English

Noun

æs alienum ‎(uncountable)

1. Obsolete form of aes alienum.
   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1886), page 5:

     It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live, for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latins æs alienum, another’s brass, for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying, and buried by this other’s brass; always promising to pay, promising to pay, to-morrow, and dying to-day, insolvent.