WORD. One or more syllables which when united convey an idea ; a single part of speech.
2. Words are to he understood in a proper or figurative sense, and they are used both ways in law. They are also used in a tech nical sense. It is a general rule that eon tracts and wills shall be construed as the parties understood them : every, person, how ever, is presumed to understand the force of the words he uses, and, therefore, technical words must be taken according to their legal import even in wills, unless the testator mani fests a clear intention to the contrary. 1 Brown, Ch. 33 ; 3 id. 234 ; 5 Ves. Ch. 401 ; 8 id. 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 communi cating them to others, he is bound, in treat 113g 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. Heineccius,
Praelect. in Puffendorff, lib. 1, cap. 17, 2; Heineccius, de Jure Nat. lib. 1, 197; Wolff,. Inst. Jur. Nat. 798.
4. Formerly, indeed, in cases of slander, the defamatory words received the mildost interpretation of which they were susceptible; and some ludicrous decisions were the conse quence. It was gravely decided that to say of a merchant, " he is a bass broken rascal, has broken twice, and I will make him break a third time," furnished no ground for main taining an action 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 under stood in their usual signification. Comb. 37; Hammond, Nisi P. 282. See LIBEL; SLANDER.