Dividend
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
A fund to be divided. The share allotted to each of several persons entitied to share in a division of profits or property. Thus, dividend may denote a fund set apart by a corporation out of its profits, to be apportioned among the shareholders, or the proportional amount falling to each. In banukraptey or insolveney prac- Lace tice, a dividend is a proportional payment to the creditors out of the insolvent estate.
In old English law
The term denotes one part of an indenture, (gq. 2.)