather long legs, adapted to running. They have only three toes, lacking th...
  • Otidiphaps nobilis (bird)
    The many other Old World genera in the subfamily Columbinae include the chicken-sized pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis) of New Guinea. In the New World the white-winged doves and the mourning dove (q.v.; Zenaida) are popular game birds; Central and South America support the terrestrial ground doves (Metriopelia) and quail doves (Geotrygon). The New World passenger......
  • Otis Elevator Company (American company)
    ...shape, which was dictated partly by engineering considerations but also partly by Eiffel’s artistic sense, the piers required elevators to ascend on a curve; the glass-cage machines designed by the Otis Elevator Company of the United States became one of the principal features of the building, helping establish it as one of the world’s premier tourist attractions....
  • Otis, Elisha Graves (American inventor)
    American inventor of the safety elevator....
  • Otis, Harrison Gray (American politician)
    Federalist political leader who championed the Hartford Convention in its opposition to mercantilist policies and the War of 1812....
  • Otis, Harrison Gray (American journalist)
    American newspaper publisher who directed the Los Angeles Times from 1886 until after World War I....
  • Otis, James (American politician)
    American political activist during the period leading up to the American Revolution. He helped formulate the colonists’ grievances against the British government in the 1760s....
  • Otis, Johnny (American bandleader, musician, and singer)
    American bandleader, drummer, vibraphonist, singer, producer, and promoter of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Otis was instrumental in furthering the careers of a number of important rhythm-and-blues performers....
  • Otis kori (bird)
    The little bustard (Otis tetrax) ranges from western Europe and Morocco to Afghanistan. The bustards of South Africa are known as paauw, the largest being the great paauw or kori bustard (Ardeotis kori). The Arabian bustard (A. arabs) is found in Morocco and in northern tropical Africa south of the Sahara, as are a number of species belonging to several other genera. In......
  • Otis, Mercy (American writer and historian)
    American poet, dramatist, and historian whose proximity to political leaders and critical national events gives particular value to her writing on the American Revolutionary period. She is considered by some to be the first American woman to write primarily for the public, rather than for herself....
  • Otis tarda (bird)
    The best known bustard is the great bustard (Otis tarda), largest European land bird, the male weighing as much as 14 kilograms (31 pounds) and having a 120-centimetre (4-foot) length and a 240-centimetre (8-foot) wingspread. It is found in grainfields and open steppes from central and southern Europe to Central Asia and Manchuria. The sexes are similar in coloration, being grayish......
  • otitid fly (insect)
    any member of a family of insects in the fly order, Diptera, that are small and have wings that are spotted or banded with black, brown, or yellow. They are commonly found in moist places or on flowers. Adults feed on nectar or fluids from decaying plant material. Larvae feed on dung and on decaying underground plant parts such as bulbs, tubers, and roots, within stems, and occasionally on healthy...
  • Otitidae (insect)
    any member of a family of insects in the fly order, Diptera, that are small and have wings that are spotted or banded with black, brown, or yellow. They are commonly found in moist places or on flowers. Adults feed on nectar or fluids from decaying plant material. Larvae feed on dung and on decaying underground plant parts such as bulbs, tubers, and roots, within stems, and occasionally on healthy...
  • otitis (inflammation of the ear)
    Inflammation of the ear. Otitis externa is dermatitis, usually bacterial, of the auditory canal and sometimes the external ear. It can cause a foul discharge, pain, fever, and sporadic deafness. Otitis media is due to allergy or viral or bacterial infection of the ...
  • otitis externa (pathology)
    dermatitis of the external auditory canal and sometimes also of the exposed ear. The skin on these ear parts becomes dry, scaling, and itchy, and there may be foul-smelling watery or purulent discharge, pain, fever, and intermittent deafness. Predisposing factors include excessive perspiration, trauma, allergy, ...
  • otitis media (pathology)
    inflammation of the lining of the middle ear and one of the most common infections in childhood. In its acute form, it commonly develops in association with an infection of the upper respiratory tract that extends from the nasopharynx to the middle ear through the eustachian tube. Frequent causes of otitis...
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