INNUENDO
innuendo (in-yoo-en-doh). [Latin “by hinting”] 1. An oblique remark or indirect suggestion, usu. of a derogatory nature. 2. An explanatory word or passage inserted parenthetically into a legal document. • In criminal law, an innuendo is a statement in an indictment showing the application or meaning of matter previously expressed, the meaning of which would not otherwise be clear. In the law of defamation, an innuendo is the plaintiff’s explanation of a statement’s defamatory meaning when that meaning is not apparent from the statement’s face. For example, the innuendo of the statement “David burned down his house” can be shown by pleading that the statement was understood to mean that David was defrauding his insurance company (the fact that he had insured his house is pleaded and proved by inducement). Cf. INDUCEMENT(4); COLLOQUIUM. [Cases: Libel and Slander 86. C.J.S. Libel and Slander; Injurious Falsehood§§ 4, 129.]
“Innuendo (from innuo, to nod or beckon with the head) is a word used in declarations and law pleadings, to ascertain a person or thing which was named before …. If a man say, that such a one had the pox, innuendo the French pox, this will not be admitted, because the French pox was not mentioned before, and the words shall be construed in a more favourable sense. But, if in discourse of the French pox, one say, that such a one had the pox, innuendo the French pox, this will be admitted to render that certain which was uncertain before.” 2 Richard Burn, A New Law Dictionary 24 (1792).
“It is not a true innuendo to repeat the obvious meaning of defamatory words in other
language, or in an embroidered or exaggerated way. Otherwise an ingenious pleader could perplex the judge and jury and harry the defendant by ringing the changes on the same words, creating numerous different causes of action, each requiring a separate verdict. A true innuendo relies on a conjunction of the words used and some extrinsic fact. Thus it is defamatory in itself to say that a man’s affairs are being investigated by the Fraud Squad: but the statement does not support the innuendo that those affairs are being carried on fraudulently. Conversely, the statement ‘X is a good advertiser’ is innocent in itself, but carries a libellous innuendo if published to persons who know the extrinsic fact that X is an eminent member of the Bar.” R.F.V. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts 149 (17th ed. 1977). [The example about lawyers’ advertising no longer has relevance to American law. — Eds.]
[Blacks Law 8th]