Assets
mid 16th century (in the plural in the sense ‘sufficient estate to allow discharge of a will’): from an Anglo-Norman French legal term, from Old French asez ‘enough’, based on Latin ad ‘to’ + satis ‘enough’.
wiktionary
From Anglo-Norman asetz, from Old French assez(“enough”). Later reanalyzed as a plural form.
etymonline
assets (n.)
1530s, "sufficient estate," from Anglo-French assetz, asetz (singular), from Old French assez "sufficiency, satisfaction; compensation" (11c.), noun use of adverb meaning "enough, sufficiently; very much, a great deal," from Vulgar Latin *ad satis "to sufficiency," from Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + satis "enough," from PIE root *sa- "to satisfy."
At first a legal word meaning "sufficient estate" (to satisfy debts and legacies), it passed into a general sense of "property," especially "any property that theoretically can be converted to ready money" by 1580s. Figurative use from 1670s. Asset is a 19c. artificial singular. Corporate asset stripping is attested from 1972.
