Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Ossa, Mount ... ostrich

Ossa, Mount: highest peak in Tasmania, Australia, rising to 5,305 feet (1,617 m), in the central highlands. At the northern end of the rugged Ducane Range, Mount Ossa, along with several other peaks surpassing 5,000 feet, lies within Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair ...
Osservatore romano, L': daily newspaper published in Vatican City, one of the most influential papers in Italy and the de facto voice of the Holy See.
Ossetic language: eastern Iranian language spoken in the northern Caucasus by the Ossetes. There are two major dialects: (1) eastern, called Iron, and (2) western, called Digor. The majority of the Ossetes speak Iron, which is the basis of the literary language ...
Ossian: the Irish warrior-poet of the Fenian cycle of hero tales about Finn MacCumhaill (MacCool) and his war band, the Fianna Eireann. The name Ossian became known throughout Europe in 1762, when the Scottish poet James Macpherson "discovered" and published the ...
Ossianic ballads: Irish lyric and narrative poems dealing with the legends of Finn MacCumhaill and his war band. They are named for Oisin (Ossian), the chief bard of the Fenian cycle. These poems belong to a common Scots-Irish tradition: some are found ...
Ossietzky, Carl von: German journalist and pacifist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace for 1935.
Ossining: village in the town (township) of Ossining, Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S., on the east bank of the Hudson River. The site was part of a land grant made in 1680 to Frederick Philipse by Charles II and known ...
Ossory: an ancient kingdom of Ireland that won for itself a semi-independent position as a state within the kingdom of Leinster, probably in the 1st century AD. In the 9th century it was ruled by an able king, Cerball, who allied ...
Ostade, Adriaen van: painter and printmaker of the Baroque period known for his genre pictures of Dutch peasant life. He also did religious subjects, portraits, and landscapes. Van Ostade was a prolific artist, executing his small-scale works in oil, usually on wood panels. ...
Ostade, Isack van: Dutch genre and landscape painter of the Baroque period, especially noted for his winter scenes and depictions of peasants and travelers at rustic inns.
Ostaijen, Paul van: Flemish man of letters whose avant-garde Expressionist poetry and writings on literature and art were influential in Belgium and The Netherlands.
ostariophysan: any of about 6,000 species of bony fishes belonging to the superorder Ostariophysi, including the majority of freshwater fishes throughout the world. Familiar representatives of this group are the minnows, suckers, characins, loaches, gymnotid "eels," and innumerable catfishes. The 31 ...
Ostend: municipality, West Flanders province, northwestern Belgium. It lies along the North Sea and at the end of the Ghent-Brugge Canal. A fishing village (originally Oostende-ter-Streepe) since the 9th century, it was fortified in 1583 and became the last Dutch stronghold ...
Ostend Company: trading company that operated from the Austrian Netherlands from 1719 to 1731. Founded by the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI, it represented an attempt to cash in on the riches being won by the Dutch and English East India companies ...
Ostend Manifesto: (Oct. 18, 1854), communication from three U.S. diplomats to Secretary of State William L. Marcy, advocating U.S. seizure of Cuba from Spain; the incident marked the high point of the U.S. expansionist drive in the Caribbean in the 1850s. After ...
osteoarthritis: a disorder of the joints, characterized by progressive deterioration of the articular cartilage. It is the most common joint disease, affecting more than 80 percent of those who reach the age of 70. Although its suffix indicates otherwise, osteoarthritis is ...
osteoblast: large cell responsible for the synthesis of new bone during both initial formation and later remodeling of bone. Osteoblasts form a closely packed sheet on the surface of the bone, from which cellular processes extend through the developing bone. They ...
osteochondroma: solitary benign tumour that consists partly of cartilage and partly of bone. Osteochondromas are common and may develop following trauma (injury) or may have a hereditary basis. At least one type, occurring in the external ear canal (external auditory exostosis), ...
osteochondrosis: poorly understood but relatively common orthopedic disorder of children in which the epiphysis (growing end) of a bone dies and then is gradually replaced over a period of years. The immediate cause of bone death is loss of blood supply, ...
osteoclast: large, multinucleate cell responsible for the dissolution and absorption of bone during the process of bone remodeling, or renewal. Bone is a dynamic tissue, continuously being broken down and restructured in response to such influences as structural stress and the ...
osteoclastoma: a bone tumour found predominantly in the knee region, but also occurring in the wrist, hand, foot, arm, and pelvis. The giant cells (large, often multinucleated cells) found in these tumours resemble osteoclasts, for which the tumour is inappropriately named. ...
osteocyte: a cell that lies within the substance of fully formed bone. It occupies a small chamber called a lacuna, contained in the calcified matrix of bone. Osteocytes derive from osteoblasts, or bone-forming cells, and are essentially osteoblasts surrounded by the ...
Osteodontokeratic tool industry: assemblage of fossilized animal bones found at Taung by Raymond Arthur Dart about 200 miles (320 km) from Johannesburg, S.Af., where the first specimen of Australopithecus africanus was found, and at Makapansgat, where other specimens of A. africanus were found. ...
osteogenesis imperfecta: hereditary disease of connective tissue that involves bone, sclera, inner ear, ligamentous structures, and skin. Several syndromes have been described, but they probably represent different degrees of expression of the same heritable disorder. The principal variants are osteogenesis imperfecta congenita, ...
osteoglossomorph: any member of the superorder Osteoglossomorpha, a group of morphologically and biologically diverse primitive fishes primarily found in freshwaters, although a few species enter slightly brackish water. Their relationship with other teleosts (i.e., advanced bony fishes) is obscure; they probably ...
Osteolepis: extinct genus of lobe-finned fish generally regarded as very primitive, although it survived into later Devonian time (the Devonian Period lasted from 408 to 360 million years ago) and was contemporaneous with more advanced relatives. Its body was covered with ...
osteoma: a small mass of new bone found mainly on bones of the skull. Osteomas usually appear in late childhood or young adulthood; they are self-limiting and usually single. They do not become malignant and need be treated (by excision) only ...
osteomalacia: progressive loss of calcium and phosphorus from the bones in adult humans. The condition may occur after several pregnancies or in old age, resulting in softening and curving of the bones and increased susceptibility to fractures.
osteomyelitis: infection of bone tissue. The condition is most commonly caused by the infectious organism Staphylococcus aureus, which reaches the bone via the bloodstream or by extension from a local injury; inflammation follows with destruction of the cancellous ...
osteon: the chief structural unit of compact bone, consisting of lamellae, or layers of bone, surrounding a long hollow passageway, the haversian canal. Osteons are quite evident in a cross section of a long bone (e.g., the femur) as a pattern ...
osteonecrosis: death of bone tissue that may result from infection, as in osteomyelitis, or deprivation of blood supply, as in fracture, dislocation, caisson disease, or radiation sickness. In all cases blood circulation in the affected area ceases, bone cells die, and ...
osteopathy: health care profession that emphasizes the relationship between the musculoskeletal structure and organ function. Osteopathic physicians develop skill in recognizing and correcting structural problems through manipulative therapy and other treatments.
osteoporosis: disease characterized by the thinning of bones, with a consequent tendency to sustain fractures from minor stresses. The disorder is most common in women over the age of 50 and results from disturbances of mineral metabolism and nutrition.
osteosarcoma: the most common malignant tumour of bone. It is found more often in males than in females, occurs mostly under the age of 30, and affects mainly the large long bones, with a predilection for the knee area. Major symptoms ...
Osterdalen: narrow valley, Hedmark fylke (county), southeastern Norway. It extends in a general north-south direction from the eastern flanks of the Dovre Mountains and is approximately 75 miles (120 km) long. The Glomma (Glama), Norway's longest river, flows through the valley. ...
Ostergotland: lan (county) of southeastern Sweden, between Vattern (lake) and the Baltic Sea. It has a land area of 4,078 square miles (10,582 square km) and consists of the landskap (province) of Ostergotland and a small part of that of Sodermanland. ...
Osterman, Andrey Ivanovich, Graf: statesman who dominated the conduct of Russia's foreign affairs from 1725 to 1740.
Ostermeyer, Micheline: French athlete who won gold medals in the shot put and the discus throw at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. She was also an accomplished concert pianist.
Osterode: city, Lower Saxony Land (state), central Germany, at the southwestern edge of the Oberharz Mountains. The residence of the dukes of Braunschweig-Grubenhagen in the 14th-15th century, it has many medieval half-timbered houses and buildings. The 16th-century market church and the ...
Osterreichische Gallery: art museum established in Belvedere Castle, Vienna, in 1903. The museum includes many works of art that had been in the imperial Austrian private collection. The gallery is organized into three principal divisions: the Austrian Baroque Museum; the Austrian Gallery ...
Ostersund: town and capital of the lan (county) of Jamtland, northwestern Sweden, on the west shore of Lake Stor. It was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III. It was subordinate, however, to Levanger in Norway as a trading centre for ...
Ostfold: fylke (county), extreme southeastern Norway, extending from Oslo Fjord (west) to the Swedish border (east). Its total area is 1,615 square miles (4,183 square km). The county's hilly landscape, with forests to the north and east, rises gradually to about ...
Ostia: ancient Roman town originally at the mouth of the Tiber River but now about 4 miles (6 km) upstream; the modern seaside resort is about 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the ancient city. Ostia was a port of republican ...
ostinato: in music, short melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition, sometimes slightly varied or transposed to a different pitch. A rhythmic ostinato is a short, constantly repeated rhythmic pattern. Ostinatos appear in Western composition from the 13th century onward, as in ...
Ostlandet: geographic region of Norway, embracing the fylker (counties) of Ostfold, Akershus, Hedmark, Oppland, Buskerud, Vestfold, Telemark, and Oslo. Encompassing the southeastern portion of the country, it ranges from the highest mountains in Norway, Jotunheimen, to coastal lowlands adjacent to the ...
ostomy: (from Latin ostium, "mouth"), any procedure in which an artificial stoma, or opening, is surgically created; the term is also used for the opening itself. Usually ostomies are created through the abdominal wall to allow the discharge ...
ostracism: political practice in ancient Athens whereby a prominent citizen who threatened the stability of the state could be banished without bringing any charge against him. (A similar device existed at various times in Argos, Miletus, Syracuse, and Megara.) At a ...
ostracoderm: any of an extinct group of small, fishlike Paleozoic vertebrates, members of which belonged to several orders particularly abundant in Late Silurian and Early Devonian formations (387 to 421 million years old) of Europe and North America.
ostracon: potshard or limestone flake used in antiquity, especially by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Hebrews, as a surface for drawings or sketches, or as an alternative to papyrus for writing as well as for calculating accounts. Of considerable artistic merit, ...
Ostrava: city, capital of Severomoravsky kraj (region), eastern Czech Republic. It lies between the Ostravice and Oder rivers above their confluence at the southern edge of the Upper Silesian coalfield. It was founded about 1267 as a fortified town by Bruno, ...
ostrich: flightless bird found only in open country of Africa. The largest living bird, an adult male may be 2.75 metres (about 9 feet) tall-almost half of its height is neck-and weigh more than 150 kg (330 pounds); the female is ...