Word Study
chattel
CIDE DICTIONARY
chattel, n. [OF. chatel; another form of catel. See Cattle.].
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. [1913 Webster]
" 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." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
chattel, n. (usu. in pl.) a moveable possession; any possession or piece of property other than real estate or a freehold.
Idiom
chattel mortgage US the conveyance of chattels by mortgage as security for a debt. goods and chattels personal possessions.
Etymology
ME f. OF chatel: see CATTLE
THESAURUS
chattel
acquest, belongings, bondmaid, bondman, bondslave, bondsman, bondswoman, captive, chattel slave, chattels, churl, concubine, debt slave, effects, estate and effects, galley slave, goods, havings, helot, hereditament, holdings, homager, incorporeal hereditament, lares and penates, liege, liege man, liege subject, movables, odalisque, peon, possessions, properties, property, serf, servant, slave, subject, theow, things, thrall, vassal, villeinFor further exploring for "chattel" in Webster Dictionary Online
