Link Centre Dictionary

chattel

chat·tel

UK/ˈt͡ʃæt.l̩/ US/ˈtʃætʌl/ uncommon

noun

1.

personal as opposed to real property; any tangible movable property (furniture or domestic animals or a car etc)

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English chatel, from Old French chatel, from Medieval Latin capitāle (English capital), from Latin capitālis (“of the head”), from caput (“head”) + -alis (“-al”). Compare the doublet cattle (“cows”), which is from an Anglo-Norman variant. Compare also capital and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.

Phrases

  • chattel house
  • chattel paper
  • chattel slavery
  • human chattel

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.