PERSONALTY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Personalty

... divided, from dividere, to separate, used in the sense of to arrange, set out, apportion. "Devise," as a substantive, is now only used as a legal term for a disposition of property by will, by a modern convention restricted to a disposition of real property, the term "bequest" being used of personalty (see WILL). This use is directly due to the Medieval Latin meaning of dividere testamento disponere. In its verbal form, "devise" is used not only in the legal sense, but also in the sense ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 - "Destructors" to "Diameter" • Various