WORD, construction. One or more syllables which when united convey an idea a
single part of speech.
2. Words are to be understood in a proper or figurative sense, and they
are used both ways in law. They are also used in a technical sense. It is a
general rule that contracts and wills shall be construed as the parties
understood them; every person, however, is presumed to understand the force
of the words be uses, and therefore technical words must be taken according
to their legal import, even in wills, unless the testator manifests a clear
intention to the contrary. 1 Bro. C. C. 33; 3 Bro. C. C. 234; 5 Ves. 401 8
Ves. 306.
3. Every one is required to use words in the sense they are generally
understood, for, as speech has been given to man to be a sign of his
thoughts, for the purpose of communicating them to others, he is bound in
treating with them, to use such words or signs in the sense sanctioned by
usage, that is, in the sense in which they themselves understand them, or
else he deceives them. Heinnec. Praelect. in Puffendorff, lib. 1, cap. 17,
Sec. 2 Heinnec. de Jure Nat. lib. 1, Sec. 197; Wolff, lust. Jur. Nat. Sec.
7981.
4. Formerly, indeed, in cases of slander, the defamatory words received
the mildest interpretation of which they were susceptible, and some
ludicrous decisions were the consequence. It was gravely decided, that to
say of a merchant, "he is a base broken rascal, has broken twice, and I will
make him break a third time," that no action could be maintained, because it
might be intended that he had a hernia: ne poet dar porter action, car poet
estre intend de burstness de belly. Latch, 104. But now they are understood
in their usual signification. Comb. 37; Ham. N. P. 282. Vide Bouv. Inst.
Index, h.t.; Construction; Interpretation.