letter of the law

The precise wording rather than the spirit or intent. For example, Since it was the first time he'd broken the rules, the school decided to ignore the letter of the law and just give him a warning . [Late 1500s]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Xavier	ZAY-vee-ər (English), ZAY-vyər (English), ig-ZAY-vee-ər (English), za-VYE (French), sha-VYER (Portuguese)	English, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish (Archaic)
Carmen	KAHR-men (Spanish), KAHR-mən (English)	Spanish, English, Italian, Romanian
Salomea	sah-law-ME-ah	Polish
Bella	BEL-ə	English
Yahui	-	Chinese
Kyrsten	-	English (Rare)