Chapter Orlando Furioso to Osiris of O by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

would expand with delight, while the spirits of the infernal regions would stand motionless around him, attracted by the sweetness of his strains.” (Scandinavia, by Crichton and Wheaton, vol. i. p. 81.)

Orpheus of Highwaymen So Gay has been called on account of his Beggar's Opera. (1688-1732.)

Orrery An astronomical toy to show the relative movements of the planets, etc., invented by George Graham, who sent his model to Rowley, an instrument maker, to make one for Prince Eugéne. Rowley made a copy of it for Charles Boyle, third Earl of Orrery, and Sir Richard Steele named it an orrery out of compliment to the earl. One of the best is Fulton's, in Kelvin Grove Museum, West End Park, Glasgow.

Orsin One of the leaders of the rabble that attacked Hudibras at a bear-baiting. He was “famous for wise conduct and success in war.” Joshua Gosling, who kept the bears at “Paris Garden,” in Southwark, was the academy figure of this character.

Orsini (Maffio). A young Italian nobleman, whose life was saved by Gennaro at the battle of Rimini. Orsini became the staunch friend of Genaro, but both were poisoned at a banquet given by the Princess Negroni. (Donizetti: Lucrezia di Borgia, an opera.) This was the name of the conspirator who attempted the life of Napoleon III.

Orson Twin brother of Valentine, and son of Bellisant, sister of King Pepin and wife of Alexander, Emperor of Constantinople. The twin brothers were born in a wood near Orleans, and Orson was carried off by a bear, which suckled him with her cubs. When he grew up he was the terror of France, and was called the Wild Man of the Forest. He was reclaimed by Valentine, overthrew the Green Knight, and married Fezon, the daughter of Duke Savary of Aquitaine. (French, ourson, a little bear.) (Valentine and Orson.)

Orthodox Sunday in the Eastern Church, is the First Sunday in Lent, to commemorate the restoration of images in 843.
    In the Church of England, on the first day in Lent, usually called “Ash Wednesday,” the clergy are directed to read “the ... sentences of God's cursing against impenitent sinners.”

Orts Crumbs; refuse. (Low German, ort- i.e. what is left after eating.)
   I shall not eat your orts- i.e. your leavings.

“Let him have time a beggar's orts to crave.”
Shakespeare: Rape of Lucrece.

Ortus “Ortus a quercu, non a salice.” Latin for “sprung from an oak, and not from a willow”- i.e. stubborn stuff; one that cannot bend to circumstances.

Ortwine (2 syl.). Knight of Metz, sister's son of Sir Hagan of Trony, a Burgundian in the Nibelungen Lied.

Orvietan (3 syl.) or Venice treacle, once believed to be a sovereign remedy against poison. From Orvieto, a city of Italy, where it is said to have been first used.

“With these drugs will I, this very day, compound the true orvietan.”- Sir Walter Scott: Kenilworth, chap. xiii.

Os Sacrum (See Luz. ) A triangular bone situate at the lower part of the vertebral column, of which it is a continuation. Some say that this bone was so called because it was in the part used in sacrifice, or the sacred part; Dr. Nash says it is so called “because it is much bigger than any of the vertebrae;” but the Jewish rabbins say the bone is called sacred because it resists decay, and will be the germ of the “new body” at the resurrection. (Hudibras, part iii. canto 2.)

Osbaldistone Nine of the characters in Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy bear this name. There are (1) the London merchant and Sir Hildebrand, the heads of two families; (2) the son of the merchant is Francis, the pretendu of Diana Vernon; (3) the “distinguished” offspring of the brother are Percival the sot, Thorncliffe the bully, John the game-keeper, Richard the horse-jockey, Wilfred the fool, and Rashleigh the scholar,