Whereas etymologically, the word domaine (dominium) means the power of the person on the things and the word propriété (proprietas), the object subjected to the domaine, it is however the second who was retained by the craftsmen of the French private law codification to indicate the "right to enjoy and dispose of things in the most absolute manner". The variation of meanings between etymons and French legislative vocabulary invites to consider the semantic evolution of domaine and propriété since their appearance in the French language and to wonder particularly about the reasons which dictated the terminological choice of section 544 of the Civil Code. The first report is the polysemia acquired by the term propriété, registered in the Civil Code and today still of setting. Indeed, if it preserves an objective meaning, if propriété continues to indicate the thing belonging to somebody, the word also grows rich under the Ancien Régime of a subjective meaning, even of a potestative dimension. Result partly of the development of the concept of subjective right, the fact that propriété expresses the appropriation under the active angle of the subject owner is not enough to explain the consecration of the word in section 544. The main significances acquired by the word domaine before the French Revolution are there also for much. Indeed, its first meaning of good, estate, its absolute meaning of public goods, its capacity of evocation of feudality testify to its incompatibility with the idea of a right of the private individual to dispose of his things.