chattel \CHAT-l\,
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.
3. a slave.
"Mr. Price has instructed me to visit with you and make arrangements for a transfer of chattel to the bank sufficient to cover the amount of "—he looked down at his clipboard— "one thousand dollars even."
-- Will Weaver, "Red Earth White Earth," 1986
But now! Gervase himself had not seemed a very important part of that triumph a little while ago. He had been a chattel of hers, a piece of property as much her own as her parasol.
-- Margaret Oliphant, "The Cuckoo in the Nest," 1892
Chattel came to English in the 1400s and shares a root with the word cattle.
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