1. Among the ancient Greeks, a weight and a denomination of money equal to 60 minæ or 6,000 drachmæ. The Attic talent, as a weight, was about 57 lbs. avoirdupois; as a denomination of silver money, its value was £243 15s. sterling, or about $1,180. Rowing vessel whose burden does not exceed five hundred talents. Jowett (Thucid.).
2. Among the Hebrews, a weight and denomination of money. For silver it was equivalent to 3,000 shekels, and in weight was equal to about 93
3. Inclination; will; disposition; desire. [Obs.] They rather counseled you to your talent than to your profit. Chaucer.
4. Intellectual ability, natural or acquired; mental endowment or capacity; skill in accomplishing; a special gift, particularly in business, art, or the like; faculty; a use of the word probably originating in the Scripture parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14- 30). He is chiefly to be considered in his three different talents, as a critic, a satirist, and a writer of odes. Dryden. His talents, his accomplishments, his graceful manners, made him generally popular. Macaulay.
Syn.
— Ability; faculty; gift; endowment. See Genius.
TALENTED
Tal"ent*ed, a.
Defn: Furnished with talents; possessing skill or talent; mentally gifted. Abp. Abbot (1663).
Note: This word has been strongly objected to by Coleridge and some other critics, but, as it would seem, upon not very good grounds, as the use of talent or talents to signify mental ability, although at first merely metaphorical, is now fully established, and talented, as a formative, is just as analogical and legitimate as gifted, bigoted, moneyed, landed, lilied, honeyed, and numerous other adjectives having a participal form, but derived directly from nouns and not from verbs.
TALES
Ta"les, n. Etym: [L., pl. of talis such (persons).] (Law) (a) pl.
Defn: Persons added to a jury, commonly from those in or about the courthouse, to make up any deficiency in the number of jurors regularly summoned, being like, or such as, the latter. Blount. Blackstone. (b) syntactically sing.