noun
chattel
CHAT-ul/ˈtʃætl/
A movable possession treated as personal property.
The chair, trunk, rug, and pot are movable chattels.
Etymology
The “head” connection runs through “principal, chief” to a noun meaning property or stock. Chattel named possessions and was later applied to enslaved people treated as property; cattle is another form of the same historical word.
In context
in the context of buying or selling a house a chattel is something unattached furniture chairs a picture that hangs on the wall
More examples
- The contract distinguished land from movable chattels.
- The law treated enslaved people as chattel.
- She rejected any system that made a person another's chattel.
Forms
chattel · chattels