“Many words have no legal meaning. Others have a legal meaning very unlike their ordinary meaning. For example, the word 'daffydown-dilly.' It is a criminal libel to call a lawyer a daffy-down-dilly. Ha! Yes, I advise you never to do such a thing. No, I certainly advise you never to do it.”

— Dorothy L. Sayers

Source: The Dawson Pedigree and Lord Peter Views the Body (1938), P. 169.

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Dorothy L. Sayers 72

English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian wr… 1893–1957

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“Your questions refer to words; so I have to talk about words.
You say: The point isn't the word, but its meaning, and you think of the meaning as a thing of the same kind as the word, though also different from the word. Here the word, there the meaning.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

§ 120
Philosophical Investigations (1953)

“People who take things too literally don't get much of anything from my teaching. By never saying anything I mean, I say a great deal. I never mean anything I say under oath. I never mean exactly what I say. Not even this. You have to read between the words.”

John Sloan (1871–1951) American painter

In John Sloan on Drawing and Painting. Mineola NY: Dover Publications, 2000. Originally published in 1939 as The Gist of Art, p. 7.
The Gist of Art (1939)

“Inconceivable!"
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“You Keep Using the Word Help. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means”

Rick Riordan book The Hammer of Thor

Source: The Hammer of Thor

“The Offending Words and Images, in their natural and ordinary meaning, mean and were understood to mean that I, as the Prime Minister of Singapore and Chairman of GIC, am guilty of criminal misappropriation of the monies paid by Singaporeans to the CPF.”

Lee Hsien Loong (1952) Prime Minister of Singapore

Lee in his defamation lawsuit against CPF activist Roy Ngerng. https://advox.globalvoices.org/2014/05/31/singapore-prime-minister-sues-blogger-for-defamation/