| 1. | a suffix forming adjectives that have the general sense “possessing, full of” a given quality (covetous; glorious; nervous; wondrous); -ous and its variant -ious have often been used to Anglicize Latin adjectives with terminations that cannot be directly adapted into English (atrocious; contiguous; garrulous; obvious; stupendous). As an adjective-forming suffix of neutral value, it regularly Anglicizes Greek and Latin adjectives derived without suffix from nouns and verbs; many such formations are productive combining forms in English, sometimes with a corresponding nominal combining form that has no suffix; Compare -fer, -ferous; -phore, -phorous; -pter, -pterous; -vore, -vorous. |
| 2. | a suffix forming adjectival correspondents to the names of chemical elements; specialized, in opposition to like adjectives ending in -ic, to mean the lower of two possible valences (stannous chloride, SnCl2, and stannic chloride SnCl4). |
[oh-oo] 
| a rare Hawaiian honeycreeper, Psittirostra psittacea, having an olive-green body, a parrotlike bill, and in the male a bright yellow head. |
OU abbr.
Latin oculus uterque (either eye, each eye)
-ous suff.
Possessing; full of; characterized by: filamentous.
Having a valence lower than that of a specified element in compounds or ions named with adjectives ending in -ic: ferrous.