OBELISK,

marked thus †, is used as a reference to notes in the margin, or at the bottom of the page.

In printing it is technically called a dagger; and is the second reference used, when more than one occurs in a page.

OCTAVO.

A sheet of paper folded into eight leaves or sixteen pages is termed an octavo or 8vo.

ODD PAGE.

The first, third, fifth, seventh, and all uneven numbered pages, are Odd Pages.—M.

OFF.

A pressman usually says, I am off, meaning he has wrought off his token, his heap, his form.—M. It is used also for part of the whole number that is to be worked; as, when a ream, or two reams are worked of a large number, he says, A ream’s off, Two reams off.

OFF CHEEK.

That cheek of the press which is on the opposite side to that at which the pressmen stand to beat and pull; the catch of the bar is fixed to the off cheek.

OFFCUT.

That part of a sheet which, when printed, cuts off, and when folded is inserted in the middle of the other part, which together form a regular and orderly succession of all the pages in the signature.

OIL.

The best oil for presses is neats foot oil, which does not candy nor become glutinous, as almost all other oils do. On this account it is used in the machinery employed in cotton manufactories, where it is necessary to have as little friction as possible.

Old English. See Black Letter.

Opening of the Quoins.—M. See Unlock the Form.

OPEN MATTER.

Full of breaks and whites.—M.

OPEN THE FORM.

In laying-up a form to wash it, the compositor, after unlocking the quoins, opens the matter with his fingers so as to suffer the water to penetrate among the letters and wash away the lye and ink.—M.

OPISTHOGRAPHIC.

The first productions of the press were printed on one side of the paper only; as the art improved among the early printers they impressed both sides: and those early productions, when they are printed on both sides of the paper, are styled Opisthographic.

ORGANIC REMAINS.

Abbreviations of Authors’ Names on Organic Remains.

ORIENTAL LANGUAGES.

For the allowance of the duty on paper used in the printing of books in the Oriental languages within the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the universities of Scotland, and the university of Trinity College, Dublin, see Paper.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

The orthography of the English Language is attended with much uncertainty and perplexity. But a considerable part of this inconvenience may be remedied, by attending to the general laws of formation; and, for this end, the reader is presented with a view of such general maxims in spelling primitive and derivative words, as have been almost universally received.

Rule I.—Monosyllables ending with f, l, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant; as staff, mill, pass, &c. The only exceptions are, of, if, as, is, has, was, yes, his, this, us, and thus.

Rule II.—Monosyllables ending with any consonant but f, l, or s, and preceded by a single vowel, never double the final consonant; excepting only, add, ebb, butt, egg, odd, err, inn, bunn, purr, and buzz.

Rule III.—Words ending with y, preceded by a consonant, form the plural of nouns, the persons of verbs, verbal nouns, past participles, comparatives, and superlatives, by changing y into i; as, spy, spies; I carry, thou carriest; he carrieth or carries; carrier, carried; happy, happier, happiest.

The present participle in ing, retains the y, that i may not be doubled; as, carry, carrying; bury, burying, &c.

But y, preceded by a vowel, in such instances as the above, is not changed; as, boy, boys; I cloy, he cloys, cloyed, &c; except in lay, pay, and say; from which are formed, laid, paid, and said; and their compounds, unlaid, unpaid, unsaid, &c.

Rule IV.—Words ending with y, preceded by a consonant, upon assuming an additional syllable beginning with a consonant, commonly change y into i; as, happy, happily, happiness. But when y is preceded by a vowel, it is very rarely changed in the additional syllable; as, coy, coyly; boy, boyish, boyhood; annoy, annoyed, annoyance; joy, joyless, joyful, &c.

Rule V.—Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable, ending with a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double that consonant, when they take another syllable beginning with a vowel: as, wit, witty; thin, thinnish; to abet, an abettor; to begin, a beginner.

But if a diphthong precedes, or the accent is on the preceding syllable, the consonant remains single: as, to toil, toiling; to offer, an offering; maid, maiden, &c.

Rule VI.—Words ending with any double letter but l, and taking ness, less, ly, or ful, after them, preserve the letter double: as, harmlessness, carelessness, carelessly, stiffly, successful, distressful, &c. But those words which end with double l, and take ness, less, ly, or ful, after them, generally omit one l, as, fulness, skilless, fully, skilful, &c.

Rule VII.—Ness, less, ly, and ful, added to words ending with silent e, do not cut it off: as, paleness, guileless, closely, peaceful; except in a few words: as, duly, truly, awful.

Rule VIII.—Ment, added to words ending with silent e, generally preserves the e from elision: as, abatement, chastisement, incitement, &c. The words judgment, abridgment, acknowledgment, are deviations from the rule.

Like other terminations it changes y into i, when preceded by a consonant: as, accompany, accompaniment; merry, merriment.

Rule IX.—Able and ible, when incorporated into words ending with silent e, almost always cut it off: as, blame, blamable; cure, curable; sense, sensible, &c.; but if c or g soft comes before e in the original word, the e is then preserved in words compounded with able: as, change, changeable; peace, peaceable, &c.

Rule X.—When ing or ish is added to words ending with silent e, the e is almost universally omitted: as, place, placing; lodge, lodging; slave, slavish; prude, prudish.

Rule XI.—Words taken into composition, often drop those letters which were superfluous in their simples; as, handful, dunghil, withal; also, chilblain, foretel.

The orthography of a great number of English words, is far from being uniform, even amongst writers of distinction. Thus, honour and honor, inquire and enquire, negotiate and negociate, control and controul, expense and expence, allege and alledge, surprise and surprize, abridgment and abridgement, and many other orthographical variations, are to be met with in the best modern publications. Some authority for deciding differences of this nature appears to be necessary; and where can we find one of equal pretensions with Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary? though a few of his decisions do not appear to be warranted by the principles of etymology and analogy, the stable foundations of his improvements.—“As the weight of truth and reason,” (says Nares in his ‘Elements of Orthoepy,’) “is irresistible, Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary has nearly fixed the external form of our language. Indeed, so convenient is it to have one acknowledged standard to recur to; so much preferable, in matters of this nature, is a trifling degree of irregularity, to a continual change, and fruitless pursuit of unattainable perfection; that it is earnestly to be hoped, that no author will henceforth, on light grounds, be tempted to innovate.”

The plural number of nouns is generally formed by adding s to the singular: as, dove, doves; face, faces; thought, thoughts. But when the substantive singular ends in x, ch soft, sh, ss, or s, we add es in the plural: as, box, boxes; church, churches; lash, lashes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebusses. If the singular ends in ch hard, the plural is formed by adding s; as, monarch, monarchs; distich, distichs.

Nouns which end in o, have sometimes es added to the plural; as, cargo, echo, hero, negro, manifesto, potato, volcano, wo: and sometimes only s; as, folio, grotto, junto, nuncio, portico, punctilio, tyro.

Nouns ending in f, or fe, are rendered plural by the change of those terminations into ves: as, loaf, loaves; half, halves; wife, wives; except grief, relief, reproof, and several others, which form the plural by the addition of s. Those which end in ff, have the regular plural: as, ruff, ruffs; except, staff, staves.

Nouns which have y in the singular, with no other vowel in the same syllable, change it into ies in the plural: as, beauty, beauties; fly, flies. But the y is not changed, when there is another vowel in the syllable: as, key, keys; delay, delays; attorney, attorneys.

Some nouns become plural by changing the a of the singular into e: as, man, men; woman, women; alderman, aldermen. The words, ox and child, form oxen and children: brother, makes either brothers, or brethren. Sometimes the diphthong oo is changed into ee in the plural: as, foot, feet; goose, geese; tooth, teeth. Louse and mouse make lice and mice. Penny makes pence, or pennies, when the coin is meant; die, dice (for play); die, dies (for coining).

The following words, which have been adopted from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, are thus distinguished with respect to number.

The following observations relate to English and Scotch orthography, temp. Hen. VIII.:—

A is frequently used in Scottish orthography for o; as, aith for oath, ane for one, twa for two, hame for home, quha for who.

Qu is in Scottish commonly substituted for w, as, quha for who, quhair for where, quhilk for which.

U is in Scottish usually substituted for the English oo, as, guid or gude for good, stude for stood.

V and W, at the commencement of words and syllables, are used indiscriminately, and sometimes also at their termination, as, foryew for foryeve; w is in Scottish also substituted for u in the middle of syllables, as, swt for suit.

Y is in Scottish almost always used for th (being corrupted from the Anglo-Saxon þ), and its place supplied by z.

Z is in Scottish constantly used for y, being corrupted from the Anglo-Saxon ȝ.

Verbs.—The following are some of the most commonly used irregular verbs, having a preterite and participle varying from those in use at the present time:—

To Be—in the second person singular Bes; in the third person Beis, Beth, or Beeth; in the third person plural Arn, Be, Ben, Been, Bene, Byn, or Er; in the third person plural of the preterite Werne.

To Bid—in the preterite Bode; in the participle Bode, Boden.

To Bind—in the preterite Bonde; in the participle Band, Bond, Bounde, Bounden.

To Bite—in the preterite Bote.

To Con or Can, to be able—in the third person singular Conith.—Michel can, to be powerful.

To Climb—in the preterite Clomb, Clame, Clambe, Clombe, Clomben.

To Cling—in the preterite Clong.

To Ferme (Sc.) to establish—in the participle Fermen.

To Fet, to fetch—in the preterite Fetten; in the participle Fette.—Ferfett, farfetched.

To Flete (Sc.) to float—in the preterite Flet.

To Forbede or Forbid—in the preterite Forbod; in the participle Forboden, Forbode, Forbodden.

To Gar or Ger (Sc.) to cause—in the preterite and participle Gart, Gert.

To Geve, Gif, or Gyf, to give—in the preterite Gaf; in the participle Giffin, Goue, Gouun, or Gyffen.

To Glide—in the preterite Glode.

To Kithe (Sc.) to prove—in the preterite Kidde.

Man, Mone, or Moten (Sc.)—must.

To Mow, Moue, or May, to be able—in the preterite Mot, Mought, Moght, or Mowght; in the future Shall mow or may; subjunctive May mow; To mow in the infinitive.

To Owe—preterite Ought; as “He oweth to pay,” “They owe to come,”—“D. ought him thirty shillings,” “He ought suit,” “Kindness ought to us.”

To Preif or Pryve (Sc.) to prove—in the preterite and participle Prewit or Pryved.

To Recet or Receipt (Sc.) to harbour a criminal—in the participle Reset, Resettit, or Receipted.

To Rede, to advise—in the preterite Radde.

To Reve, Reffe, or Riffe (Sc.) to rob—in the preterite Reft; in the participle Reft, Reved, or Revin.

To Tyne, Tyin, Tyn, or Tynte (Sc.) to lose—in the participle Tint, Tynt.

To Vys or Wis, to know—in the preterite Vyst or Wist.

To Wete, Wite, or Wit, to know—in the preterite Wote; in the imperative Wateth, Witeth, know thou.

To Will—in the preterite Willed, Woled, Wold, or Wolde; preterpluperfect Had wold; future Shall will.

To Yeve, Yew, or Yeove, to give—in the preterite Yaf, Yave; future Shall or will Yeve; active participle Yeving; passive participle Yeven, frequently, and sometimes Yewin, Yoven, Yeoven, Yevin, and Yevyn.

Yede, Yode, went, preterite of A. S. gán to go.

To Yield—in the preterite Yald, Yalt, or Yold; in the participle Yelde, Yold, Yolde, Yolden.

His, or sometimes Is, is used after a masculine substantive as the sign of the genitive case, and occasionally united with the substantive, as, Kinghis. It occurs sometimes, though rarely, after a feminine substantive, as, “The Queen his affairs,” “The Queen is favour;” but her is more commonly used in that case, as, “Elizabeth Holland her house.”

OUT.

A compositor usually says, I am out, meaning he has set out his page, form, or copy.—M.

When a compositor has omitted a word or words, a line, a sentence, a paragraph, a page or a leaf of copy, which sometimes does happen, each of these omissions is called an Out: thus we say, An out of a word—of two words—of a line, &c.

OUTER FORM.

The form that has the first page of the sheet in it. It is usual to work this form the last. See Lay on.

OUT OF COPY.

A compositor is said to be out of copy when he has composed all that is in his possession, and there is no supply for him to go on with. It is also termed standing still for copy.

OUT OF LETTER.

When a compositor has no letter in his cases, and none to distribute, he is said to be out of letter.

OUT OF REGISTER.

Bad Register.—M. When the pages on both sides of a sheet do not print exactly upon each other; or when line does not fall upon line, where they are intended to do so; or folios are not justified in the middle of the line; or when any thing on one side of a sheet does not print exactly on the back of a similar thing on the opposite side, which it is meant to do, it is said to be Out of Register, or Out, or It does not Register, or It is not in Register.

OUT-PAGE.

In octavos, twelves, sixteens, every outside page in a sheet is called an Out-Page; the rest are called In-Pages.—M.

OUTSIDE QUIRES.

The two quires on the outside of every ream of paper delivered from the maker; they have never more than twenty sheets in each, all of which are either damaged or torn, more or less. These quires are also called Cassie Quires, and Cording Quires. It is now uncommon to send any outside quires to letter-press printers; the paper sent to them for use being what is termed Perfect.

Outsiders. See Newspapers.

Overflowing Case. See Case Runs Over.

OVERLAYS.

Pieces of paper pasted on the tympan sheet, or on a sheet between the tympans, to increase the pressure on particular parts of a form, to make the impression more regular, or more perfect. See Engravings on Wood. Fine Presswork. Making Ready.

Overplus. See Waste.

OVERRUN.

If in a proof any matter is marked to be taken out, or to be inserted, in a page, or pages, it will be necessary to take matter from one page to another, to preserve them of a proper length, this is termed overrunning: it may be a few words only in a paragraph, and not extending beyond it; in this case it is termed overrunning a paragraph.

The best method of overrunning matter is to take the lines into a composing stick; the spacing and the justifying of the lines are better preserved by this means, than by spacing out upon the stone in the form, and feeling the ends of the lines with the fingers.

OVERSEER.

The manager or superintendent of a printing office. The duties of an overseer vary according to the size of the establishment, and the part that his principal takes in its management; but, generally speaking, he has the sole conducting of the practical department, receiving his general directions from the principal, and seeing that they are carried into execution in a proper manner. It is requisite, as a matter of course, that he should be intimately and practically acquainted with the business in all its details. It is of importance to the concern where he has the management, that he should blend urbanity with firmness; and show judgment and impartiality in giving out work, so that the business should proceed with regularity, and with satisfaction to all parties.