tal·ent /ˈtælənt/
天才,天資;才能,才幹;有才能的人
Tal·ent n.
1. Among the ancient Greeks, a weight and a denomination of money equal to 60 minae or 6,000 drachmae. 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 (using 1900 values).
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 93¾ lbs. avoirdupois; as a denomination of silver, it has been variously estimated at from £340 to £396 sterling, or about $1,645 to $1,916 (ca. 1900). For gold it was equal to 10,000 gold shekels.
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.
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talent
n 1: natural qualities or talents [syn: endowment, gift, natural
endowment]
2: a person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field
or activity
Talent
of silver contained 3,000 shekels (Ex. 38:25, 26), and was equal
to 94 3/7 lbs. avoirdupois. The Greek talent, however, as in the
LXX., was only 82 1/4 lbs. It was in the form of a circular
mass, as the Hebrew name _kikkar_ denotes. A talent of gold was
double the weight of a talent of silver (2 Sam. 12:30). Parable
of the talents (Matt. 18:24; 25:15).