Etymologically
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talent

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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
  • 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)