Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Oughtred, William ... Overland Park

Oughtred, William: English mathematician and Anglican minister who invented the earliest form of the slide rule, two identical linear or circular logarithmic scales held together and adjusted by hand. Improvements involving the familiar inner sliding rule came later.
Ouham River: river, one of the main headwaters of the Chari River, central Africa. It rises in two main branches in the elevated plateau country of the western Central African Republic; it then flows north, crossing the international frontier into Chad, where ...
Ouida: English novelist, known for her extravagant melodramatic romances of fashionable life.
Ouidah: town, southern Benin, West Africa. It lies along the Gulf of Guinea. The town was the main port of the Kingdom of Abomey in the 18th and 19th centuries. Portuguese, French, Dutch, Danish, British, and Americans all vied for a ...
Ouija board: in occultism, a device ostensibly used for obtaining messages from the spirit world, usually employed by a medium during a seance. The name derives from the French and German words for "yes" (oui and ja). The Ouija board consists of ...
Ouimet, Francis: American amateur golfer whose success did much to remove the British upper-class stigma from the game and to popularize it in the United States.
Oujda: city, extreme northeastern Morocco. It lies near the Moroccan-Algerian border. Founded in 944 by Zanatah Berbers, the city was fought over by Berbers, Arabs, and Turks and destroyed and rebuilt so often that it was called Medinet el-Haira, "City of ...
Oulu: city, capital of Oulun laani (Oulu province), west-central Finland, at the mouth of the Oulu River on the Gulf of Bothnia. During the European Middle Ages a trading post was located on the site. In 1590 the prospering settlement was ...
Oum al-Bouaghi: town, northeastern Algeria. The town is situated in the high plains of the Tell Atlas about 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Constantine city. This extensive high-plains region receives about 20 inches (500 mm) of rain annually, and the town ...
Oum er-Rbia River: chief river of central Morocco, rising in the Middle (Moyen) Atlas mountains and flowing generally westward for 345 miles (555 km) to the Atlantic Ocean near Azemmour. Although not navigable, it is a perennial, torrential river and a major source ...
Oun Kham: ruler of the Lao principality of Luang Prabang (1872-94), whose troubled reign ended with the establishment of a French protectorate over Laos.
ounce: unit of weight in the avoirdupois system, equal to 116 pound (437 12 grains), and in the troy and apothecaries' systems, equal to 480 grains, or 112 pound. The avoirdupois ounce is equal to 28.35 grams and the troy and ...
Oundle: town, East Northamptonshire district, administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, England, on the River Nene. The manor was granted to the feudal landowner John, earl of Bedford, after the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII in the 1530s. The ...
Ouologuem, Yambo: Sudanese writer who was highly acclaimed for his first novel, Le Devoir de violence (1968; Bound to Violence), which received the Prix Renaudot. With this work, Ouologuem became the first African writer to receive a major French literary award.
Our Bodies, Ourselves: book, first published in 1970 and periodically revised and updated, a groundbreaking publication in its expressed goal of dispelling widespread ignorance about the female body and women's health issues. Noting the often dismissive and sometimes injurious treatment women can receive ...
Our Father: the Latin Pater Noster, the first words of the Lord's Prayer (q.v.).
Ouray: town, seat (1877) of Ouray county, southwestern Colorado, U.S. Located in a steep valley of the San Juan Mountains at an elevation of 7,760 feet (2,365 metres), the town was established as a mining camp in 1876 and, after the ...
Ourinhos: city, south-central Sao Paulo estado (state), Brazil. It lies at 1,568 feet (478 metres) above sea level along the Paranapanema River, near the border of Parana state. Once called Jacarezinho, the city was made the seat of ...
Ouro Preto: city, southeastern Minas Gerais estado (state), Brazil. It occupies a hilly site on the lower slopes of the Oro Preto Mountains, a spur of the Espinhaco Mountains, at 3,481 feet (1,061 metres) above sea level, in the ...
Ouroboros: emblematic serpent of ancient Egypt and Greece represented with its tail in its mouth continually devouring itself and being reborn from itself. A Gnostic and alchemical symbol, Ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear ...
Ouse, River: river in England, draining the East Midlands at the Fens. It rises 5 miles (8 km) west of Brackley, Northamptonshire, and flows past Buckingham, Bedford, Huntington, and St. Ives to Earith and thence via the Fens to The Wash, a ...
Ouse, River: river in north-central England, draining the central Pennines (via its tributaries) and the Vale of York. It is formed by the confluence of the Swale and Ure rivers east of Boroughbridge in central North Yorkshire county. The Ouse flows generally ...
Out Islands: the islands that make up The Bahamas apart from New Providence Island. Extending eastward off the Florida coast to just north of Hispaniola are about 3,000 islands and rocks, with a combined area of about 4,000 square miles (10,500 square ...
Outardes River: river in Cote-Nord ("North Shore") region, east-central Quebec province, Canada, rising in the Otish Mountains and flowing southward for 300 miles (480 km) through Lake Pletipi to the St. Lawrence River, 18 miles southwest of Baie-Comeau. Named after the numerous ...
Outback: in Australia, any inland area remote from large centres of population. Generally, the term is applied to semiarid inland areas of eastern Australia and to the arid centre of the Western Plateau and its semiarid northern plains (in Western Australia) ...
outcaste: in the Hindu caste system, an individual or group that has been thrown out of caste, usually for some ritual offense. The outcasting may be temporary or permanent. In the 19th century, a Hindu faced excommunication for going abroad, where ...
Outcault, Richard Felton: American cartoonist and creator of the "Yellow Kid," a comic cartoon series that was influential in the development of the comic strip.
Outer Banks: chain of barrier islands extending southward more than 175 miles (280 km) along the coast of North Carolina, U.S., from Back Bay, Virginia, to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. From north to south they comprise Currituck Banks; Bodie, Hatteras, Ocracoke, and ...
Outer Hebrides: islands in Scotland, off the northwestern coast of the Scottish mainland. They constitute the Western Isles council area. Lewis, the northern part of the island of Lewis and Harris, lies in the historic county of Ross-shire in the historic region ...
Outer Space Treaty: (1967), international treaty binding the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes. In June 1966 the United States and the Soviet Union submitted draft treaties on the uses of space to the United Nations. These were reconciled during ...
Outjo: town, northwestern Namibia. The town is situated on a cluster of low hills at an elevation of 4,135 feet (1,260 m). It lies within an arid region that has accessible underground water supplies, and it has the character of a ...
outlaw music: movement of American country music in the 1970s spearheaded by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings (b. June 15, 1937, Littlefield, Texas, U.S., -d. February 13, 2002, Chandler, Arizona, ). Sometimes called progressive country, outlaw music was an attempt to escape ...
outlawry: act of putting a person beyond the protection of the law for his refusal to become amenable to the court having legal jurisdiction. In the past, this deprivation of legal benefits was invoked when a defendant or other person was ...
Outram, Sir James, 1st Baronet: English general and Indian political officer known, because of his reputation for chivalry, as "the Bayard of India" (after the 16th-century French soldier Pierre Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard).
Outremeuse, Jean d': French author of two romanticized but fascinating historical works. The first, La Geste de Liege, is a leisurely account, partly in prose, partly in verse, of the mythical history of his native city, Liege. Ly Myreur des Histors ("The Mirror ...
Outremont: city, Montreal region, southern Quebec province, Canada. It lies in the centre of Montreal Island, adjoining Montreal city. Originally called Cote-Sainte-Catherine, it was renamed in 1875 for its location in relation to Montreal-on the far side of Mont-Royal. The city, ...
outsourcing: work arrangement made by an employer who hires an outside contractor to perform work that could be done by company personnel. Outsourcing has been a frequent point of dispute for organized labour. If, for example, an employer has a labour ...
outwash: deposit of sand and gravel carried by running water from the melting ice of a glacier and laid down in stratified deposits. An outwash may attain a thickness of 100 m (328 feet) at the edge of a glacier, although ...
Ouvea Island: northernmost of the Loyalty Islands, an island group within the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, southwestern Pacific Ocean. Ouvea is a crescent-shaped atoll, 30 miles (50 km) long and 4.5 miles (7 km) wide, with a total area of ...
Ouyang Xiu: Chinese poet, historian, and statesman of the Song dynasty who reintroduced the simple "ancient style" in Chinese literature and sought to reform Chinese political life through principles of classical Confucianism.
ouzel: (species Turdus torquatus), a thrush of the family Turdidae (order Passeriformes), characterized by a white crescent on the breast. A blackish bird, 24 cm (9.5 inches) long, it breeds locally in uplands from Great Britain and Norway to the Middle ...
Ovando, Nicolas de: Spanish military leader and first royal governor of the West Indies. He was the first to apply the encomienda system of Indian forced labour, which became widespread in Spanish America, and he founded a stable Spanish community ...
ovarian cancer: a disease characterized by the abnormal growth of cells in the ovaries, the internal reproductive organs that produce the ova, or egg cells, in women. Most ovarian cancers begin in the outer layer of the ovaries, although some cancers develop ...
ovary: in zoology, female reproductive organ in which sex cells (eggs or ova) are produced. The usually paired ovaries of female vertebrates produce both the sex cells and the hormones necessary for reproduction. In some invertebrate groups such as coelenterates, formation ...
ovary: in botany, enlarged basal portion of the pistil, the female organ of a flower. The ovary contains ovules, which develop into seeds upon fertilization. It will mature into a fruit, either dry and parchmentlike or fleshy, enclosing the seeds.
ovenbird: any of several species of small birds, named for building a domed nest with a side entrance, especially Seiurus aurocapillus, a wood warbler (family Parulidae, order Passeriformes) of North America east of the Rockies; it winters south to Colombia. Brownish-olive ...
over-the-counter market: trading in stocks and bonds that does not take place on stock exchanges; such trading is most significant in the United States, where requirements for listing stocks on the exchanges are quite strict. It is often called the "off-board market," ...
Overbeck, Johann Friedrich: Romantic painter of Christian religious subjects, who was leader of a group of German artists known as the Nazarenes, or Lucas Brotherhood (Lukasbund).
Overbury, Sir Thomas: English poet and essayist, victim of an infamous intrigue at the court of James I. His poem A Wife, which pictured the virtues that a young man should demand of a woman, played a large role in the events that ...
Overijssel: provincie (province), northeastern Netherlands, extending northward "beyond the IJssel," a distributary of the Rhine, from the provinces of Gelderland to Drenthe and Friesland and lying between Germany (east) and Flevoland Province (west). Drained by the IJssel, Vecht, Zwarte Water, and ...
Overland Park: city, Johnson county, northeastern Kansas, U.S. Located on a low ridge that affords a broad view of the Missouri River valley, it is a southern suburb of Kansas City, near the Missouri border. Settled in 1906, it lies on the ...