Latin: In Roman law. In ancient times the nexum seems to have been a species of formal contract, involving a loan of money, and attended with peculiar consequences, solemnized with the “copper and balance.” Later, it appears to have been used as a general term for any contract struck with those ceremonies, and heuce to have Included the special form of conveyance called “mancipation” In a general sense it means the obligation or bond between contracting parties. See Maine, Anc. Law, 305, seq. Hadl. Rom. Law, 247. In Roman law, this word expressed the tie or obligation involved in the old conveyance by mancipatio; and came latterly to be used interchangeably with (but less frequently than) the word “obligatio” itself. Brown.