Colloquium

A general averment in an action for slander connecting the whole publication with the previous statement.

1 Stark. SI. 431; Heard, Lib. & SI.

228; or stating that the whole publication applies to the plaintiff, and to the extrinsic matters alleged in his declaration.

1 Greenl. Ev. § 417.

An averment that the words were spoken "of or concerning" the plaintiff, where the words are actionable in themselves. 6 Term 162; Ellis v. Kimball, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 132; Cro. Jac. 674; or where the injurious meaning which the plaintiff assigns to the words results from some extrinsic matter, or of and concerning, or with reference to, such matter; Bloss v. Tobey, 2 Pick. (Mass.) 328; Carter v. Andrews, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 1; 11 M. & W. 2S7. An averment that the words in question are spoken of or concerning some usage, report, or fact which gives to words otherwise indifferent the peculiar defamatory meaning assigned to them.

Shaw, C. J., Carter v. Andrews, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 6.

Whenever words have the slanderous meaning alleged, not by their own intrinsic force, but by reason of the existence of some extraneous fact, this fact must be averred in a traversable form, which averment is called the inducement. There must then be a colloquium averring that the slanderous words were spoken of or concerning this fact. Then the word "meaning," or innuendo, is used to connect ence from the whole declaration, that such was, under the circumstances thus set out, the meaning of the words used.

Per Shaw, C. J., Carter v. Andrews, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 6.

By the Com. L. Proc. Act (1852) in England the colloquium has been rendered unnecessary. See Innuendo; Odger, Lib. & SI.