Inconcievable!

Inconceivable? You keep using that word. I don't think you mean what you think you mean.

Ok, I know it sounds like I'm nit-picking, and besides, the line from the movie sounded funnier they way Inigo Montoya said it, but when someone says something that you don't understand, you ask, "what do you mean?" not necessarily, "what does that word mean?" More precisely, if you understand everything except one word, you could ask, "what do you mean when you use that word?"

If you can't ask the person who used the word, the best you can do is check the dictionary. The dictionary won't necessarily list the exact meaning the author had in mind when he or she used the word, but it will list perhaps the most common meanings that people associate with that word.

With that in mind, let's look a some of the things that people might mean when they use the word "property" when speaking of the things that belong to them and others.

Defining Terms

1a. Something owned; a possession.
1b. A piece of real estate: has a swimming pool on the property.
1c. Something tangible or intangible to which its owner has legal title: properties such as copyrights and trademarks.
2. The right of ownership; title.
3. An article, except costumes and scenery, that appears on the stage or on screen during a dramatic performance. (not applicable)
4a. A characteristic trait or peculiarity especially one serving to define or describe its possessor. (not applicable)
4b. A characteristic attribute possessed by all members of a class. (not applicable)
5. A special capability or power; a virtue: the chemical properties or a metal. (not applicable)

1. that which a person owns: the possession or possessions of a particular owner: They lost all their property in the fire.
2. goods, land, etc., considered as possessions: The corporation is a means for the common ownership of property.
3. a piece of land or real estate: property on Main Street.
4. ownership; right of possession, enjoyment, or disposal of anything, esp. of something tangible: to have property in land.
5. something at the disposal of a person, a group of persons, or the community or public: The secret of the invention became common property. (applicable? not applicable?)
6. an essential or distinctive attribute or quality of a thing: the chemical and physical properties of an element. (not applicable)
7a. (Logic) any attribute or characteristic. (not applicable)
7b. (in Aristotelian logic) an attribute not essential to a species but always connected with it and with it along. (not applicable)
8. Also called prop. a usually movable item, other than costumes or scenery, used on the set of a theater production, motion picture, etc.; any object handled or used by an actor in a performance. (not applicable)
9. a written work, play, movie, etc., bought or optioned for commercial production or distribution. (not applicable)
10. a person, esp. one under contract in entertainment or sports, regarded as having commercial value: an actor who was a hot property at the time. (not applicable)

1a. a quality or trait belonging and especially peculiar to an individual or thing. (not applicable)
1b. an effect that an object has on another object or on the senses. (not applicable)
1c. Virtue. (not applicable)
1d. an attribute common to all members of a class. (not applicable)
2a. something owned or possessed; specifically: a piece of real estate.
2b. the exclusive right to possess, enjoy, and dispose of a thing: Ownership
2c. something to which a person or business has a legal title.
2d. one (as a performer) who is under contract and whose work is especially valuable. (not applicable)
2e. a book or script purchased for publication or production. (not applicable)
3. an article or object used in a play or motion picture except painted scenery and costumes. (not applicable)

1a. To have or possess as property: owns a chain of restaurants.
1b. To have control over: For a time, enemy planes owned the skies.
2. To admit as being in accordance with fact, truth, or a claim; acknowledge. (not applicable)

1. to have as belonging to one; have as property; own: to possess a house and a car.
2. to have as a faculty, quality, or the like: to possess courage. (not applicable)
3. (of a spirit, esp. an evil one) to occupy, dominate, or control (a person) from within: He thought he was possessed by devils.
4. (of a feeling, idea, etc.) to dominate or actuate in the matter of such a spirit: He was possessed by envy.
5. (of a man) to succeed in having sexual intercourse with. (not applicable)
6. to have knowledge of: to possess a language. (not applicable)
7. to keep or maintain (oneself, one's mind, etc.) in a certain state, as of peace, patience, etc.
8. to maintain control over (oneself, one's mind, etc.)
9. to impart to; inform; familiarize (often fol. by of or with): to possess someone of the facts of the case. (not applicable)
10. to cause to be dominated or influenced, as by an idea, feeling, etc.
11. to make (someone) owner, holder, or master, as of property, information, etc.: He possessed them of the facts. (not applicable)
12. to seize or take. (not applicable)
13. to gain or win. (not applicable)
14. to occupy or hold.

1. to attend to; settle: disposed of the problem quickly. (not applicable)
2. to transfer or part with, as by giving or selling.
3. to get rid of; throw out.
4. to kill or destroy: a despot who disposed of all his enemies, real or imagined.

1. the distinguishing name of a book, poem, picture, piece of music, or the like. (not applicable)
2. a descriptive heading or caption, as of a chapter, section, or other part of a book. (not applicable)
3. title page. (not applicable)
4. a descriptive or distinctive appellation, esp. one belonging to a person by right of rank, office, attainment, etc.: the title of Lord Mayor. (not applicable)
5. Sports. the championship: He won the title three years in a row. (not applicable)
6. an established or recognized right to something.
7. a ground or basis for a claim.
8. anything that provides a ground or basis for a claim.
9a. Law. legal right to the possession of property, esp. real property.
9b. Law. the ground or evidence of such right.
9c. Law. the instrument constituting evidence of such right.
9d. Law. a unity combining all of the requisites to complete legal ownership.
9e. Law. a division of a statute, lawbook, etc., esp. one larger than an article or section. (not applicable)
9f. Law. (in pleading) the designation of one's basis for judicial relief; the cause of action sued upon, as a contract or tort.
10a. Ecclesiastical. a fixed sphere of work and source of income, required as a condition of ordination. (not applicable)
10b. Ecclesiastical. any of certain Roman Catholic churches in Rome, the nominal incumbents of which are cardinals. (not applicable)
11a. Usually, titles. Movies, Television. a subtitle in the viewer's own language: an Italian movie with English titles. (not applicable)
11b. any written matter inserted into the film or program, esp. the list of actors, technicians, writers, etc., contributing to it; credits. (not applicable)

Narrowing the Definition

1. The thing itself, which we call the "property," or "piece of property" (which could be just about anything.)
2. The owner (the person or group that possesses or owns the property.)
3. The control (the nature of the control the owner exercises over the property.)
4. The right (the notion that it is right for the owner, and wrong for anyone else, to control the property in this way.)

Property is a moral notion.

Now, let's take a look at the idea of self-ownership, a notion that is central to Classical Liberalism, Libertarianism, Anarchism and a number of other related political ideologies, and see if we can shed any light on the notions of "right" and "wrong." We simply replace the "thing itself" in the above definition of property with the "self."

Property is:

1. The thing itself (the self, the owner himself or herself.)
2. The owner (the individual who controls himself or herself.)
3. Control (the nature of the control the owner exercises over himself or herself, meaning, his or her behavior.)
4. The Right (the notion that it is right for the owner and wrong for anyone else to exercise that control over his or her own behavior.)

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