Chapter Olympia to Open Air Mission of O by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Omnium (Latin, of all). The particulars of all the items, or the assignment of all the securities, of a government loan.

Omnium Gatherum Dog Latin for a gathering or collection of all sorts of persons and things; a miscellaneous gathering together without regard to suitability or order.

Omorca The goddess who was sovereign of the universe when it was first created. It was covered with water and darkness, but contained some few animals of monster forms, representations of which may be seen in the Temple of Bel. (Berosius.)

Omphale (3 syl.). The masculine but attractive Queen of Lydia, to whom Hercules was bound a slave for three years. He fell in love with her, and led an effeminate life spinning wool, while Omphale wore the lion's skin and was lady paramount.
    The celebrated picture of Hercules spinning in the presence of Omphale, by Annibal Carracci, is in the Farnese Gallery.

On dit (French). A rumour, a report; as, “There is an on dit on Exchange that Spain will pay up its back dividends.”

On the Loose Dissolute (which is dis-solutus). “Living on the loose” is leading a dissolute life, or cut on the spree.

On the Shelf Passé, no longer popular, one of the “has-beens.” The reference is not to pawns laid on the shelf, but to books no longer read, and clothes no longer worn, laid by on the shelf.

One-horse System (A). A one-sided view; looking at all things from one standpoint; bigotry.

One-horse Universities Petty local universities.

“The provincial University of Toronto was thrown open to Nonconformists, unluckily not before the practice of charactering sectarian institutions had been introduced, and Canada had been saddled with `one- horse universities' ”- Prof. Goldwin Smith: Nineteenth Century, July, 1886, p. 21.

One Step from the Sublime to the Ridiculous Tom Paine said, “The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.”

One too Many for Him (I was). I outwitted him; or “One too much for you.”

“You have lost, old fellow; I was one too much for you.”- Gaboriau: The Mystery of Orcival, chap. x.

One Touch of Nature Makes the whole World Kin (Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3.).

Onion Pennies Roman coins dug up at Silchester; so called from one Onion, a giant, who, the country people say, inhabited the buried city. Silchester used to be called by the British Ard-Oneon- i.e. Ardal Onion (the region of Einion or Onion).

Only (The). Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825). Carlyle says, “In the whole circle of literature we look in vain for his parallel.” (German, Der Einzige.)

Onslow, invoked by Thomson in his Autumn, was Arthur Onslow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, termed clarum ac venerabile nomen. It was said of him that “his knowledge of the Constitution was only equalled by his attachment to it.”

O'nus (Latin). The burden, the blame, the responsibility; as, “The whole onus must rest on your own shoulders.”