OGNON, Fr. literally means an onion. The word is sometimes used in a familiar manner by the French to express persons standing in a row. Ils etoient tous en rang d’ognon. They all stood, like a rope of onions, in a row.
| OGEE, | - | |
| OGIVE, |
in pieces of ordnance, an ornamental moulding, in the shape of an S, taken from architecture, and used in guns, mortars, and howitzers. See [Cannon].
OGIVE, (Ogive, Fr.) In Gothic vaults those arches are stiled ogives, or ogees, which cross one another diagonally. The French likewise call them croisés d’ogives.
OIL. Every soldier should be supplied with a given quantity of oil and emery, for the purpose of cleaning his arms, accoutrements, &c.
OLYMPIAD, in chronology, the space of four years, for on the 5th the Olympic games were celebrated in honor of Jupiter Olympius, near Olympia. The Greeks began to use this epocha a little before the building of Rome.
OLYMPIC Games, were instituted by Hercules, A. M. 2856, in honor of Jupiter Olympius, at Olympia, a city of Elis, in Peloponnesus. They were celebrated every four years, about the summer solstice. The design of them was to accustom the young military men to running, leaping, and every other military exercise.
OMBRE, (sécher à l’ombre, Fr.) This term is in use among the French founders of artillery, when they put the clay or putty, which serves to form the cannon moulds, out to dry, without making any fire for the purpose.
OMRA, or OMHRA, Ind. plural of ameer, a lord. They were persons of considerable consequence in the dominions of the great Mogul. Some of them had command of 1000 horse, others 2000, and so on to 20,000: their pay being regulated according to the number of their horses. The governors and great officers of state were generally chosen out of this body.
ON, a preposition frequently used in military exercise. It precedes those words of command which direct the change or formation of bodies of men upon points that are fixed, viz.