ROGUE1. A French word, which in that language signifies proud, arrogant2. In some of the ancient English statutes3 it means an idle, sturdy beggar, which is its meaning in law. Rogues4 are usually punished as vagrants5. Although the word rogue is a word of reproach, yet to charge one as a rogue is not actionable. 5 Binn. 219. See 2 Dev. 162 Hardin, 529.
ROLE D'EQUIPAGE. The list of a ship's crew; the muster6 roll.
ROLL. A schedule of parchment which may be turned up with the hand in the form of a pipe or tube. Jacob, L. D. h. t.
2. In carly times, before paper came in common use, parchment was the substance employed for making records, and, as the art of bookbinding was but little used, economy suggested as the most convenient mode of adding sheet to sheet, as were found requisite7, and they were tacked8 together in such manner that the whole length might be wound up together in the form of spiral rolls.
3. Figuratively it signifies the records of a court or office. In Pennsylvania the master of the rolls was an officer in whose office were recorded the acts of the legislature. 1 Smith's Laws, 46.
ROOD OF LAND. The fourth part of an acre.
ROOT. That part of a tree or plant under ground from which it draws most of its nourishment9 from the earth.
2. When the roots of a tree planted in one man's land extend into that of another, this circumstance does not give the latter any right to the tree, though such is the doctrine10 of the civil law; Dig. 41, 1, 7, 13; but such person has a right to cut off the roots up to his line. Rolle's R. 394, vide Tree.
3. In a figurative sense, the term root is used to signify the person from whom one or more others are descended11. Vide Descent; Per stirpes.
ROSTER12. A list of persons who are in their turn to perform certain duties, required of them by law. Tytler , on Courts Mart. 93.
