DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY. ARTS AND SCIENCES OR Fourth Division of “The English Cyclopædia,” CONDUCTED BY CHARLES KNIGHT. VOLUME VI. LONDON: SCRIBNER, WELFORD, & CO., 654, BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 1867. THE ENGLISH CYCLOPÆDIA. . ARTS AND SCIENCES. 0. OAK, ECONOMICAL USES OF. no 0. O, in the vowel series, if arranged according to the nature of the 9. With ue, as in the Spanish buero, luego, fuego, huesped; from the sound, occupies the position between a and u. In the hieroglyphical Latin bonus, locus, focus, hospes. characters it appears, according to Champollion, to have been a picture 10. An initial o with hue or hui. Hence from the Latin ostium, of an eye, and even in the old Greek alphabet it is occasionally found ostiarius, are derived the French huis, huissier, and the English usher. with a dot in the centre, to represent the pupil, for instance in the From the Latin os, a bone, orum an egg, the Spaniards have hueso, Elean Tablet. But for the ditlerent forms of the letter see ALPHABET. huero. From the Latin octo, ostrea, come the French huict or huit, The changes to which this vowel is liable are numerous. huistre or huitre. From the Latin hodie, which appears to have been 1. It is convertible with the adjoining vowel u ; and indeed the two pronounced as the Italian oggi, was formed the French hui, in au-jour. characters seem to have had a common origin. Thus, the old Greek d'hui. alphabet would appear to have once terminated, like the Hebrew, with 11. In the paragraphs numbered 5, 9, and 10, the o really takes the tau, so as to exclude the upsilon; whereas the Etruscans had a but sound of the English w, or the Greek digamma; and the same is the Hence the predominance of the o in Greek, of the u in Latin. case in the Greek language itself, as in Olkos, ovos, oda, Oaços (which Within the limits of the Latin itself the two letters are often inter- | is the true reading in Herodotus, iv. 154), for Fukos, Fuvos, Fida, changed, out of which arises the confusion between the second, or 0, Fatos; the first three of which may be compared with the Latin vicus, and the fourth, or u declension, to both of which belong ficus, cibus, | vinum video. Closely allied hereto is the frequent interchange in senatus, tumultus, ornatus, laurus, domus, &c. The words consul and Latin of oe or oi with ū. (v.) consulere also appear as cosol and cosolere, and they have both a common 12. With ca, as between German and English. Thus the former root with solium, a seat. language has strom, brot, gross, tod, drohen ; the latter stream, bread, The English language, too, has often an o written where u is heard, great, death, threat. This same change exists in the English by itself, as one, none, once, come, done, won, some. as cleare, clove; weave, wore ; heal, whole; heat, hot, &c. 2. With a. Grimm has pointed out this change as existing 13. With ei, pronounced as the English long i. This is exceedingly between the Latin and Teutonic tongues, as doma-re. Longus, odium, common in the same languages. Compare the German beide, bein, ein, &c., compared with zähm-en, lang, hass, &c. Hence, too, the dnuble form ncin, geist, heim, heiss, kleiden, mannheit, meist, theil, heilig, reihe, speiche, of the name Longobardi and Langobardi. So, in Latin, from the root zeichen ; with both, bone, one, none, ghost, home, hot, clothe, manhood, gno (gnosco) were formed gnarus and ignarus : and again, from these most, dole, holy, row, spoke of a wheel, token. This change also exists narrare and ignorare, in the latter of which the original vowel within the English language, as shine and shone ; strike and stroke ; reappears. Again, with clarus is connected gloria, as closely as gratia drive and drove. with gratus. It is probable too that the masculine bono and the 14. A short ŏ with a short č. This is particularly common in feminine bona were mere dialectic varieties which originally had no Greek, and above all in the penult of disyllables. Thus with veuw, distinction of gender. Thus in the Gothic the converse prevails, the OteMW, deyw, there co-exist the substantive forms vouos, otoos, forms in o being feminine, those in a masculine. Lastly, the English noyos. The Latin commonly prefers the ở in such words. Hence to and Scotch have many instances of the interchange, as one, two, stone, the Greek TEATW, €TTI, Evvea (evveFa), veos (veFos), euew (Feuew), correspond in the one, ane, tuu, stane, in the other; but perhaps this chauge the Latin cöquus and põpina, 8b, nóvem, nõrus. vomo. The change of belongs to the next head. these vowels is exceedingly common when preceded by a w sound, 3. With the long ē, the sound of which must be considered as the especially if an r or l follow. Hence in Latin, verto and vorto, velle and same with the English a. Hence in Greek, Eupatwp, anatwp, &c., volo, vester and voster, vēto and voto. Hence likewise to the Latin from matnp; and the Latin sol, cor correspond with the Greek íacos, vermis, vellus, verruca, correspond_the English worm, wool, wart. and knp (observe too the German herz). The town Nemetum in Gallia | Again the German schwerdt is in English sword; and vice versa the is called by Greek geographers Neuwooos, and the German jener is in German ant-wort is in English answer ; and lastly, many words of this English yon. form are written with an o and pronounced with an e, as wort, worm, 4. With ou. This interchange is virtually the same with the first. | worth, worse. mentioned. It is not uncommon in French, as compared with Latin, 15. For the tendency of the final letter n to disappear after 0, as novella, nouvelle ; rota, roue ; totus, tout, &c. 5. With uo, especially in Italian, as huomo, buono, luogo, nuovo, from OAK, ECONOMICAL USES OF. The oak subserves a greater num. the Latin homo, bonus, locus, norus. ber of useful purposes than alınost any other kind of forest tree. All 6. With cu, in French, as lieu, feu, jeu, peu, leur, heure, douleur, things considered, British oak is more durable than any other timber queue ; from the Latin, locus, focus, jocus, pauci (and Italian, poco), largely grown in Europe ; and hence its enormous employment in the illorum, hora, dolor, cauda, or coda. arts. The wood is hard, tough, tolerably flexible, strong without being 7. With au. This exists within the Latin; as cauda and coda, too heavy, not easy to splinter, and not readily penetrated by water, cautes and cotes, caudex and codex, Claudius and Clodius, plaudo and Ar experiment once showed that a weight of 10,000 lbs. was required plodo. So from the Latin aurum, audere (whence the frequentative to break an oaken beam 11 feet long by 5 inches square. With twisted ausare), Aufidus, audire, the Italians have oro, osare, Ofanto ; and the grain the wood is admirably suited for posts for houses, mills, engines, French or, oser, ouir. Hence too the French pronunciation of the aud large machines. It bears alternations of wet and dry better than diphthong au. most other woods; oak piles have been known to endure for many 8. With oa. Thus, the English words boat, oath, oak, must have centuries. It is excellent for shingles, pales, laths, and casks. The received their present orthography when both the vowels were pro- small slow-growing variety is much employed for the spokes of wheels. nounced, as they still are in some parts of England, bo-at, o-ath, or The young treo yields slender rods, well suited for hoops, walking boo-at, 00-ath. sticks, and the handles of carters' whips. The great durability of ARTS AND SCL DIV. VOL. VI. B Bee N. |