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Webster 1913 Edition

Chattel

Chat′tel

,
Noun.
[OF.
chatel
; another form of
catel
. See
Cattle
.]
(Law)
Any item of movable or immovable property except the freehold, or the things which are parcel of it. It is a more extensive term than goods or effects.
☞ Chattels are personal or real: personal are such as are movable, as goods, plate, money; real are such rights in land as are less than a freehold, as leases, mortgages, growing corn, etc.
Chattel mortgage
(Law)
,
a mortgage on personal property, as distinguished from one on real property.

Webster 1828 Edition

Chattel

CHATTEL

,
Noun.
chatl. [See Cattle.] Primarily, any article of movable goods. In modern usage, the word chattels comprehends all goods, movable or immovable, except such as have the nature of freehold. Chattels are real or personal. Chattels real, are such as concern or savor of the realty, as a term for years of land, ward-ships in chivalry, the next presentation to a church, estates by statute merchant, elegit and the like. Chattels personal, are things movable, as animals, furniture of a house, jewels, corn, &c.

Definition 2024

chattel

chattel

English

Noun

chattel ‎(plural chattels)

  1. 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.
  2. A slave.
    • 1955, Not all his servants and chattels are wraiths! — JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring [Book 2, Chapter 1 - Many Meetings]

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Etymology

From Middle English chatel, a borrowing 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/
  • Rhymes: -ætəl

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