A man was held in contempt of the court for answering 'Aye' instead of 'Yes.'

There are many synonyms for "Yes" in the English language. However, they're not always recognized legally. A witness in a Scottish court found this the hard way.

He was summoned by the Sheriff in December 1993. When he was asked to confirm that he was the person summoned by the court, he responded 'aye.' Then, he was informed that he had to respond Yes or No. He was asked again and said 'aye' again. He was imprisoned for 90 minutes in contempt of the court.

When he was released, he said "I genuinely thought I was answering him." What do you think? Was imprisoning him a bit too much.

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