NYSTAGMUS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A winking of the eyes, as observed to a drowsy person. o. O. A letter of the vowel series, which, if arranged according to the nature of the sound, occupies a position between a and u. It is susceptible of numerous interchanges,for which the reader is referred to the Penny Cyclopaedia. The Greeks had two forms of this letter, o (oniKpov, or little o), and u> (o/ieya, or large o); the former of which was equivalent to the short, and the totter to the long pronunciation of this letter in other countries. Among the Irish, the letter O prefixed to a name was originally considered as a mark of family dignity; it is now, however, we believe, considered to be merely equivalenttoFitz in England and Mac in Scotland, indicating son. O. In Music, the O, circle, or double C, or semicircle, is a note which we call a semibreve, and the Italians circolo; used by them to mark what they call tempo perfet to, and what we call triple time. [s. 854]