chattel
(ˈtʃæt(ə)l)
Forms: 3 chatel, chetel, 6 chatel, -ell, 6–7 chattell, 6– chattel.
[a. OF. chatel, chetel (ONF. catel, Pr. captal, capdal):—late L. captāle, L. capitāle principal, property, goods, etc.: see cattle. Chatel, pl. chateux, was the form adopted in legal Anglo-French; it appears in vernacular use in the 13th c., and the pl. chateux is occasional as a technical term in ME.; but the actual form adopted in Eng. was the Norman catel, later cattell, cattle. In the 16th c. (as shown under cattle) this was gradually restricted to ‘live stock’, and at the same time chatel, chattel, began to pass from law French into general use for the wider sense ‘article of property’.]
I. Collective senses. Obs.
† 1. Property; goods; money; = cattle I. Obs.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 224 To dealen his feder chetel to neodfule. a 1240 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 271 Aihwer wið chatel mon mai luue cheape. 1440 Paston Lett. 27 I. 41 All maner of chattell to the seide John Lyston apperteynyng, arn acruwyd on to the Kyng. |
† 2. Capital, principal. Obs.
| 1506 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W.) iv. xxi. 227 The chatell that is the somme gyuen..and the gayne..In puttynge the gayne & chatel in certayne. |
† 3. Live stock; = cattle II. Obs. rare.
[Apparently an attempt to extend the ch- form to all senses of the earlier catel, cattell.]
| 1627 Drayton Agincourt 85 Nor neuer leaue till they their Chattell cleare. 1696 De la Pryme Diary 78 Chattel eats turneps in this country better than they'll do hay. |
II. As an individual n. with pl.
4. A movable possession; any possession or piece of property other than real estate or a freehold. (Generally in pl. Cf. chateus.)
| 1549 Will in Boorde's Introd. Knowl. (1870) Introd 73 Also I giue and bequeth all my chattelles and houses lying abowte Wynchester vnto Richard Mathew. 1592 West Symbol. i. i. §23 All goods, chattels immouable, bondmen, and other things not being by Law prohibited may be sold. a 1626 Fletcher Nice Valour iv. i, A rich uncle died, and left me chattels. 1642 Prynne Sov. Antid. iii. 14 So if Subsidies be granted, and the King dye before they are levyed, his Executors shall not enjoy them, though a chattle; but his Successor. 1826 Scott Woodst. ii, Deliver up to me the chattels of the Man Charles Stewart. 1837 Syd. Smith Let. Wks. 1859 II. 263/2 It is an absolute chattel, which, like any other chattel, is part of the Archbishop's assets..and within the memory of man such options have been publicly sold by auction. 1845 Polson in Encycl. Metrop. 834/1 A sale of goods generally, as distinguished from the sale of a specific chattel. 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Fl. II. 242 Frank's sketch-book, and some other precious chattels. |
b. In Law distinguished as chattel personal, and chattel real: see the quots.
| 1552 Huloet Chatelles personalles..Chatels reall. 1616 Bullokar, Chattels reall are leases or wards. Chattels personall are all moueable goods, as money, plate, cattell. 1628 Coke On. Litt. 199 Of chattels personals. 1651 W. G. tr. Cowel's Inst. 26 All moveable Goods (which by us are tearmed personall Chattells) which the Wife brings..do presently passe into the husbands Patrimony. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 386 Chattels real..are such as concern..the realty; as terms for years of land, wardships in chivalry..next presentation to a church. 1876 Digby Real Prop. v. §1. 208 Thus leasehold interests came to be classed with personal property. Since however they are rights over things immoveable, they received the mongrel name of ‘chattels real’. |
c. goods and chattels: a comprehensive phrase for all kinds of personal property. (Cf. cattle 3).
| 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 505 The custodie, not of the landes onely..but of the goods and chattels also. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 232, I will be master of what is mine owne, Shee is my goods, my chattels, she is my house. 1660 Trial Regic. 35 If you finde that he is guilty, you shall enquire, what Goods, and Chattels he had. 1663 Butler Hud. i. iii. 314 For he in all his amorous battles, No 'dvantage finds like goods and chattels. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. I. viii. 174 All his goods and chattels were confiscated. 1788 J. Powell Devises (1827) II. 99 All the residue of his goods and chattels, personal estate and effects whatsoever. 1848 Lytton Harold iii. ii, Part of his goods and chattels. |
d. transf. and fig.
| 1786 Cowper Gratitude 50 Compassed about with the goods And chattels of leisure and ease. 1824 Syd. Smith Wks. 1859 II. 194/1 Originality and vigour of mind, which are the best chattels and possessions of the world. |
e. Used (chiefly rhetorically, by emancipation writers and others) of slaves or bondmen.
| 1649 Milton Tenure Kings 11 To make the subject no better then the Kings slave, his chattell, or his possession that may be bought and sold. 1753 Richardson Grandison (ed. 7) V. 263 Does he not by this step make me his Chattles, a piece of furniture only, to be removed..at his pleasure. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 93 1832 Austin Jurispr. (1879) I. xv. 400 Much eloquent indignation has..been vented superficiously on the application of the term chattel to the slaves in the English colonies: seeing that the term chattel..[imports] that the rights of the master over his slave..devolve on his intestacy to a certain class of his representatives. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xi. 10 To see what this intelligent chattel had been about. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xix. 391 The chief traffic was in human chattels. |
5. Comb., chattel-interest, an interest in leasehold property.
| 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 173 That by this means a remainder may be limited of a chattel interest, after a particular estate for life created in the same. 1788 J. Powell Devises (1827) II. 35 Where the portion of real estate left undisposed of is a chattel interest, it devolves upon the heir as personal estate. 1876 Digby Real Prop. v. §1. 206 A leasehold, or, as it is often called, a chattel interest in land. Ibid. §2. 216 There can be no estate tail in a chattel interest, such as a term of years. |