chattel

English

From Middle English chatel, borrowed 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”.

IPA^(key): /ˈtʃæt.əl/
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Audio (US): (file)
Rhymes: -ætəl

chattel (plural chattels)

Tangible, movable property.
- 1990, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens, Corgi, p.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.
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!

tangible, movable property

slave