Entertainment / Literature Glossary

Octavo: Not to be confused with octave, above, octavo is a term from the early production of paper and vellum in the medieval period. When a single, large uncut sheet is folded once and attached to . . . View Full Definition

Ode: A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently. The ode is usually much . . . View Full Definition

Oed: The standard abbreviation among scholars for The Oxford English Dictionary, a huge twenty+ volume set that functions as an historical dictionary--generally considered the most authoritative . . . View Full Definition

Oedipal Complex: The late Victorian and early twentieth-century psychologist Freud argued that male children, jealous of sharing their mother's attention with a father-figure, would come to possess a subcons . . . View Full Definition

Off Glide: In linguistics, the second-half of a diphthong sound.

Off Rhyme: In poetry, another term for inexact rhyme.

Ogam: The term comes from Old Irish, 'Oghma,' probably an eponym of Oghma the Irish god of invention. It refers to a form of symbolic Celtic markings common in the 5th and 6th centuries in which a . . . View Full Definition

Old Comedy: The Athenian comedies dating to 400-499 BCE, featuring invective, satire, ribald humor, and song and dance. See further discussion under stock character.

Old English: Also known as Anglo-Saxon, Old English is the ancestor of Middle English and Modern English. It is a Germanic language that was introduced to the British Isles by tribes such as the Angles, . . . View Full Definition

Olfactory Imagery: Imagery dealing with scent. See imagery.

Ollamh: An ancient Irish storyteller. The ollamh profession flourished between the sixth and fifteenth centuries. They were required professionally to know 350 stories to hold the rank. The Welsh eq . . . View Full Definition

Omen: A miraculous sign, a natural disaster, or a disturbance in nature that reveals the will of the gods in the arena of politics or social behavior or predicts a coming change in human history. . . . View Full Definition

Oneiromancy: The belief that dreams could predict the future, or the act of predicting the future by analyzing dreams. Elements of oneiromantic belief may have influenced the genre of medieval dream visi . . . View Full Definition

Onomastic: Related to names. For instance, a character's name might contain an onomastic symbol--if that character is named Faith (as in 'Young Goodman Brown') or Lucy Westenra (which means 'the light . . . View Full Definition

Onomatopoeia: The use of sounds that are similar to the noise they represent for a rhetorical or artistic effect. For instance, buzz, click, rattle, and grunt make sounds akin to the noise they represent. . . . View Full Definition

Open Poetic Form: A poem of variable length, one which can consist of as many lines as the poet wishes to write. Every poem written in open poetic form, therefore, is unique. Open poetic form contrasts with c . . . View Full Definition

Open Syllable: Any syllable ending in a vowel, like the word tree.

Open System: A system that can be adjusted for new functions or purposes, and hence produce new and unpredicted results. Human language is an example of an open system. To a lesser extent, so is XML code . . . View Full Definition

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