Posted by cav on December 20, 2005 at 15:05:05:
If you think too much like I do, you might have wondered why our modern English word for "natural ability or inclination" is the same as the Biblical word for money...I'm talking about "talent" as in the parable of the talents in which the master gives three servants different sums of "talents".
I just found out that the reason is because the modern usage comes from this parable. The etymologyonline dictionary defines it this way:
1292, "inclination, disposition, will, desire," from O.Fr. talent, from M.L. talenta, pl. of talentum "inclination, leaning, will, desire" (1098), in classical L. "balance, weight, sum of money," from Gk. talanton "balance, weight, sum," from PIE *tel-, *tol- "to bear, carry" (see extol). Originally an ancient unit of weight or money (varying greatly and attested in O.E. as talente), the M.L. and common Romanic sense developed from fig. use of the word in the sense of "money." Meaning "special natural ability, aptitude," developed c.1430, from the parable of the talents in Matt. xxv:14-30.
Cool.