Bailment

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A legal arrangement in which one individual temporarily transfers possession of personal property to another for a designated purpose without transferring ownership
2. This involves delivering personal goods to someone else for their use or management while retaining the original owner's rights to the property
3. A legal relationship where possession of items is transferred to a party for a specific use, but ownership remains with the original owner

Etymology: The legal sense of "bailment" rests on a verb that English borrowed from French and then used for a very different kind of holding. "Bail" comes from Old French "bailler," meaning to hand over, deliver, or take charge of, and it reached English as a term for releasing a prisoner on a promise to return. Its older core sense of handing something over to someone's care is the one that "bailment" keeps. The noun was built in English by adding the suffix "-ment" to "bail." That suffix descends through Old French from Latin "-mentum," which formed nouns naming the result or means of an action, so a bailment is literally the act or result of entrusting something to another. The contract is the one that matters: the goods change hands, but title never does.

Synonyms: deposit, entrustment, delivery