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Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Edition (1856)

NEGOTIABLE. That which is capable of being transferred by assignment; a
thing, the title to which may be transferred by a sale and indorsement or
delivery.
2. A chose in action was not assignable at common law, and therefore
contracts or agreements could not be negotiated. But exceptions have been
allowed to this rule in relation to simple contracts, and others have been
introduced by legislative acts. So that, now, bills of exchange, promissory
notes, bills of lading, bank notes, payable to order, or to bearer, and, in
some states, bonds and other specialties, may be transferred by assignment,
indorsement, or by delivery, when the instrument is payable to bearer.
3. When a claim is assigned which is not negotiable at law, such, for
example, as a book debt, the title to it remains at law in the assigner, but
the assignee is entitled to it in equity, and he may therefore recover it in
the assignor's name. See, generally, Hare & Wall. Sel. Dec. 158 to 194
Negotiable paper.