original meaning
Initial intended definition
Original meaning is the sense a word, phrase, or text had when first created or used.
In legal contexts, especially U.S. constitutional interpretation, original meaning refers to how the framers or ratifiers understood the language: Originalists argue we should follow the Constitution's original meaning.
The phrase can also describe a text's intended significance before later reinterpretation.
- originalismInterpreting by founding-era meaning
- textualismInterpreting law literally
- literal senseWord's explicit meaning
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- spirit of the lawA statute's underlying purpose
founding fathers · proto-language · first principles · archetype · etymology · denotation · philology · history · essentialism · lexicon · definition · semantics · lexicography · judicial activism · foundationalism · jurisprudence · precedent · ontology
- meaningsense, significance, denotation, definition, connotation
- interpretationinterpretive dance, translation, interpreting, translating, construing
- biblical studieshistorical criticism, scriptural study, biblical narratives, Hebrew Bible, textual analysis
original, originally, originality, originals, origin, origins, originate, originates, originated