chattel

English

Etymology

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”.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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, Not all his servants and chattels are wraiths! — JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring [Book 2, Chapter 1 - Many Meetings]

Related terms

capital
cattle

Translations

tangible, movable property

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
Finnish: irtain (fi)
Galician: ben móbel m, móbel m

German: Habe (de) f
Hungarian: ingóság (hu), ingó vagyon (hu)
Old Norse: lausaeyrir m
Polish: ruchomość (pl) f, majątek ruchomy m
Russian: движимое иму́щество (dvižimoje imúščestvo)

slave

Finnish: orja (fi), sielu (fi)
Hungarian: rabszolga (hu)

Polish: niewolnik (pl) m
Russian: раб (ru) (rab)

Anagrams

latchet