OBE
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

o
 

THE fifteenth letter in the English alphabet;
oval in form. In Greek there are two char¬
acters for o—the short or omicron, and the
long or omega. In the lower case the o is
made a little higher than the n, to correct
the optical illusion which would make it appear smaller
than other letters. It is about an en quadrat in thick¬
ness, but frequently falls below. When the capital O is
used alone it is immediately connected with a substantive
or substantive sentence, and requires no punctuation
mark or mark of exclamation after it; where Oh! is
used it is an exclamation, and should be thus spelled.
O in inscriptions signifies optimus. O also appears on
many coins and as the initial of places and persons. It
is the name given to the nine anthems which are sung in
the Catholic Church nine days before Christmas. O with
an apostrophe after it signifies son in Irish proper names,
as O'Connell, the son of Connell. In French geography
O stands for ouest, that is, west; in German, for ost, that
is, east. In Masonry it is used for Orient. It also stands
for Ohio. O, P. riots signifies Old Price riots. As a
numeral it indicated 70 with the Greeks, and in Middle
Latin it signified 11; with a dash over it this letter stood
for 11,000,

Obelisk.—Commonly called a dagger, thus : f ; usu¬
ally serving as a mark of reference to foot notes. When
thus employed it is the second in order, following the
asterisk. In German printing it stands for deceased
when affixed to the name of a person.

Objectionable Man.—On daily and weekly news¬
papers the objectionable man is the one who takes care
of and distributes the type which otherwise would be
avoided by the compositors, such as heads and Italic, It
is usually the rule that the compositors must distribute
every line in which there is a word or letter of Roman,
although all of the remainder may be Italic, but the ob¬
jectionable man distributes every full line of Italic. He
also clears away all heads. His duties are also to save
all headings and tables which are to be used again, and
to put them in their proper places on the standing-gal¬
ley, so that they may be convenient to pick up. He is
responsible for the condition of that part of the standing-
galley where these savings are placed, and must keep it
in order. In some offices he divides up once a week all of
the advertisements which are dead, and gives a certain
portion to each man, thus insuring that all type shall be
regularly put back into cases. For these various services
he receives a fee from his fellow-workmen, a quarter or
half dollar being levied each week upon each frame, the
whole making a handsome sum. In small offices, or in
those in which the heads are chiefly in Roman, the Italic
small in quantity, and there are few savings, he receives
a smaller amount and sets more or less type in addition.
He is chosen to this position by his fellow-workmen, the
majority ruling. The title is derived from his handling
the objectionable matter, or matter which compositors
object to or pass by in distributing.

Oblong.—This is the reverse of upright in speaking
of any particular size, as, for instance, an oblong 8vo,
not upright 8vo.—Jacohi. Oblong octavos, quartos and
so on are those in which the page is much wider than
usual, the width being greater than the height.

406
 

Obra (Sp.).—Work, book.

Occhio (Ital.),—Literally the eye, but in English the
face, of a letter.

Octavo.—A sheet of paper folded into eight leaves.
Commonly speaking, it is restricted to the size obtained
by folding sheets of a certain determinate magnitude so
that the leaves shall be not less than five and a half inches
nor more than eight inches in width, and not of less length
than eight inches nor more than twelve. The ordinary
octavo of this country is 6 by 9^^ inches. A quarto may
be no higher than an octavo, but it is wider, and the duo¬
decimo may be as wide as an octavo, but it is shorter and
then has a scanty margin. Octavo is usually printed six¬
teen pages at a time, the sheet being then turned and
printed again. In this case two complete octavo sheets
are printed. Some large presses will take on sheets of
double this size. In America the largest octavo is known
as imperial octavo, the next size as super-royal octavo,
the next as medium octavo, and the last as crown oc¬
tavo. The sizes of the leaves are respectively 8 by 12,
7 by 103^, 6 by 93^ and 5)^ by 8)^ inches. In England
there is a slight difference on account of the paper there
used, which, as to its measurements, is not the same as
that made in America. Octavo is often abbreviated in
writing as 8vo, and sometimes pronounced in conformity
therewith eight vo.

Octodecimo.—A sheet folded into eighteen leaves.

Odd Folios.—Those pages which fall on the right-
hand side of a book and are numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, &c,

CB.—A diphthong of frequent use in Latin and the
words derived from that language. Many editors of
classical works separate the letters, giving them as coelo
for coelo. In German oe is written and printed as o.
Some proper names are exceptions,

CEil (Fr.),—The face (of a type).    Literally the eye.

Off.—Pressmen are said to be off when they have
worked off from a form the designated number of copies.
The form is also off.

Off-Cheek.—The cheek or upright post of the hand-
press on the farther side from the workman.

OfF-Cut.—The portion of a sheet of twelves, &c.,
which is cut off before folding.

OflF Its Feet.—A term apphed to type when it is not
standing upright. If type are thus printed from, one
side of each type will have a heavy impression and the
other a light one.

OfBLce.—The room or shop in which a printer works.
All other mechanics are employed in shops, the printer
alone in an office. It is derived from the Latin officium ;
from the prefix ob and facere, to make or do. No other
word is used by American printers for indicating the
place where they work, Thomas, in his History of Print¬
ing, generally uses printing-house, and so do all the older
writers on typography. When used abstractly, as "the
office desires this done," it means the management of the
printing-house. The word office is applied to the build¬
ing or part of the building, the presses and materials, or
the counting-room, together or separately.

Offset.—That portion of ink which leaves a newly
printed sheet and is deposited on another sheet.    Print-