o ō (long also before an initial vowel: o ego,Ov. M. 8, 51; Hor. A. P. 301; but also short: ŏ Alexi,Verg. E. 2, 65), interj. The commonest exclamation of joy, astonishment, desire, grief, indignation, etc.; O! Oh! constr. usually with voc. or acc.; less freq. with nom., gen., utinam, si. With voc.: o Romule, Romule die, Enn. ap. Cic. Rep. 1, 41 Vahl. (Ann. v. 115 Vahl.): o Tite, tute Tuti, id. ap. Prisc. p. 947 P. (Ann. v. 113 Vahl.); cf.: o Tite, si quid te adjuero, id. ap. Cic. Sen. 1, 1 (Ann. v. 339 Vahl.): o mi Furni!Cic. Fam. 10, 26, 2: o paterni generis oblite,id. Pis. 26, 62. With acc.: o faciem pulchram ... o infortunatum senem,Ter. Eun. 2, 3, 5 and 7: o miseras hominum mentes,Lucr. 2, 14: o me perditum, o me afflictum!Cic. Fam. 14, 4, 3: o hominem nequam!id. Att. 4, 13, 2: o praeclarum custodem ovium, ut aiunt, lupum!id. Phil. 3, 11, 27: o rem totam odiosam,id. Att. 6, 4, 1: o Bruti amanter seriptas, litteras,id. ib. 15, 10. With nom. (rare): o pietas animi, Enn. ap. Cic. Ac. 2, 27, 88 (Ann. v. 8 Vahl.): o Patricoles, id. ap. Cic. Tusc. 2, 16, 38 (Trag. v. 14 Vahl.): o vir fortis atque amicus!Ter. Phorm. 2, 2, 10: o ego ter felix,Ov. M. 8, 51; so, o ego,Hor. A. P. 301: o multum miseri,Ov. M. 4, 155: o qualis facies!Juv. 10, 157. With utinam: o utinam Obrutus esset!Ov. H. 1, 5; id. M. 1, 363 al. With si: quamquam, o si solitae quicquam virtutis adesset! yet oh! if, etc., Verg. A. 11, 415. With gen.: o nuntii beati,Cat. 9, 5. By poets also placed after a word: o lux Dardaniae, spes o fidissima Teucrūm,Verg. A. 2, 281: quid o tua fulmina cessant!Ov. M. 2, 279. Three times repeated: o pater, o genitor, o sanguen dis oriundum, Enn. ap. Cic. Rep. 1, 41 (Ann. v. 117 Vahl.); cf.: o pater, o patria, o Priami domus, id. ap. Cic. Tusc. 3, 19, 44 (Trag. v. 118 Vahl.): o soror, o conjux, o femina sola superstes,Ov. M. 1, 351.
O O, o, the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, corresponding to the Gr. ο and ω. The Latin language possessed both the sound and the sign from the earliest times; whereas the Etruscan language never possessed the o, and the Umbrian seems not to have received it as an alphabetical character till a later period. The oldest monuments of the Latin tongue frequently employ o where the classic language has u. So on the Column. Rostr. MACESTRATOS (acc. plur.), EXFOCIONT, CONSOL, PRIMOS (nom. sing.), CAPTOM; in the epitaphs of the Scipios, HONC OINO, COSENTIONT, DVONORO OPTVMO VIRO (bonorum optumum virum); in the S. C. de Bacch. IN OQVOLTOD al. And even in the later inscrr. and MSS., we sometimes find o for u: POPLICO, POPOLVM, TABOLEIS, in the Tab. Bantina: FACIONDAM DEDERONT,Inscr. Orell. 1585: MONDO, HOC TOMOLO,ib. 4858: fondus, fornacatibus, solitodo, etc., in good MSS. (v. Freund, Cic. Mil. p. 18). And, on the contrary, u for o in the old forms, fruns, funtes, for frons, fontes, v. h. vv.: RVBVSTIS for robustis, in the Cenot. Pisan.; v. Inscr. Orell. 642: NVMENCLATOR,Inscr. Grut. 630, 5: CONSVBRINVS,ib. 1107, 1: SACERDVS,ib. 34, 5: VNV LOCV,ib. 840, 1. O appears in class. Lat. particularly in connection with qu and v: quom, avos. This interchange of o and u seems to have been effected rather by dialectical and local than by organic and historical causes; just as in the modern Italian dialects a preference is shown on the one hand for o and on the other for u, and in one and the same dialect the Latin o has passed over into u and the u into o. On the commutation of o and e, see the letter E. We have o for au in Clodius, plodo, plostrum, sodes, etc. (also in polulum for paululum, Cato, R. R. 10, 2). O inserted in the archaic forms: Patricoles, Hercoles, v. Ritschl ap. Rhein. Mus. 8, p. 475 sq., and 9, p. 480. As an abbreviation, O. stands for omnis and optimus: I. O. M., Jovi Optimo Maximo: O. E. B. Q. C., ossa ejus bene quiescant condita,Inscr. Orell. 4489; cf.: O. I. B. Q., ossa illius bene quiescant,ib. 4483; 4490: O. N. F., omnium nomine faciundae,ib. 4415: O. T. B. Q., ossa tua bene quiescant: O. V., optimo viro,ib. 4135; also: optimi viri,ib. 5037.
Oarion Ōărĭon, ōnis, m., = Ὠαρίων, a poet. collat. form for Orion, Cat. 66, 94.
Oasis Ŏăsis, is, f., = Ὄασις [orig. a Coptic word], an inhabited spot, a fertile piece of land in the Libyan desert, an oasis; esp. the great oasis in Upper Egypt, to which criminals were banished by the emperors, Cod. Just. 9, 47, 26; Dig. 48, 22, 7, § 5. Hence, Ŏăsēnus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Oasis: Oasena deportatio, Cod. Th. 9, 32.Ŏăsītes, ae, m., adj., of or belonging to Oasis, Oasite: Oasitae nomi,Plin. 5, 9, 9, § 50.
Oaxes Ŏaxes or Ŏaxis, is, m., = Ὄαξις, a river in Crete, now Axus: rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxen,Verg. E. 1, 66. Hence, Ŏaxis, ĭdis, f.adj., of or belonging to the Oaxes;poet. for Cretan: capiens tellurem Oaxida, Varr. Atacin. ap. Serv. Verg. E. 1, 66.