property

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English proprete, also properte,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman properté, propretee,^[5][6] variants of Old French proprieté, probably reshaped after propre (“one's own”).^[5][7] The French word is from Latin proprietās (“peculiar nature; ownership, property”),^[5][8][2] from proprius (“one's own, particular”), the source of proper.^[9][8][10] Barnhart says that Cicero formed the Latin noun to translate Ancient Greek ἰδιότης (idiótēs, “peculiar nature”),^[8] while Klein calls it a loan translation of ἰδίωμα (idíōma).^[2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the mid-12th century, already meaning both a particular quality and a possession or landed property.^[6] propriety is a doublet, reborrowed from Old French; at first it also meant property.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nature, quality, characteristic: about 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, according to Barnhart, who dates the sense of things owned to before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[8] The OED's first record is the Wycliffite Bible (before 1382), for the characteristic quality of a person or thing.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English with both of its main senses, quality and ownership, which were already present in Anglo-Norman.^[6][8] The quality sense was used of things from about 1390, in Chaucer, and of persons from 1398, a use the OED now labels regional;^[5] the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and London for a person's characteristic or personal quality.^[11] In logic it named any attribute of an object from 1551.^[5] Gower used it before 1393 both for a possession and for the fact or right of owning,^[5] and Johnson (1755) still put "peculiar quality" first.^[12] The theatrical sense, an object used on stage, is recorded from the 15th century;^[13][14] it was later clipped to prop.^[13] A piece of land was called a property from 1719, in Defoe, and later any building or real estate.^[5] In the 20th century the word was applied to a literary work valued for its film rights (1919, chiefly North American) and to a performer or work regarded as a commercial asset (1945).^[5] A verb property, to exploit or to appropriate, was used by Shakespeare and died out by 1833.^[5][4]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – nature, quality, characteristic.^[8]
• before 1325 – a possession, things owned.^[8]
• 1382 – the characteristic quality or nature of a person or thing (now obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1390 – an attribute of a thing.^[5]
• before 1393 – a possession; possessions collectively; the fact or right of owning.^[5]
• c. 1425 – an object used on stage.^[13] The Historical Thesaurus dates it before 1450.^[14]
• 1551 – in logic, an attribute of an object.^[5][14]
• 1616 – verb, to exploit; to appropriate (obsolete).^[5]
• 1719 – a piece of land under one owner, a landed estate.^[5][14]
• 1919 – a literary work considered for its film rights.^[5]
• 1945 – a performer or work regarded as a commercial asset.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something owned; a possession, or possessions as a whole: The bicycle is school property.^[15][16][5]
2. Land or buildings; a piece of real estate: They bought a property near the coast.^[15][16][5]
3. (law) The right to possess, use and dispose of something; ownership.^[15][16][5]
4. A characteristic quality or attribute, especially one that belongs to every member of a class: the healing properties of the plant.^[15][4][5]
5. An object, other than costume or scenery, used on stage or in a film; a prop.^[15][14]
6. A work, performer or brand regarded as a commercial asset.^[5]

Word family

• propertyless
• propertylessness
• prop
• propertied
• community property
• intellectual property
• personal property
• property right

Related words

• proper
• proprietary
• proprietor
• propriety
• appropriate
• idiom

Usage notes

Dictionary.com treats property as the general word for whatever is owned, beside the narrower chattels, effects, estate and goods.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins