rotgut

& a. A. As subst.: A slang term for bad whisky or other liquor. B. As adj.: A term applied to bad liquor. rō-tạ, s. [Lat.=a wheel.] [ROTARY.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. A roll or list showing the order of rotation in which individuals are to be taken; a roster. 2. A school-roll. II. Technically : 1. Roman Church : A tribunal within the Curia, formerly the supreme court of justice and the universal court of appeal. It was instituted by John XXII., in 1326, and regulated by Sixtus IV. (1471-84) and Benedict XIV. (1740-58), and to it were referred those spiritual causes from foreign countries, now settled on the spot by judges delegated by the See of Rome. It consists of twelve members, called Auditors, presided over by a Dean, and is divided two colleges senates. Prior to 1870 these was a court of appeal for civil suits tried in different cities of the Papal States; the other was a court of final appeal from (1) the appeal courts of the Papal States: (2) all spiritual courts, in the their competence; Escular affairs selonging to deco me the Rond which form precedents, have been frequently pub lished. "The explanation of the name is said to be ( Ducange ) that the marble floor of the chamber in which the Rota used to sit was designed so as to exhibit the appearance of a wheel." -Addis & Arnold : Cath. Dict ., p. 885. 2. English History : The name of a political club founded by Harrington, the author of Oceana , in 1659. He advocated the election of the principal officers of state by ballot, and the retirement of a certain number of members of parliament annually by rotation. "A Parliament which may make old men grieve, And children that ne'er shall be born complain- I mean such as dy'd before they did live, Like Harrington's Rota , or th' engine of Vane." Loyal Songs (ed. 1731), ii. 110. Rota-club, s . Eng. Hist .: The same as ROTA, II. 2. *rō-tā-çě-æ, s. pl . [Fem. pl. of Mod. Latin rotaceus; Lat. rota =a wheel.] Botany : Linnæus' fifty-second natural order of plants. Genera: Gentian a, Lysimachia, A nag all is, .