talent

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtæl.ənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English talent, talente,^[2] which in the sense of a weight or sum of money is inherited from Old English talente,^[3][2] borrowed from Latin talenta, the plural of talentum “unit of weight or money”,^[2][4][3] and in the sense “inclination, desire” is from Old French talent, from Medieval Latin talentum “inclination, will, desire”.^[5][6][7] Both are from Ancient Greek τάλαντον (tálanton, “a balance, pair of scales; a weight; a sum of money”),^[5][6] related to tlênai “to bear, suffer”,^[6][8] from Proto-Indo-European *tele- (“to lift, support, weigh”).^[5][4] The Romance sense “will, inclination” grew from a figurative use of “money, wealth”,^[5] or from the inclination of a balance.^[9] It is related to tolerate and extol.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The ancient unit of weight and of money: Old English, about 893.^[10][3] An inclination, disposition, will, desire: probably before 1300,^[6] 1292 in the OED^[10] and the late 13th century in Etymonline,^[5] senses now obsolete.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The weight was originally Babylonian, though the name is Greek, and varied widely in value;^[5] as a sum of money it was reckoned at 6,000 drachmae.^[5] In the sense “feeling, passion”, especially anger, it is from about 1300 to 1320,^[5][10] and Spenser's maltalent meant ill will.^[9] “Mental endowment, natural ability” comes from the parable of the talents in Matthew 25,^[6][4][11] in which a master gives his servants talents of silver and two of them use theirs well:^[11] the notion is of a gift from God for which one will give an account at the Last Judgement.^[5] It developed by the mid-15th century,^[5] first in Lydgate about 1430.^[6] Talented is from before 1633.^[10] People with ability, collectively, gave the talent scout and the talent show from the 1930s,^[11] and the local talent, good-looking people of a place, from the 1940s, probably among British servicemen.^[11] In West Yorkshire, a talent was a conceited person.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 893 – a weight; a sum of money.^[10]
• 1292 – inclination, desire.^[10]
• c. 1430 – natural ability.^[6]
• a. 1633 – talented.^[10]
• 1930s – talent scout.^[11]
• 1940s – local talent.^[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A marked natural ability, as for art or music.
2. Natural ability of a high order.
3. A person or people with such ability: new talent.
4. (informal) Sexually attractive people as a group.
5. An ancient unit of weight and money in Greece, Rome and the Middle East.

Word family

• talented
• talentless
• talentlessness
• talent scout
• talent show

Related words

• tolerate
• extol

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
10. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)