the stock or estate which a person, in the power of another, whether male or female, either as his or her slave, may acquire by his industry. Roman slaves frequently amassed considerable sums in this way. The word properly signifies the advanced price which a slave could get for his master's cattle, &c. above the price fixed upon them by his master, which was the slave's own property.

In the Romish church, peculium denotes the goods which each religious reserves and possesses to himself.