chattel - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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”.

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!

tangible, movable property

slave