O

ock
see homeboy

octothorpe

THE REAL SOURCE OF THE WORD OCTOTHORPE
By Ralph Carlsen
First, where did the symbols * and # come from? In about 1961 when DTMF dials were still in development, two Bell Labs guys in data communications engineering (Link Rice and Jack Soderberg) toured the USA talking to people who were thinking about telephone access to computers. They asked about possible applications, and what symbols should be used on two keys that would be used exclusively for data applications. The primary result was that the symbols should be something available on all standard typewriter keyboards. The * and # were selected as a result of this study, and people did not expect to use those keys for voice services. The Bell System in those days did not look internationally to see if this was a good choice for foreign countries.

Then in the early 1960s Bell Labs developed the 101 ESS which was the first stored program controlled switching system (it was a PBX). One of the first installations was at the Mayo Clinic. This PBX had lots of modern features (Call Forwarding, Speed Calling, Directed Call Pickup, etc.), some of which were activated by using the sign. A Bell Labs supervisor DON MACPHERSON went to the Mayo Clinic just before cut over to train the doctors and staff on how to use the new features on this state of the art switching system. During one of his lectures he felt the need to come up with a word to describe the # symbol. Don also liked to add humor to his work. His thought process which took place while at the Mayo Clinic doing lectures was:

There are eight points on the symbol so 'OCTO' should be part of the name.
We need a few more letters or another syllable to make a noun, so what should that be?

Don MacPherson at this point in his life was active in a group that was trying to get JIM THORPE's Olympic medals returned from Sweden. The phrase THORPE would be unique, and people would not suspect he was making the word up if he called it an 'OCTOTHORPE.'

So Don Macpherson began using the term Octothorpe to describe the symbol in his lectures. When he returned to Bell Labs in Holmdel NJ, he told us what he had done, and began using the term Octothorpe in memos and letters. The term was picked up by other Bell Labs people and used mostly for the fun of it. Some of the documents which used the term Octothorpe found their way to Bell Operating Companies and other public places. Over the years, Don and I have enjoyed seeing the term Octothorpe appear in documents from many different sources.

DTMF - Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (Touchtone TM Reg'd)
ESS - Electronic Switching System
PBX - Private Branch Exchange.

This bit of folklore sounds plausible and may well be true, but I've got a collection of the Methodist Observer magazine for 1838, and it uses 'octothorpe' when discussing the layout of some towns in the Ohio River valley. Likewise, I believe it can be found in the 1870s Morals and Dogma, a standard Freemasons reference. Morals and Dogma also uses 'infusoria,' a word I find vastly cooler than 'bacteria.'

ohnosecond
that miniscule fraction of time in which you realize you've just made a mistake [from e-mail, Aug 97]

okay, OK
Once upon a time, I read a derivation that attributed "OK" to John Jacob Astor, who supposedly signed his approval on documents with "OK", supposedly meaning "Orl Korrect". Astor began his career as a fur trapper in the Pacific Northwest, which at the time was full of Russians. Maybe he picked up "OK" from one of them, and the actual meaning was "ochen' khorosho".

We have to overwork our imaginations to get around the transition from Cyrillic to English characters, but suppose, just suppose, that Astor did business with a Russian trapper who signified his agreement with an abbreviation of "ochen' khorosho". The Cyrillic from would be "OX", and it is not impossible to mistake a sloppily handwritten Cyrillic "X" for an English "K". [Dick H. Fredericksen, FIDO Words conference, Jan 96]

Onan
Onan was the name of Dorothy Parker's parrot. She called it that because of its habit of spilling its seed on the ground.

on it like, (you're)
a buzzard/flies/maggots on a meat wagon; flies/maggots/stink on shit; white on rice

oreo
[?1970- ] a negro who acts, dresses, and talks like a caucasian; from Oreo cookie, a chocolate wafer-cookie with white creme filling

orgasm, euphemisms for:
[male] bust a nut; come; get off
Note: practically all the euphemisms for orgasm are considered at least mildly offensive by most people, and often all references to sexual activity are considered very offensive and should not be uttered in mixed company; see sex

over the top
...the phrase of choice to describe anything extreme -- extremely bad, extremely good, or a combination of the two.... It describes anything exaggerated to the point where its credibility is nearly lost ... funny, mean, flashy or just plain loud. [Stephanie Fliakas, Gannett News Service]; Thick, oozing, over-the-top melismata is what Anita Baker is about. [the San Francisco Chronicle]

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