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talento

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Italian has two words spelled talento, both from Latin talentum: the ancient weight and coin, a learned word, and “desire; gift, ability”, which came through Occitan or French.[1][2] DELI and DEI number them 1 and 2;[1][2][3] GRADIT treats them as one.[1][2][3]

talento1 ancient weight and coin

Pronunciation

  • /taˈlɛn.to/[4]

Forms

talento m (plural talenti)[4]

Etymology

The weight is a learned word, borrowed from Latin talentum (“a talent, a weight; a sum of money”), borrowed from Ancient Greek τάλαντον (tálanton).[1][5][3][2] The Greek word meant “balance, the scale of a balance”, then “weight” and “sum of money”; the money sense prevailed in Italian because of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30.[1][2]

The Greek word is related to tollō (“to lift”) and comes from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to bear, to lift”).[5][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are 14th-century: the Zibaldone Andreini, an Italian translation of Ovid and Jacopo Passavanti.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

Domenico Cavalca and Boccaccio used it in retelling the gospel parables of debt and of the talents.[6] In historical writing the word names the Greek unit of 60 minas, whose weight varied with place and time, and the coin of Greece and Palestine.[1][7]

Timeline

  • 14th century – Talento “Greek weight” in Passavanti and the Ovid translation.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (history) A talent, an ancient unit of weight used by the Greeks, Babylonians and Hebrews.[3][7][8]
  2. (history) A coin of ancient Greece and Palestine, of varying value.[3][7][8]

talento2 desire; gift, ability

Pronunciation

  • /taˈlɛn.to/[4]

Forms

talento m (plural talenti)[4]

Etymology

The sense “desire” came from Occitan or French: DELI and the GDLI see it as borrowed from Old Occitan talen or Old French talent (“desire, will”), from the same Latin talentum.[1][6][4] Bembo already recognised the Occitan origin, and the word was common in the poetry of the Sicilian school.[1] DELI suggests two routes for the sense: the Greek meaning “inclination (of a balance)”, kept in Provence, where Greeks had settled, or a metaphor drawn from the gospel parable.[1] Nocentini, DEI and Prati derive both “desire” and “gift” from the parable, in which a master gives his servants talents according to their ability.[5][2][9] Meyer-Lübke also finds the Romance spread clearly due to the parable, and doubts a direct descent from Greek in Provence.[10]

Migliorini described the history as two waves of the figurative use: “desire, will”, spread from Provence in the Middle Ages, and “natural or acquired aptitude”, which appeared here and there in Italy and France but became common only in the Renaissance.[1][5] Irish glosses of the 7th–8th century already have Old Irish talland “faculty of the mind”.[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio (late 12th century, Marche), in the sense “desire, strong wish”: lu su talentu condonanno.[11][6] DELI dates “desire” to Iacopo Mostacci (13th century) and “intelligence, ability” to Brunetto Latini (before 1294).[1]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian talento meant desire or will and formed many phrases: avere in talento “to want”, essere a talento “to please”, contro talento “unwillingly”, and mal talento “ill will”.[11][2] Dante wrote that the lustful “subject reason to desire” (che la ragion sommettono al talento).[12]

The sense “ability” was condemned by the purists in the 19th century, and Galileo had avoided the word.[1] It prevailed nonetheless, and, from Italian came French talent “ability” (17th century) and talentueux.[2] By extension talento names a gifted person.[3][7]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – Talentu “desire” in the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio.[11]
  • 13th century – Iacopo Mostacci and Cielo d'Alcamo use talento “desire”.[1][2]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for “ability”.[1]
  • 1294 – Talentare “to please” is recorded.[5]
  • Before 1742 – Fagiuoli uses talentaccio.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. talent, a marked natural gift or ability: Ha talento per il disegno.[3][7][8]
  2. A talented person: Quella ragazza è un vero talento.[3][7][8]
  3. (literary) Desire, will: andare a talento, to please.[3][7][13]
  4. (literary) Disposition, mood.[3][7]

Word family

  • talentoso
  • talentare
  • talentaccio
  • maltalento
  • attalentare

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3703
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 693
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 971
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli