Lat. Contemporaneous exposition, or construction; a construction drawn from the time when, and the circumstances under which, the subject matter to be construed, as a statute or custom, originated. Contemporanea expositio est optima ot fortissima in logo. Contemporaneous exposition is the best and strongest in the law. 2 Inst 11. A statute is best explained by following the construction put upon it by judges who lived at the time It was made, or soon after. 10 Coke, 70; Broom, Max. 682.