Oenghus See Maponos
Oerter V6r-tor\, Al(fred) (b. Sept. 19, 1936, Astoria, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. discus thrower. He won gold medals at four consecutive Olympic Games (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968) and set world records four times between 1962 and 1964. He was the first to throw the discus over 200 ft.; he recorded his best throw (212.5 ft [64.78 m]) at the 1968 Olympics.
O'Faolain \o-'fa-bn, o-'fa-bn\, Sean orig. John Francis Whelan
(b. Feb. 22, 1900, Cork, County Cork, Ire.—d. April 20, 1991, Dublin) Irish writer. He became involved in anti-British activities during the Irish insurrection (1918-21) and taught (1926-33). After achieving success with his first story collection. Midsummer Night Madness (1932), and the novel A Nest of Simple Folk (1933), he wrote full-time. He is known for carefully crafted, lyrical short stories about Ireland’s lower and middle classes, often examining the decline of the nationalist struggle or the oppressive provincialism of Irish Catholicism. His other works include Bird Alone (1936), A Life of Daniel O’Connell (1938), and Vive moi! (1964), his autobiography.
Off-Broadway Small-scale theatrical productions in New York City, p— The term was first used to refer to experimental plays produced on low
budgets in small theatres, which provided an alternative to the commer- wm dally oriented Broadway theatres. Off-Broadway theatres grew in quality
!■ and importance after 1952, with the success of Jose Quintero’s produc¬
tions. Plays by Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, and Lanford Wilson were first tm produced off Broadway, as were avant-garde works by Eugene Ionesco,
9 Samuel Beckett, and Harold Pinter. Many new plays are now staged in
well-equipped Off-Broadway houses, and Off-Broadway theatre has its own set of awards, the Obies. As production costs increased, smaller and more experimental theatres emerged; these were quickly labeled Off-Off- Broad way.
Offa Vo -fo\ (d. July 796) One of the most powerful kings in Anglo-Saxon England. He became king of Mercia (757-796) after seizing power dur¬ ing a civil war. He extended his rule over most of southern England and married his daughters to the rulers of Wessex and Northumbria. Eager to form European diplomatic ties, Offa signed a commercial treaty with Charlemagne (796) and allowed the pope to increase his control over the English church. He built Offa's Dyke to divide Mercia from Welsh lands.
Offa's Dyke Earthwork in western England. It stretches 169 mi (270 km) from the River Severn near Chepstow to the seaward end of the River Dee’s estuary. It was built by Offa of Mercia to fortify the boundary between his kingdom and the lands of the Welsh; for centuries it marked the England-Wales boundary. It consisted of a plain bank (in places some 60 ft [18 m] high) and a ditch (12 ft [3.7 m] deep). Many sections remain, and a walking path now runs its length.
Offenbach Vo-fsn-.bakX, Jacques orig. Jacob Offenbach (b.
June 20, 1819, Cologne—d. Oct. 5, 1880, Paris, France) German-bom French composer. Son of a cantor, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire but had to leave for lack of funds. He first wrote theatre music as con¬ ductor of the Theatre-Frangais (from 1850); in 1855 he opened his own theatre, Bouffes-Parisiens, for which he wrote many celebrated one-act works. He began writing longer operettas and had a string of hits, includ¬ ing Orpheus in the Underworld (1858), La Belle Helene (1864), La Vie Parisienne (1866), and The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (1867). Offen¬ bach is credited with writing in a fluent, elegant style and with a highly developed sense of both characterization and satire. He spent his last three years on his only grand opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, which remained unfinished at his death and was first produced in 1881.
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (1942^15) U.S. agency formed for the purpose of obtaining information about and sabotaging the mili¬ tary efforts of enemy nations during World War II. It was headed by Wil¬ liam J. (“Wild Bill”) Donovan (1883-1959). With some 12,000 staff, the OSS collected and analyzed information on areas of the world in which U.S. military forces were operating. It used agents inside Nazi-occupied Europe, including Berlin; carried out counterpropaganda and disinforma¬ tion activities; produced analytical reports for policy makers; and staged special operations (e.g., sabotage and demolition) behind enemy lines to support guerrillas and resistance fighters. Many of its functions were later assumed by the Central Intelligence Agency.
offset printing or offset lithography or litho-offset In com¬ mercial printing, a widely used technique in which the inked image on a printing plate is imprinted on a rubber cylinder and then transferred (off¬ set) to paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth, metal, leather, and rough paper. In offset printing the matter to be printed is neither raised above the surface of the printing plate (as in letterpress printing) nor sunk below it (as in inta¬ glio, or gravure, printing). Offset printing, a development of lithography, is based on the principle that water and grease do not mix, so that a greasy ink can be deposited on grease-treated printing areas of the plate, while nonprinting areas, which hold water, reject the ink. The offset plate is usually of zinc or aluminum or a combination of metals, with the surface treated to render it porous and then coated with a photosensitive material. Exposure to an image hardens the coating on printing areas; the coating on nonprinting areas is washed away, leaving wetted metal that will reject ink. See also xerography.
offshore bar See sandbar
O'Flaherty, Liam (b. Aug. 28, 1896, Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ire.—d. Sept. 7, 1984, Dublin) Irish novelist and short-story writer. He abandoned his training for the priesthood and became a sol¬ dier in World War I, a migrant labourer in the Americas and the Middle East, and a revolutionary in Ireland. A leading writer of the Irish literary renaissance, he combined brutal naturalism, psychological analysis, poetry, and biting satire with an abiding respect for the Irish people. His novels include Thy Neighbour’s Wife (1923), The Informer (1925; film, 1935), Skerrett (1932), Famine (1937), and Insurrection (1950).
Ogaden \,o-g3-'den\ Region, eastern Ethiopia. In the triangular wedge that juts into Somalia, it is a dry, barren plain sparsely populated by Somali-speaking nomadic pastoralists. Conquered in the late 19th century by the Ethiopian emperor Menilek II, it was invaded by Italy in 1935 and made part of Italian East Africa. Liberated in 1941, it remained under British administration until 1948. It was invaded by Somalia in 1977 and retaken by Ethiopia in 1978, with help from Cuba and the Soviet Union.
Ogata Kenzan \o-'ga-ta-'ken-,zan\ orig. Ogata Shinsei (b. 1663, Kyoto, Japan—d. June 3, 1743, Edo) Japanese potter, calligrapher, and painter. Many of his designs reflect his classical Chinese and Japanese education. The iro-e (“colour painting”) of his pottery is particularly fine, and his calligraphy, seen in his wares and paintings, was distinctive. His best-known works include a plate with a picture of a cedar grove and the Hana-kago (“Flower Baskets”), a watercolour hanging scroll.
Ogbomosho \,og-bo- , mo-sho\ City (pop. 1995 est.: 711,900), south¬ western Nigeria. Founded in the mid-17th century, it was an outpost of the Oyo empire until the Muslim Fulani conquests in the early 19th cen¬ tury. As a centre of resistance, the walled town attracted many Oyo refu¬ gees. Located northeast of Ibadan, it is one of Nigeria’s largest urban centres. It is also a trading centre and rail junction.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
ogham writing ► Ohm's law I 1401
ogham Va-gomV writing or ogam writing or ogum writing
Alphabetic script used for writing the Irish and Pictish (see Picts) languages on stone monuments, mostly c. ad 400-600. In its simplest form, it con¬ sists of four sets of strokes, or notches, each set containing five letters composed of from one to five strokes, thus creating 20 letters. A fifth set of five symbols, called forfeda (“extra letters”), was probably a later development. Most inscriptions are short and consist only of names. Of the more than 400 inscriptions known, about 330 are from Ireland.