property

Definitions

propri (one's own) + -ty (state of) = 'the state of being one's own.' This produces two senses that share one idea. What belongs to a person is their property (land, money). What belongs to a thing by nature is its property (water's property of dissolving salt). Both are 'what belongs.'

Why It Means This

The two meanings feel unrelated until you trace them to Latin proprius, 'one's own.' English borrowed the word twice in spirit: 'property' as possessions (what belongs to you) and 'property' as an inherent trait (what belongs to a thing). The legal/financial sense dominates everyday speech; the scientific sense survives in chemistry, physics, and programming, where an object's properties are its built-in characteristics.

Common Collocations

• 1.private property私有财产
• 2.intellectual property知识产权
• 3.property owner业主
• 4.chemical properties化学性质
• 5.property market房地产市场

Example Sentences

• 1.

  They bought a piece of property near the coast last year.

• 2.

  All personal property must be declared at customs.

• 3.

  One useful property of salt is that it dissolves easily in water.

• 4.

  This material has remarkable insulating properties.

Easily Confused

property vs estate — Both can mean land and buildings, but property is the general word for anything owned (a phone, a song, a house). estate is larger and more formal: a big piece of land with a house (a country estate), or everything a person owns at death (his estate). All estates are property, but not all property is an estate.