“Ofensivo da sua honra e consideração”: lawsuits of insults and offense to public moral from the judicial district of Coimbra in the late 19th century

Abstract

When society’s linguistic behaviour is analysed through historical perspective, we realize the importance of the meaning of words and its intentional use as a superior manifestation of sensibility. The historical retrospective is, in that sense, essential to understand not only changes through times, but to recognize the continuities that subsist in language and, consequently, in mentalities.
Lawsuits of insults and offense to public moral reflect, mostly, circumstances where the interpersonal relations are exasperated and words gain a critical significance that is perceived by those involved, the community and the law as an insult. The analyses of this documentation allows us to identify, for the late 19^th century, the usual mechanisms of personal affront, with its public nature, trough the most common words, the complainant’s considerations, that fall in notions of honour and perception before others, the witnesses and the judge’s deliberation. The study of the historical meaning of language, that works as a weapon and as a crime in itself, allow the apprehension of a common social code, especially in orality, that with due differences and proximities is, still, understood by all.