Osiris \o-'sI-r3s\ Ancient Egyptian god of the underworld. Osiris was slain by the god Seth, who tore apart the corpse and flung the pieces all over Egypt. The goddess Isis, consort of Osiris, and her sister Nephthys found the pieces and gave new life to Osiris, who became the ruler of the underworld. Isis and Osiris then conceived Horus. In the Egyptian con¬ cept of divine kingship, the king at death became Osiris and the new king was identified with Horus. Osiris also represented the power that brought life out of the earth. Festivals reenacting his fate were celebrated annu¬ ally in towns throughout Egypt.
Osier Vos-lorV, Sir William (b. July 12, 1849, Bond Head, Canada West, Can.—d. Dec. 29, 1919,
Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) Cana¬ dian physician and professor. He became the first to identify blood platelets (1873) and later taught at the medical school at McGill University (1875-84) and then at Johns Hop¬ kins University’s medical school (1889-1905). There he helped trans¬ form clinical teaching; students stud¬ ied patients in the wards and took their problems to the lab, and experts pooled their knowledge to benefit both patient and student in public teaching sessions. Osier’s Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892) became the most popular medical textbook of its day. He was involved in the formation of two physicians’ associations and the Quarterly Jour¬ nal of Medicine. Osier nodes on the hand are seen in some cardiac infec¬ tions, and two blood disorders also bear his name.
Oslo \'az-lo,\ Norwegian Vus-lu\ formerly (1624-1925) Christiania City and municipality (pop., 2002 est.: municipality, 512,589), capital of Norway. It lies at the northern end of Oslo Fjord and constitutes a separate county. It was founded by King Harald III Sigurdsson c. 1050. Haakon V built the Akershus fortress c. 1300. After it was destroyed by fire in 1624, King Christian II of Denmark-
Norway built a new town farther west and called it Christiania. It grew in the 19th century, partly by absorbing neighbouring towns, and replaced Bergen as Norway’s largest and most influential city. It was renamed Oslo in 1925 and developed rapidly after World War II. It is the country’s prin¬ cipal commercial, industrial, and transportation centre, and its harbour is the largest and busiest in Norway.
osmosis \az-'mo-s3s\ Spontaneous passage or diffusion of water or other solvent through a semipermeable membrane. If a solution is separated from a pure solvent by a membrane that is permeable to the solvent but not to the solute, the solution will tend to become more dilute by absorb¬ ing solvent through the membrane. The pressure caused by the migration of solvent through the membrane is called osmotic pressure.
osprey Vas-pre, 'as-pra\ or fish hawk Species (Pandion haliaetus ) of long-winged hawk found along seacoasts and large interior waterways. Ospreys are about 26 in. (65 cm) long and brown above and white below, with some white on the head. An osprey flies over the water, hovers above its prey, and then plunges feet first, seizing the fish in its long, curved talons. Ospreys breed on all continents except South America, where they live only in winter. They usually nest, singly or in colonies, high in trees or on cliffs. Bioaccumulation of pesticides caused populations to dwindle in the 20th century, but they are now recovering.
Osroene or Osrhoene \,az-r3-'we-ne\ Ancient kingdom, northwest¬ ern Mesopotamia. Located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, it was situated across the modem frontier of Turkey and Syria, with its capital at Edessa (modem Sanliurfa, Tur.). Founded in c. 136 bc, it commanded strategic trade and military routes (1st century BC-2nd century ad). At dif¬ ferent times it was allied with either Parthia or Rome. The kingdom was abolished by the Roman emperor Caracalla in ad 216. In the 4th-7th cen¬ turies ad it was dominated by the wars between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sasanian dynasty. Under various Arab dynasties, it became a centre of reaction against Hellenism and the headquarters of Chaldean Syriac literature and learning. It fell to the Muslims in 638.
OSS See Office of Strategic Services
Osservatore Romano yo-.ser-va-'to-ra-ro-'ma-noV 1/ Italian "The Roman Observer" Daily newspaper published in Vatican City, one of the most influential papers in Italy and the de facto voice of the Holy See. Founded in 1861, it was subsidized by the Vatican from its start and was bought outright in 1890 by Pope Leo XIII. It regularly details the pope’s activities and prints the text of papal speeches as the Vatican newspaper of record; it also reports and comments on political developments, stress¬ ing editorials and commentary over news and noting the religious and moral implications of events, institutions, and trends.
Ossian Vas-e-on, 'ash-on \ Gaelic Oisin Vosh-yin\ Irish warrior-poet of the Fenian cycle of hero tales. The name Ossian became known throughout Europe in 1762-63 when the Scottish poet James Macpherson (1736-96) published the epics Fingal and Temora, which he represented as transla¬ tions of works by the 3rd-century Gaelic poet Ossian. The poems were widely acclaimed and influential in the Romantic movement, but their authorship was later doubted, notably by Samuel Johnson (1775), and they were eventually determined to have been written largely by Macpherson.
Ossianic ballads \,a-se-'a-nik, .a-she-'a-nikX Irish Gaelic and Scottish lyric and narrative poems dealing with the legendary Finn MacCumhaill and his war band. They are named for Oisfn (Ossian), the chief bard of the Fenian cycle. Part of a common Scots-Irish Gaelic tradition, the bal¬ lads consist of more than 80,000 lines dating from the 11th to the 18th century. Unlike earlier Fenian literature, which reflected mutual respect between pagan and Christian tradition, they are stubbornly pagan and anticlerical, full of lament for past glories and contempt for the Christian present. Most of the poetry claimed for Oisfn was in fact written by Scot¬ tish poet James Macpherson (1736-1796).
Ossianic cycle See Fenian cycle
Ossory \'a-so-re\ Ancient kingdom, Ireland. It became a semi¬ independent state within the kingdom of Leinster (c. 1st century ad). In the 9th century its king, Cerball, allied himself with the Norse invaders. His Irish descendants became known as the Fitzpatricks. The modem dio¬ cese of Ossory, with its see at Kilkenny, approximates the size of the ancient state.
Ostade \os-'ta-d3\, Adriaen van (b. Dec. 10, 1610, Haarlem, Neth.—buried May 2, 1685, Haarlem) Dutch painter and printmaker.
William Osier, at the bedside of a patient, while professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, 1888-1904.
COURTESY OF THE OSLER LIBRARY, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1422 I Ostend ► O'Sullivan
Known for his Baroque genre paintings of peasant life, he also did reli¬ gious subjects, portraits, and landscapes. The most important influence on his style was the work of Adriaen Brouwer. Like Brouwer, he delighted in scenes such as tavern brawls, usually in dimly lit interiors, as in Carous¬ ing Peasants in an Interior (c. 1638). He employed a broad, vigorous technique in a subdued range of colours. After he adopted a brighter pal¬ ette in the 1640s, his subjects became less ribald, and from the 1650s he painted many of them in outdoor settings.
Ostend \a-‘stend\ Manifesto (1854) Secret document written by U.S. diplomats at Ostend, Belg., describing a plan to acquire Cuba from Spain. On orders from U.S. secretary of state William Marcy, three U.S. diplomats—minister to Britain James Buchanan, minister to France John Y. Mason, and minister to Spain Pierre Soule—devised a plan to purchase or, if necessary, seize Cuba for the U.S. Publication of the aggressively worded document, and Soule’s advocacy of slavery, caused Marcy to denounce it.