charter

adj

Etymology: From Middle English charter, chartre, borrowed from Old French chartre, from Latin chartula (diminutive of charta). See chart. Doublet of chartula.

1. Leased or hired.

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English charter, chartre, borrowed from Old French chartre, from Latin chartula (diminutive of charta). See chart. Doublet of chartula.

1. A document issued by some authority, creating a public or private institution, and defining its purposes and privileges.
2. A similar document conferring rights and privileges on a person, corporation etc.
3. A contract for the commercial leasing of a vessel, or space on a vessel.
4. The temporary hiring or leasing of a vehicle.
5. A deed (legal contract).
6. A special privilege, immunity, or exemption.

   “My mother, / Who has a charter to extol her blood, / When she does praise me, grieves me.”

7. a provision whose unintended consequence would be to encourage an undesirable activity

   “In what Derbyshire police say amounts to a "thieves' charter," three judges ruled that because the car's identity had been changed it was impossible to trace the legal owner and therefore the person found in possession of it was entitled to keep it.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English charter, chartre, borrowed from Old French chartre, from Latin chartula (diminutive of charta). See chart. Doublet of chartula.

1. To grant or establish a charter.
2. To lease or hire something by charter.
3. (of a peace officer) To inform (an arrestee) of their constitutional rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms upon arrest.