purport (subs.) Copy link Outline 1. sententia (sense, significance)2. signĭfĭcātio (meaning)3. vŏluntas (spirit or intention, esp. as distinct from mere letter)4. exemplum (identical words as well as sense)5. very freq. by phrases, with the verbs specto, tendo., volo, e. g. what is the p. of this discourse? quo igitur haec spectat oratio? id. Att. 8, 2 quorsum haec omnis spectat oratio? id. Phil. 7, 9, 26 • purport (subs.): 1. sententia (sense, significance): a letter was read to the same p., recitatae sunt tabellae in eandem fere sententiam, Cic. Cat. 3, 5, 10: cf. de Domitio dixit versum Graecum eadem sententia (of the same p.) qua etiam nos habemus Latinum, id. Deiot. 9, 25. 2. signĭfĭcātio (meaning): p. of a writing or document, s. scripti, Cic. Part. Or. 31, 108. 3. vŏluntas (spirit or intention, esp. as distinct from mere letter): the p. of a law, v. legis, Quint. 3, 6, 99: Join: vis et voluntas. the force or p. of words, verborum vis aut voluntas, id. 12, 2, 19. See also, drift, purpose, force, meaning. 4. exemplum (identical words as well as sense): of (or to) the same p. (and in the same words), uno or eodem exemplo: so, literae uno exemplo, Cic. Fam. 4, 4: scribere bis eodem exemplo, ib. 9, 16: testamentum duplex, sed eodem exemplo, Suet. Tib. 76: to this (the following) p., hoc exemplo: Capuae literae sunt allatae hoc exemplo, Pompeius mare transiit, Cic. Att. 9, 6. 5. very freq. by phrases, with the verbs specto, tendo., volo, e. g. what is the p. of this discourse? quo igitur haec spectat oratio? id. Att. 8, 2 quorsum haec omnis spectat oratio? id. Phil. 7, 9, 26: do you catch the p. of what I say? tenes quorsum haecce tendant quae loquor? Pl. Ps. 1, 2, 86 (cf. Hor. S. 2, 7, 21): nor could I clearly perceive the p. of the law, or of those words, nec satis intellexi quid sibi lex aut quid verba ista vellent, Cic. Leg. 3, 15, 33: v. effect, import, meaning.