chattel

English

Etymology

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”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃæt.l̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætəl

Noun

chattel (plural chattels)

1. Tangible, movable property.
   • 1990, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Good Omens, Corgi, page 387:

     […] although of course the firm had changed hands many times over the centuries, […] But the box has always been part of the chattels, as it were.

2. A slave.
   • 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring [Book 2, Chapter 1 - Many Meetings]

     Not all his servants and chattels are wraiths!

Derived terms

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

 

Related terms

• capital
• cattle

Translations

tangible, movable property

• Afrikaans: eiendom
• Bulgarian: движимост (bg) f (dvižimost), движимо имущество (dvižimo imuštestvo)
• Danish: løsøre (da) c
• Dutch: have (nl), goed (nl) n, bezit (nl) n, eigendom (nl) n
• Esperanto: propraĵo
• Finnish: irtain (fi)
• Galician: ben móbel m, móbel m
• German: Habe (de) f, bewegliches Gut n
• Hungarian: ingóság (hu), ingó vagyon (hu)
• Maori: rirohanga
• Old Norse: lausaeyrir m
• Polish: ruchomość (pl) f, majątek ruchomy m
• Russian: движимое иму́щество (dvižimoje imúščestvo)
• Swedish: lösöre (sv) n

slave

• Afrikaans: slaaf (af)
• Finnish: orja (fi), sielu (fi)
• Hungarian: rabszolga (hu)
• Polish: niewolnik (pl) m
• Russian: раб (ru) (rab)
• Spanish: esclavo (es) m

Anagrams

• latchet