Chapter ROOMAUL to ROUNDEL of R by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

ROSE-APPLE. See JAMBOO.

ROSELLE, s. The Indian Hibiscus or Hib. sabdariffa, L. The fleshy calyx makes an excellent sub-acid jelly, and is used also for tarts; also called ‘Red Sorrel.’ The French call it ‘Guinea Sorrel,’ Oseille de Guinée, and Roselle is probably a corruption of Oseille. [See PUTWA.]

[ROSE-MALLOWS, s. A semi-fluid resin, the product of the Liquidambar altingia, which grows in Tenasserim; also known as Liquid Storax, and used for various medicinal purposes. (See Hanbury and Flückiger, Pharmacog. 271, Watt, Econ. Dict. V. 78 seqq.). The Burmese name of the tree is nan-ta-yoke (Mason, Burmah, 778). The word is a corruption of the Malay-Javanese rasamalla, Skt. rasa-mala, ‘Perfume garland,’ the gum being used as incense (Encycl. Britann. 9th ed. xii. 718.)

1598.—“Rosamallia.”—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 150.]

ROTTLE, RATTLE, s. Arab. ratl or ritl, the Arabian pound, becoming in S. Ital. rotolo; in Port. arratel; in Span. arrelde; supposed to be originally a transposition of the Greek [Greek Text] litra, which went all over the Semitic East. It is in Syriac as litra; and is also found as litrim (pl.) in a Phœnician inscription of Sardinia, dating c. B.C. 180 (see Corpus Inscriptt. Semitt. i. 188–189.) c. 1340.—“The ritl of India which is called sir (see SEER) weighs 70 mithkals…40 sirs form a mann (see MAUND).”—Shi habuddin Dimishki, in Notes and Exts. xiii. 189.

[c. 1590.—“Kafíz is a measure, called also sáa’ weighing 8 ratl, and, some say, more.”—Ain, ed. Jarrett, ii. 55.

[1612.—“The bahar is 360 rottolas of Moha.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 193.]

1673.—“…Weights in Goa:

1 Baharr is	3½ Kintal.
1 Kintal is	4 Arobel or Rovel.
1 Arobel is	32 Rotolas.
1 Rotola is	16 Ounc. or 1 l, Averd.”

Fryer, 207.

1803.—“At Judda the weights are:

15 Vakeeas	= 1 Rattle.
2 Rattles	= 1 maund.”

Milburn, i. 88.

ROUND, s. This is used as a Hind. word, raund, or corruptly raun gasht, a transfer of the English, in the sense of patrolling, or ‘going the rounds.’ [And we find in the Madras Records the grade of ‘Rounder,’ or ‘Gentlemen of the Round,’ officers whose duty it was to visit the sentries.

[1683.—“…itt is order’d that 18 Souldiers, 1 Corporall & 1 Rounder goe upon the Sloop Conimer for Hugly….”—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. ii. 33.]

ROUNDEL, s. An obsolete word for an umbrella, formerly in use in Anglo-India. [In 1676 the use of the Roundell was prohibited, except in the case of “the Councell and Chaplaine” (Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxxii.)] In old English the name roundel is applied to a variety of circular objects, as a mat under a dish, a target, &c. And probably this is the origin of the present application, in spite of the circumstance that the word is sometimes found in the form arundel. In this form the word also seems to have been employed for the conical handguard on a lance, as we learn from Bluteau’s great Port. Dictionary: “Arundela, or Arandella, is a guard for the right hand, in the form of a funnel. It is fixed to the thick part of the lance or mace borne by men at arms. The Licentiate Covarrubias, who piques himself on finding etymologies for every kind of word, derives Arandella from Arundel, a city (so he says) of the Kingdom of England.” Cobarruvias (1611) gives the above explanation; adding that it also was applied to a kind of smooth collar worn by women, from its resemblance to the other thing. Unless historical proof of this last etymology can be traced, we should suppose that Arundel is, even in this sense, probably a corruption of roundel. [The N.E.D. gives arrondell, arundell as forms of hirondelle, ‘a swallow.’] 1673.—“Lusty Fellows running by their Sides with Arundels (which are broad Umbrelloes held over their Heads).”—Fryer, 30.

1676.—“Proposals to the Agent, &c., about the young men in Metchlipatam.

“Generall. I.—Whereas each hath his peon and some more with their Rondells, that none be permitted but as at the Fort.”—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., Feb. 16. In Notes and Exts. No. I. p. 43.

1677–78.—“…That except by the Members of this Councell, those that have formerly been in that quality, Cheefes of Factorys, Commanders of Shipps out of England, and the Chaplains, Rundells shall not be worne by any Men in this Towne, and by no Woman below the Degree of Factors’ Wives and Ensigns’ Wives, except by such as the Governour shall permit.”—Madras Standing Orders, in Wheeler, iii. 438.

1680.—“To Verona (the Company’s Chief Merchant)’s adopted son was given the name of Muddoo Verona, and a Rundell to be carried over