from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
TANGIBLE PROPERTY. That which may be felt or touched; it must necessarily be
corporeal, but it may be real or personal. A house and a horse are, each,
tangible property. The terni is used in contradistinction to property not
tangible. By the latter expression, is; meant that kind of property which,
though in possession as respects the right, and, consequently, not strictly
choses in action, yet differ; from goods, because they are neither tangible
nor visible, though the thing produced from the right be perfectly so. In
this class may be mentioned copyrights and patent-rights. 1 Bouv. Inst. n.
467, 478.