The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

å O ååååå
342
Oakley, Annie See annie oakley.
Oates, Captain See captain oates.
Obi- Wan Kenobi (obee won kbnobee) A wise,
el der ly man. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the character of the
name in the star wars fi lms who helps the young
hero Luke Skywalker develop his skills as a jedi
knight. He was played in the original trilogy of
fi lms by Alec Guinness and in the second trilogy,
as a younger man, by Ewan McGregor. <strong>The</strong> children
regarded him as an Obi- Wan Kenobi who could explain
to them the secrets of an alien adult world.
Oblomov (oblomov) An extremely lazy, inactive
person. Oblomov is the central character in the
celebrated novel Oblomov (1859) by Ivan Goncharov
(1812–91). Unable to stir himself into action,
he spends his days in bed, dreaming about his
childhood and resisting the attempts of others to
make him change his indolent, passive ways. It is
much easier to live as an Oblomov than it is to live the
life of an all- action hero.
obsidian (obsideebn) Glassy volcanic rock
formed by rapid solidifi cation of lava. <strong>The</strong> name
comes from the Latin obsianus lapis (meaning
“stone of Obsius”) and is thought to have acquired
the d through an inaccurate rendering of Obsius,
the name of the person who fi rst discovered the
rock in Ethiopia, according to Pliny the Elder
(a.d. 23–79). “At my side hung one of the Indian
weapons that serve them instead of swords, a club
of wood set on both sides with spikes of obsidian,
like the teeth in the bill of a swordfi sh” (H. Rider
Haggard, Montezuma’s Daughter, 1899).
oceanid See nymph.
Oceanus (oseebnbs) Alternative name for the
Atlantic Ocean. In Greek mythology the Titan
Oceanus was the god of the river that was supposed
to fl ow around the Earth and was identifi ed
as the father of all the deities and nymphs of the
world’s waters. As the Greeks learned more about
the world around them, Oceanus came to signify
only the furthermost seas and oceans and the
Atlantic in par tic u lar. In her dreams she sailed with
him upon the waters of Oceanus.
Ockham’s razor (okbmz) <strong>The</strong> principle, also
rendered as Occam’s razor, that the simplest
explanation is usually the right one. <strong>The</strong> principle
was established by the En glish phi los o pher William
of Ockham (c.1280–c.1349) and is sometimes
expressed in the form of the maxim “No
more things should be presumed to exist than are