romanette

English

Etymology

From roman (“roman numeral”) + -ette, a diminutive.

Noun

romanette (plural romanettes)

1. (colloquial, law, US) A Roman numeral in lower case, such as “ii”, as frequently introduces list items; or, a list item introduced by such.

   The court held that romanette (ii) of the statute in issue did not limit eligibility for legal relief.

   • 1993, Dan K. Webb et al., Corporate Internal Investigations^[1], ISBN 1588520595, page 3.14:

     […] (romanette (ii) in the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation waiver-of-liability provision included in footnote 1) […]

   • 1999, Greg M. Kauppila and Andrew P. Tijan, "Rotary valve assembly and method", US Patent 6539829 ^[2], page 11:

     This can best be visualized with reference to FIGS. 5, illustrating both ends of the preferred embodiment perforation roll 12 side by side, numbered with romanette numerals i-xii corresponding to the hour positions on a clock face.

   • 2000 January, Joseph Kimble, “A Modest Wish List for Legal Writing”, originally in TRIAL, reprinted in Michigan Bar Journal, Volume 79, Number 11 (November 2000), pages 1574–1577,

     In numbering, avoid roman numerals and romanettes (like iii). They are too much like a foreign language.

   • 2001, Bryan A. Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English^[3], ISBN 0226284182, page 101:

     You'll need to use this technique almost every time you see parenthesized romanettes (i, ii, iii) or letters (a, b, c) in the middle of a contractual or legislative paragraph.

   • 2008, United States Supreme Court oral argument, United States v. Hayes, Case no. 07-608[4], page 9,

     MS. SAHARSKY: . . . not looking at this Romanette (i) and (ii), but just looking at that sentence.

     CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Romanette?

     MS. SAHARSKY: Oh, little Roman numeral.

     CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I've never heard that before. That's -- Romanette.