Chattels
/ˈtʃætəlz/noun
Movable personal property, especially belongings other than land or buildings.
Did you know?In medieval legal language, chattels were the movable goods you could physically carry off, and the word’s history is tangled with the same root that gave English **cattle**, showing how wealth was once measured in movable possessions.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kap-
“to seize, grasp”
Late Latin
Latin
capitale
“property, stock; that which is kept as wealth”
Old French
Old French
chatel
“property, goods, possessions; livestock”
Middle English
English
chattel
“movable property; personal possessions”
Modern English
English
chattels
“movable personal property”
Explore more surprising origins