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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

chat·tel

Audio Help [chat-l] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	Law. a movable article of personal property.

2.	any article of tangible property other than land, buildings, and other things annexed to land.

a slave.

[Origin: 1175–1225; ME chatel < OF. See cattle

]

—Synonyms 1. See property.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
chattel

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

chat·tel Audio Help (chāt'l) Pronunciation Key
n.

Law An article of movable personal property.
A slave.

[Middle English chatel, movable property, from Old French, from Medieval Latin capitāle; see cattle.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
chattel

c.1225, chatel "property, goods," from O.Fr. chatel (see cattle, which is the Norman-Picard form of the same word). Application to slaves (1649) is a rhetorical figure of abolitionists, etc.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

chattel
noun
personal as opposed to real property; any tangible movable property (furniture or domestic animals or a car etc)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Chattel

Cap"i*tal\, n. [Cf. L. capitellum and Capitulum, a small head, the head, top, or capital of a column, dim. of caput head; F. chapiteau, OF. capitel. See Chief, and cf. Cattle, Chattel, Chapiter, Chapter.]

1. (Arch.) The head or uppermost member of a column, pilaster, etc. It consists generally of three parts, abacus, bell (or vase), and necking. See these terms, and Column.

2. [Cf. F. capilate, fem., sc. ville.] (Geog.) The seat of government; the chief city or town in a country; a metropolis. "A busy and splendid capital" --Macauly.

3. [Cf. F. capital.] Money, property, or stock employed in trade, manufactures, etc.; the sum invested or lent, as distinguished from the income or interest. See Capital stock, under Capital, a.

4. (Polit. Econ.) That portion of the produce of industry, which may be directly employed either to support human beings or to assist in production. --M'Culloch.

Note: When wealth is used to assist production it is called capital. The capital of a civilized community includes fixed capital (i.e. buildings, machines, and roads used in the course of production and exchange) amd circulating capital (i.e., food, fuel, money, etc., spent in the course of production and exchange). --T. Raleigh.

5. Anything which can be used to increase one's power or influence.

He tried to make capital out of his rival's discomfiture. --London Times.

6. (Fort.) An imaginary line dividing a bastion, ravelin, or other work, into two equal parts.

7. A chapter, or section, of a book. [Obs.]

Holy St. Bernard hath said in the 59th capital. --Sir W. Scott.

8. (Print.) See Capital letter, under Capital, a.

Active capital. See under Active,

Small capital (Print.), a small capital letter. See under Capital, a.

To live on one's capital, to consume one's capital without producing or accumulating anything to replace it.

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