Chapter Ordinand to Organism of O by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

5. [Cf. AS. organ, fr. L. organum.] (Mus.) A wind instrument containing numerous pipes of various dimensions and kinds, which are filled with wind from a bellows, and played upon by means of keys similar to those of a piano, and sometimes by foot keys or pedals; — formerly used in the plural, each pipe being considired an organ.

The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow.

Pope.

Chaucer used the form orgon as a plural.

The merry orgon . . . that in the church goon [go].

Barrel organ, Choir organ, Great organ, etc. See under Barrel, Choir, etc. — Cabinet organ (Mus.), an organ of small size, as for a chapel or for domestic use; a reed organ. — Organ bird (Zoöl.), a Tasmanian crow shrike (Gymnorhina organicum). It utters discordant notes like those of a hand organ out of tune. — Organ fish (Zoöl.), the drumfish. — Organ gun. (Mil.) Same as Orgue (b). — Organ harmonium (Mus.), an harmonium of large capacity and power. — Organ of Gorti (Anat.), a complicated structure in the cochlea of the ear, including the auditory hair cells, the rods or fibers of Corti, the membrane of Corti, etc. See Note under Ear. — Organ pipe. See Pipe, n., 1. — Organ- pipe coral. (Zoöl.) See Tubipora. — Organ point (Mus.), a passage in which the tonic or dominant is sustained continuously by one part, while the other parts move.

Organ
(Or"gan), v. t. To supply with an organ or organs; to fit with organs; to organize. [Obs.]

Thou art elemented and organed for other apprehensions.

Bp. Mannyngham.

Organdie
(Or"gan*die, Or"gan*dy) n. [F. organdi.] A kind of transparent light muslin.

Organic
(Or*gan"ic) a. [L. organicus, Gr. : cf. F. organique.]

1. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to an organ or its functions, or to objects composed of organs; consisting of organs, or containing them; as, the organic structure of animals and plants; exhibiting characters peculiar to living organisms; as, organic bodies, organic life, organic remains. Cf. Inorganic.

2. Produced by the organs; as, organic pleasure. [R.]

3. Instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to a certain destined function or end. [R.]

Those organic arts which enable men to discourse and write perspicuously.

Milton.

4. Forming a whole composed of organs. Hence: Of or pertaining to a system of organs; inherent in, or resulting from, a certain organization; as, an organic government; his love of truth was not inculcated, but organic.

5. Pertaining to, or denoting, any one of the large series of substances which, in nature or origin, are connected with vital processes, and include many substances of artificial production which may or may not occur in animals or plants; — contrasted with inorganic.

The principles of organic and inorganic chemistry are identical; but the enormous number and the completeness of related series of organic compounds, together with their remarkable facility of exchange and substitution, offer an illustration of chemical reaction and homology not to be paralleled in inorganic chemistry.

Organic analysis (Chem.), the analysis of organic compounds, concerned chiefly with the determination of carbon as carbon dioxide, hydrogen as water, oxygen as the difference between the sum of the others and 100 per cent, and nitrogen as free nitrogen, ammonia, or nitric oxide; — formerly called ultimate analysis, in distinction from proximate analysis. — Organic chemistry. See under Chemistry. — Organic compounds. (Chem.) See Carbon compounds, under Carbon. — Organic description