Olga, Saint or Saint Helga (b. c. 890—d. 969, Kiev; feast day July 11) Princess of Kiev. The first recorded female ruler in Russia, she served as regent of Kiev (945-964) after the assassination of her husband Igor I (8777-945); she avenged his death by having his murderers scalded to death. Probably baptized (c. 957) at Constantinople, she became the first member of the ruling family of Kiev to adopt Christianity. She was can¬ onized as the first Russian saint of the Orthodox church.
oligarchy Va-li-.gar-ke, 'o-li-.gar-keV Rule by the few, often seen as having self-serving ends. Aristotle used the term pejoratively for unjust rule by bad men, contrasting oligarchy with rule by an aristocracy. Most classic oligarchies have resulted when governing elites were recruited exclusively from a ruling class, which tends to exercise power in its own interest. The term is considered outmoded today because “few” conveys no information about the nature of the ruling group.
Oligocene Va-li-go-,sen\ Epoch Major division of the Tertiary Period, from c. 33.7 to 23.8 million years ago. It follows the Eocene Epoch and precedes the Miocene Epoch. The term (from the Greek for “few recent forms”) refers to the small number of modem animals that originated dur¬ ing this epoch. Oligocene climates appear to have been temperate, and many regions were nearly tropical. Grasslands expanded, and forested regions dwindled. The vertebrates of the northern continents had an essen¬ tially modern aspect that is a result less of the appearance of new forms than of the extinction of archaic vertebrates at the close of the Eocene.
oligopoly \,al-3-'ga-p3-le\ Market situation in which producers are so few that the actions of each of them have an impact on price and on com¬ petitors. Each producer must consider the effect of a price change on the others. A cut in price by one may lead to an equal reduction by the oth¬ ers, with the result that each firm will retain about the same share of the market as before but with a lower profit margin. Competition in oligop¬ olistic industries thus tends to manifest itself in nonprice forms such as advertising and product differentiation. Oligopolies in the U.S. include the steel, aluminum, and automobile industries. See also cartel, monopoly.
oligosaccharide \ 1 a-li-go- , sa-k9- 1 rId\ Any carbohydrate with a few (between 3 and about 6 to 10) units of simple sugars (monosaccharides). A wide variety of oligosaccharides are made by partially breaking down polysaccharides. Most of the few naturally occurring oligosaccharides are found in plants; those in animals tend to be combined in glycoproteins.
olive Subtropical, broad-leaved tree ( Olea europaea) or its edible fruit. The olive was being grown on the island of Crete c. 3500 bc, and Semitic peoples apparently were cultivating it as early as 3000 bc. Its cultivation was important to the ancient Greeks and Romans and spread to all the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Today olives are grown primarily for olive oil, valued both for its distinctive taste and fragrance and for its dietary benefits. Fresh olives must be treated to neutralize their extreme bitterness before they can be eaten. The olive family (Oleaceae) comprises about 900 species in 24 genera of woody plants. Native to forested regions, members of the family grow worldwide except in the Arctic; they are evergreen in tropical and warm temperate climes and deciduous in colder zones. The family includes ash trees, which yield hardwood tim¬ ber, and horticultural favourites such as the lilac, jasmine, privet, and for- sythia. Many members of the family are cultivated for their beautiful and fragrant flowers.
Oliver, King orig. Joseph Oliver (b. May 11, 1885, Abend, La., U.S.— d. April 8, 1938, Savannah, Ga.) U.S. jazz cometist and band¬ leader. Oliver grew up in New Orleans and established himself as the city’s preeminent cometist, coleading a band with trombonist Kid Ory (1886-1973) before moving to Chicago in 1918. In 1922 Oliver hired his
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1406 i Olives ► Olympic Games
New Orleans protege Louis Armstrong to join him in Chicago in his Cre¬ ole Jazz Band. Their recordings together, including “Dipper Mouth Blues,” are jazz classics.
Olives, Mount of Limestone ridge, east of Jerusalem. Frequently men¬ tioned in the Bible, it is holy both in Judaism and in Christianity. Politi¬ cally it is part of the municipality of Greater Jerusalem under Israeli administration. Its slopes have been the most sacred burial ground in Judaism for centuries. The peak generally regarded as the Mount of Olives is 2,652 ft (808 m) in elevation. Nearby is the site held by tradition to be the Garden of Gethsemane, which is associated with the betrayal and Cru¬ cifixion of Jesus.
Olivetti & C. SpA \,a-l9-'ve-te\ Historic Italian electronics and tele¬ communications company. Founded in 1908 by Camillo Olivetti (1868— 1943), the firm began by making typewriters. Camillo’s son Adriano studied manufacturing and plant management in the U.S. in the 1920s, and as company president from 1938 made Olivetti into Europe’s prin¬ cipal maker of business machines. The company later produced calcula¬ tors, microcomputers, and copiers. In 1982 its U.S. subsidiary was purchased by Docutel Corp. In the late 1990s Olivetti sold off its money¬ losing computer business and remade itself as a telecommunications com¬ pany with holdings in mobile and fixed-line telephones. It became a subsidiary of Telecom Italia in 1993.
Olivier \3-'li-ve-,a\, Laurence (Kerr), Baron Olivier (of Brigh¬ ton) (b. May 22, 1907, Dorking, Surrey, Eng.—d. July 11, 1989, near London) British actor, director, and producer. He began his professional career in 1926 and joined the Old Vic company in 1937, playing many major Shakespearean roles. With Ralph Richardson he codirected the Old Vic (1944-50), and he acted in some of its greatest productions, includ¬ ing Richard III, Henry IV, and Oedipus Rex. He was knighted in 1947. From 1950 he directed and acted under his own management; his notable productions included Antony and Cleopatra and The Entertainer (1957). He was the founding director of the National Theatre (1962-73), one of whose theatres is now named for him. In 1970 he was created a life peer, the first actor ever to be so honoured. His many films include Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), Hamlet (1948, Academy Award), The Entertainer (1960), and Othello (1965). He was married to the actresses Vivien Leigh and (from 1961) Joan Plowright (b. 1929).
olivine Va-ta-.venX Any member of a group of common magnesium, iron silicate minerals. Olivines occur in many igneous rocks and are a major constituent of the Earth’s upper mantle. They also have been found in some lunar rocks and in many meteorites. Olivine forms yellow to greenish yel¬ low crystals and is sometimes used in making bricks. Transparent green olivine (precious olivine) is called peridot.
Olmec \'al-,mek\ First elaborate pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamer- ica. The Olmec lived in the lowland gulf coast of what is now southern Mexico. Developing a wide trading network, their cultural influence spread north to the Valley of Mexico and south to Central America; later native religions and iconography throughout Mesoamerica have Olmec roots. Their oldest known building site, San Lorenzo, which dates to c. 1150 bc, is remarkable for its colossal stone sculptures of human heads. The dominant motif in Olmec art is the figure of a god that is a hybrid of a jaguar and a human infant. Olmec buildings, monuments, and art style all indicate a complex and nonegalitarian society.
Olmsted, Frederick Law (b. April 26, 1822, Hartford, Conn., U.S.—d. Aug. 28, 1903, Brookline, Mass.) U.S. landscape architect. He traveled throughout the American South in the 1850s and won fame for several books describing its slaveholding culture. During an extended vacation in Europe, he became profoundly impressed with English land¬ scaping, which he described in Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England (1852). In 1857 he was hired as superintendent of New York City’s newly planned Central Park. With the architect Calvert Vaux (1824- 95), he won a competition to design the park, and he became its chief architect in 1858. The result was a nature-lover’s paradise incorporating lawns, woods, ponds, and meandering paths; it represented one of the first attempts in the U.S. to apply art to the improvement of nature in a public park. Other Olmsted parks include Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York City; a Niagara Falls, N.Y., park project; an extensive system of parks and parkways in Boston; and the World’s Columbian Exposition (later Jackson Park) in Chicago. As chairman of the first Yosemite commission, he helped secure the area as a permanent public park.