cheptel

Forms

cheptel m (plural cheptels)^[1] Old French chatel, chetel and, in the north, catel.^[2][3][4] Middle French chaptau (1466) and the spelling chepteil (Furetière, 1690), which the Académie still admitted beside cheptel in 1762 and 1798.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French chetel, respelled with a ⟨p⟩ taken from the Latin source; that ⟨p⟩ was in principle not pronounced.^[2][3][5] The TLFi and Rey date the spelling with ⟨p⟩ to 1762, in the Académie's dictionary,^[2][3] while Bloch and Wartburg put the respelling in the 17th century, with ⟨chaptel⟩ recorded first.^[6] The Old French form is an alteration of chatel (“goods, property”), probably after chief (“principal”), an adjective common in medieval legal terms such as chef cens.^[2][3][6]

That word is inherited from Medieval Latin capitale (“principal part of a property, movable goods, livestock”), recorded from the 9th century,^[2][3][7] the noun use of the classical adjective Latin capitālis (“of the head, principal”), from caput (“head”).^[2][5][8] It is thus a doublet of capital.^[1][3] The English words chattel and cattle come from the Old French and the Old North French forms of the same word.^[9][1]

Cognate with Old Occitan capdal and Spanish caudal (“goods, wealth”).^[6] Littré adds Norman chatel (“movable goods”), Picard chastel (“any object one owns”) and Genevan chédal (“livestock”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As chatel it appears early in the 12th century in the Laws of William the Conqueror, meaning “goods, property”;^[2][3] Littré quotes from them Dunc il rendra le chatel “then he will give back the property”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old French chatel, chetel was a legal word for goods or a patrimony in general;^[3][6] Bloch and Wartburg note that its sense was narrowed in different ways from region to region.^[3][6] About 1260 it was used of livestock regarded as capital,^[2][3] and in the second half of the 12th century catel could mean “profit, interest”.^[2] The general sense “property” went out of use in the 15th century.^[3]

In 1466 a tenant was said to hold a mare a chaptau, under a lease by which he fed and tended the animals and shared the profit with the owner.^[2][3] The word then named this contract itself (chepteil, Furetière, 1690),^[2][10] and by a further metonymy the livestock let out under it (Code civil, 1804).^[2][3] By analogy the legal terms cheptel mort, for the farm buildings and implements let with the animals, and cheptel vif were recorded in 1863,^[3][2] and the general sense “all the livestock” of a farm or a country by 1929.^[2]

English borrowed the same word twice in the 13th century: chattel “property” from Old French chatel, and cattle, first “property”, from the Anglo-Norman and Old North French catel.^[9]

Timeline

• Early 12th century – Chatel “goods, property” appears in the Laws of William the Conqueror.^[2]
• c. 1165 – The form cheteus is found in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[2]
• Second half of the 12th century – Catel is used figuratively for “profit, interest” in Aiol.^[2]
• c. 1260 – Chetiex denotes livestock.^[2][3]
• Early 13th century – English takes chattel from Old French.^[9]
• 1466 – Tenir une jument a chaptau refers to a livestock lease.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records chepteil for the contract.^[2][10]
• 1762 – The Académie gives the spelling cheptel.^[2][3][5]
• 1804 – The Code civil uses it for the livestock let under the contract.^[2][3]
• 1863 – Littré records cheptel vif and cheptel mort.^[2][3]
• 1929 – The Larousse du XXe siècle has the sense “all the livestock”.^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A lease by which an owner hands over a stock of livestock to someone who keeps, feeds and tends it on agreed terms, also called bail à cheptel.^[8][2][11]
2. The animals of a farm, a region or a country; with an adjective, all the animals of one kind: cheptel bovin.^[8][11][12]
3. (law) The working capital of a farm: cheptel vif is the livestock, cheptel mort the buildings and implements.^[8][10]
4. (figurative) A herd or crowd of people.^[1]

Related words

• capital
• chef
• Latin capitale
• English cattle
• English chattel

Usage notes

The pronunciation without /p/, the one Littré gives, was long the norm;^[4][2] the TLFi notes that Martinon (1913) heard the /p/ coming in even in the law faculties and that Straka (1950) foresaw that it would prevail.^[2] The Grand Robert gives /ʃtɛl/ beside the more frequent /ʃɛptɛl/.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 253b
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)