2022-04-23
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – G – genius & talent
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Ref.: http://www.gotoknow.org/posts/598369 and 683180
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง “Genius” = ‘JEEN-yuhs’
ออกเสียง Talent = ‘TAL-uhnt’
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
genius & talent
These words have had varied meaning ov/er the centuries,
but in current use genius
is a much stronger word than talent to refer to ability and aptitude.
Genius means
“exceptional natural capacity”
“high intellect”
“strong creative or inventive power”:
Shakespeare was an unquestionable genius.
Talent is more correctly applied to
ability or aptitude in a particular field:
“a talent for making friends,”
“a talent for playing piano.”
A genius may havemany talents,
but a talented person is not necessarily a genius.
Dictionary.com:
MORE ABOUT TALENT
What does talent mean?
Talent is an exceptional natural ability,
especially in a particular activity,
such as music.
Talent is often thought of as
the kind of ability that comes without training
—something that you’re born with.
It is often contrasted with skill,
which is an ability acquired and developed through practice.
It can also be used to refer to people who are talented
(which is the adjective form of talent).
Example:
She was a prodigy whose musical talent was obvious from a young age
—she started playing the piano at the age of 2.
Where does talent come from?
Talent goes back to at least the 900s.
It derives from the Greek tálanton, which
referred to a unit of money or weight.
At some point in its history,
the meaning of talent evolvedfrom “money” to “ability.”
This change is thought to have been strongly influenced
by a passage from the New Testament of the Bible
often called the “Parable of the Talents.”
In this story from the Gospel of Matthew,
a rich guy entrusts his servants with his talents (money)
while he’s away.
Two of the servants invest the money and make him a profit,
but a third servant just buries it and
returns it when the boss gets back.
The talents in the story are widely interpreted
as representing natural abilities,
with the moral being that you should use your abilities
for good instead of hiding them.
Relatedly, talent is often described as God-given,
which is another way of saying that
talent is something that someone’s born with.
A lot of people see this as being different from skill,
which you have to work for.
For example,
a person might be said to have musical talent
because they find it easy to learn the skill of playing an instrument.
However, the two words are often used in much the same way,
especially since any talent can be improved through practice.
Talent is often used in phrases that specify the type of talent,
as in athletic talent, musical talent, and a talent for cooking.
Talent can be used with an article (a, an, or the),
as in a talent for fixing things,
or without one, as in You’ve got talent.
Talent is also used to refer to a talented person,
as in He’s a major talent in the field,
or to refer to a group of talented people collectively,
as in This event features international talent.
More specifically,
it can refer to actors or the people who
appear on screen in some kind of production,
as in We can’t start filming until the talent arrives.
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
genius
= exceptional natural ability;
= a person of extraordinarily high intelligence;
gift, talent, aptitude, faculty
Not to be confused with:
Genus
= a kind; sort;
class or group of individuals or of species of individuals
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
talent
= native ability or aptitude in a special field:
a talent for art or music
Not to be confused with:
abilty
= a general word for power, native
or acquired, enabling one to do things well:
an ability for math
capacity
= actual or potential ability to perform or withstand:
a capacity for hard work
= a natural ability for a particular kind of action:
a faculty for choosing the right friends
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Choose the Right Synonym for genius & talent
Noun
Gift, Faculty, Aptitude, Bent, Talent, Genius, Knack
mean a special ability for doing something.
Gift often implies special favor by God or nature.
the gift of singing beautifully
Faculty applies to an innate or less often acquired ability
for a particular accomplishment or function.
a faculty for remembering names
Aptitude implies a natural liking for some activity and the likelihood of
success in it.
a mechanical aptitude
Bent is nearly equal to Aptitude but it stresses inclination perhaps more
than specific ability.
a family with an artistic bent
Talent suggests a marked natural ability that needs to be developed.
has enough talent to succeed
Genius suggests impressive inborn creative ability.
has no great genius for poetry
Knack implies a comparatively minor but special ability
making for ease and dexterity in performance.
the knack of getting along
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
The Spiritual Origins of Genius
The belief system of the ancient Romans
included spirits that were somewhere in between gods and humans
and were thought to accompany each person through life as a protector. The Latin name for this spirit was genius,
which came from the verb gignere, meaning "to beget."
This sense of "attendant spirit" was
first borrowed into English in the 14th century.
Part of such a spirit's role was
to protect a person's moral character,
and from that idea an extended sense developed in the 16th century
meaning "an identifying character."
In time, that meaning was extended to cover
a special ability for doing something, and
eventually genius acquired senses referring particularly to
"very great intelligence" and
"people of great intelligence."
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Words of the Week ending October 1st, 2021
’Genius’
The MacArthur Foundation announced last week
the names of the people upon whom
it would bestow for the year the title of fellow
(“a member of an incorporated literary or scientific society”),
a word which everyone else turns into genius.
Yes, we know they're technically called "MacArthur fellows."
We also know that the MacArthur Foundation
doesn't love that the term "genius" has stuck around for so long.
(The term is "both too narrow and too broad," it says.)
But when we're talking about people
researching pediatric brain cancer treatments
or championing voting rights for incarcerated citizens
or crafting mind-expanding documentaries,
the term fits well enough as any other.
— Andrew Limbong, NPR, 28 Sept. 2021
When genius came into English use in the 14th century
it initially had the meaning of
“an attendant spirit of a person or place.”
When used in this sense
(or with such meanings as
“a person who influences another for good or bad” or “jinni”)
the word is pluralized as genii.
In common use the word most often has the meaning of
“a very smart or talented person :
a person who has a level of talent
or intelligence that is very rare or remarkable.”
This sense is pluralized as geniuses.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Word History
'Talented': That Vile and Barbarous Vocable
It was once a hotly contested adjective
What to Know
Talented is an adjective meaning
"possessing special aptitude,"
but this use has been contentious.
Language purists have complained that
an adjective cannot be formed by adding -ed—which is untrue
—in addition to the fact that talent also has historical usage as a verb.
Language peeves tend to come and go,
falling in and out of fashion in much the same way
as do elements of slang
(although peeves tend to have a longer shelf life
than most slang words).
There are, of course, exceptions to this
(we’ve been hearing that it’s improper to split an infinitive
for more than two centuries now,
and cautioned against ending a sentence with a preposition
since the late 17th century),
but a look back at some of the supposedly improper usages
of the 19th century can cause one to scratch one’s head
and wonder what all the fuss was about.
One fine example of this may be found
in the use of a word which well-nigh every parent
has happily used to describe their child,
a word which was once referred to as “vile and barbarous.”
That word, of course, is talented.
Is 'Talent' a Verb?
What could be so bad about this adjective,
defined as “possessing special aptitude; mentally gifted; accomplished”?
The objection was based on the idea that
an adjective could not be formed by adding an -ed to a noun,
and talent was thought to have solely been a noun, and never a verb.
This is wrong on two counts,
as English quite easily forms adjectives in this manner
and talent has indeed been used as a verb.
The verb use is rather uncommon and archaic (we do not enter it),
but the Oxford English Dictionary does,
defining it as “To fill with desire” and “to endow with talent or talents.”
This second sense, closely related to the modern adjective,
dates back to the early 17th century.
Functional Shift
In the early 19th century American newspapers began
to notice talented undergoing a functional shift,
and seemed a bit uneasy about it.
The editors of the Intelligencer state that
they have engaged talented Reporters
to furnish an account of the proceedings of both House of Congress,
who will study promptitude rather than dilation. Quere.
Whence comes the word talented?
By and by we shall hear of abilitied_ speakers.
— National Gazette (Philadelphia, PA), 2 Dec. 1823
Negative Reaction to 'Talented'
American writers in the 1820s seemed
unenthusiastic about this development,
but were largely polite and inquisitive.
The English began to take notice the following decade,
and were decidedly against it.
As is so often the case when English purists
took notice of some objectionable linguistic development
it was assumed that the offending term must have originated elsewhere
(either Ireland or, as was more frequently supposed, America).
However, our records indicate that
the adjectival use of talented has been in use in England
at least as long as in America, if not longer.
Shortly after the newspapers raised the hue and cry
about talented other writers followed suit,
including Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
the man responsible for the “vile and barbarous” label.
I regret to see that vile and barbarous vocable
talented, stealing out of the newspapers into the leading reviews
and most respectable publications of the day.
Why not shillinged, farthinged, tenpenced_, &c.? …
If mere convenience is to justify such attempts upon the idiom,
you cannot stop till the language becomes, in the proper sense of the word, corrupt. Most of these pieces of slang come from America.
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk, 1835
The word then attracted the ire (=angry) of usage writers,
and throughout the late 19th and early 20th century
it was not uncommon to find talented
in guides to proper English,
usually with an admonition to avoid it.
All of the efforts to stay the rise of talented proved fruitless;
as the 20th century progressed the objections withered away,
and the word lost its air of ill-repute.
In current use talented
is an entirely unremarkable word,
entirely free of its vile and barbarous roots.
You may safely continue to use the word to describe your children,
no matter how ill-founded your belief in their talents.
Dictionary.com
VOCAB BUILDER
What does talent mean?
Talent is an exceptional natural ability,
especially in a particular activity, such as music.
Talent is often thought of as the kind of ability
that comes without training
—something that you’re born with.
It is often contrasted with skill,
which is an ability acquired and developed through practice.
It can also be used to refer to people
who are talented (which is the adjective form of talent).
Example:
She was a prodigy whose musical talent was obvious from a young age
—she started playing the piano at the age of 2.
