A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the recipient admits a limited (or inferior) status within the relationship, and it is within that sense that charters were historically granted, and that sense is retained in modern usage of the term.The word entered the English language from the Old French charte (ultimately from the Latin word for "paper"), but the concept is universal and transcends language[citation needed]. It has come to be synonymous with the document that lays out the granting of rights or privileges.