Which familiar and affectionate _officiousness_ and sumptuous
cost, together with that sinister fame that woman was noted
with [_Luke_ vii. 37], could not but give much scandal to
the Pharisees there present.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery of
Godliness_, b. viii. c. 13.
=ORIENT.= This had once a beautiful use, as clear, bright, shining,
which has now wholly departed from it. Thus, the ‘orient’ pearl of
our earlier poets is not ‘oriental,’ but pellucid, white, shining.
Doubtless it acquired this meaning originally from the greater
clearness and lightness of the east, as the quarter whence the day
breaks.
Those shells that keep in the main sea, and lie deeper than
that the sunbeams can pierce unto them, keep the finest and
most delicate pearls. And yet they as _orient_ as they be, wax
yellow with age.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 255.
He, who out of that dark chaos made the glorious heavens,
and garnished them with so many _orient_ stars, can move
upon thy dark soul and enlighten it, though now it be as
void of knowledge as the evening of the first day was of
light.--GURNALL, _Christian in Complete Armour_, ii. 22, 1.
Her wings and train of feathers, mixed fine
Of _orient_ azure and incarnadine.
SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas, Fifth Day_.
Κόκκος βαφική, a shrub, whose red berries or grains gave
an _orient_ tincture to cloth.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of
Palestine_, b. iv. c. 6.
=ORTOLAN.= This, the name now of a delicate bird haunting _gardens_,
was once the name of the gardener (‘hortolanus,’ ‘ortolano’) himself.
Though to an old tree it must needs be somewhat dangerous to
be oft removed, yet for my part I yield myself entirely to
the will and pleasure of the most notable _ortolan_.--_State
Papers_, 1536, vol. vi. p. 534.
=OSTLER.= Not formerly the servant of the inn having care of the
horses, but the innkeeper or host, the ‘hosteller’ himself.
And another dai he brougte forth twey pans, and gaf to the
_ostiler_ [stabulario, Vulg].--_Luke_ x. 35. WICLIF.
The _innkeeper_ was old, fourscore almost;
Indeed an emblem, rather than an host;
In whom we read how God and Time decree
To honour thrifty _ostlers_, such as he.