chattel
chattel Lexical Profile
chattel Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An item of tangible, movable personal property, such as furniture, livestock, or vehicles, as distinguished from real estate or freehold land.
"The estate sale included all the household chattels, ranging from antique oak wardrobes to farm machinery."
An enslaved person or someone treated as the absolute legal property of another.
"Under the brutal legal codes of the plantation economy, enslaved laborers were classified as chattel rather than persons."
Word Nuance & Usage
In legal contexts, 'chattel' (often used in the plural 'chattels') refers neutrally to movable personal property as opposed to real estate, whereas in historical and sociological contexts, it carries strong negative connotations due to its association with chattel slavery.
• Rhymes for chattel
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Old French 'chatel' (wealth, property, goods), which derives from Medieval Latin 'capitale' (property, stock), from Latin 'caput' (head). It is a linguistic doublet of both 'cattle' and 'capital'.