talon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English taloun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French talon (“heel of a person or a shoe, hinder part of a beast's foot”),^[5][6][7][8] from Vulgar Latin *tālō (“heel”),^[8][2][9] an extension of Latin tālus (“ankle, ankle-bone, heel”).^[5][6][2][7] Etymonline and Barnhart cite the intermediate form as Medieval Latin talonem.^[6][3] The same Romance word gave Spanish talón and Italian tallone.^[8][10] The Anglo-Norman form was recorded from the first half of the 12th century, for the heel and the hind part of the foot, but also already for the hind claw of a bird of prey.^[11] Ayto thinks that the Latin noun was probably borrowed from Celtic, and compares Irish sal (“talon”).^[9] The Middle English variants in -t have the same unetymological ending as pheasant and tyrant.^[5][6][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The claw of a dragon: probably before 1400, in the Morte Arthure.^[5][3] Etymonline has the plural talounz about 1400.^[6] Talun is already recorded as a surname in 1180.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED sets out the development as ankle, then the heel of a person or a shoe, then the hinder part of a beast's foot, then the hind claw of a bird of prey, then any claw.^[5] It and Weekley hold that the extension to birds of prey was made only in English,^[5][10] and Ayto gives the same route.^[9] From before 1425, in the Master of Game, to 1725 it was used for the hinder part of the foot of swine, deer and horses,^[5] and the Book of St Albans (1486) used it for a hawk's hind claw: The grete clees behynde...ye shall call hom talons.^[5][10] Skeat still notes this particular use of a hawk.^[13] From there it spread to the claws of any animal; from 1594 it was applied allusively to grasping human hands.^[5][12] The spelling talent allowed Shakespeare a pun in Love's Labour's Lost: If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.^[12] Johnson (1755) gives only the claw of a bird of prey.^[14] Technical uses that treat the word as "heel" follow French: the curved back of a ship's rudder (1485), the ogee moulding (1704) and a part of a bivalve's shell (1854).^[5] The card-playing and financial senses are from the mid-19th century.^[12]

Timeline

• 1180 – Talun, as a surname.^[3]
• c. 1400 – the claw of a dragon or of a bird of prey.^[5][3][6]
• before 1425 – the hinder part of the foot of a quadruped (obsolete by 1725).^[5]
• 1485 – the curved back of a ship's rudder.^[5]
• 1486 – the hind claw of a bird (obsolete by 1577).^[5][10]
• 1586 – figurative use, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine.^[5]
• 1594 – the grasping fingers or hands of people.^[5]
• 1686 – verb, to tear with the talons (obsolete).^[5]
• 1704 – an ogee moulding.^[5]
• 1854 – a part of the shell of a bivalve.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sharp hooked claw, especially of a bird of prey: The owl gripped the vole in its talons.^[15][16][5]
2. The claw of any animal, or something shaped like one.^[16][5][15]
3. A grasping human finger or hand.^[16][5][12]
4. The part of a lock's bolt that the key presses against.^[15][16][12]
5. (cards) The cards left over after the deal.^[15][12]
6. (architecture) An ogee moulding.^[15][16][5]
7. (stock exchange) The slip at the end of a sheet of dividend coupons, which the holder exchanges for a new sheet.^[15][12]
8. (obsolete, before 1425–1725) The hinder part of a hoof or of a beast's foot.^[16][5]

Word family

• taloned

Related words

• talus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster