the very words

It’s all part of a lineage that has connected generations of queer people, and outlived many of the voices I heard in those tapes, even as so much else has changed, including the very words we use to label our community and describe who we are.

If you have ever followed the passage of a law through a statehouse or Congress, you have seen that many different people have many different ways of understanding and interpreting the very words they are putting into legal effect; if you have ever read the Federalist Papers or even recall much of your high school American history class, you may remember that there was robust conflict and compromise over the Constitution, including serious disagreement as to what various words and ideas might actually mean.

With that, Lynn said the very words my parents surely thought, but never uttered.

Prosecutors said the letter will give Hwang and Halligan, who has also pleaded not guilty to their April 2022 indictment, “awareness of the types - and often the very words - the government will use” to prove their guilt at trial.

Conservatives on Monday worried that the function could chill freedom of expression by attempting to control the very words Americans use.