The Etymology of the Term ‘Talent’

The meanings of ‘talent’ and ‘talent management’ have been vague and ambiguous since the terms entered common usage with the emergence of talent management as a field. This lack of semantic clarity, and the lack of operational clarity it sometimes gives rise to, has been a concern for talent management researchers, and has recently led to several attempts to shed light on the meaning of both terms in order to gain a more rigorous understanding of the nature of the field. In this chapter, I present an etymological analysis of the historical changes in the way the words are used, finding that the word ‘talent’ has shifted from a single denotative, referential meaning concerned with money and units of measure to a multitude of poorly defined meanings with undefined properties, having to do with abilities and aptitudes, mental endowments, and mental powers. These meanings are typically presented in the field as denotations — as real, objective properties of individuals that are picked out by ‘talent’ and by researchers making use of the word — although there is some doubt as to whether they ever succeed in referring, as opposed to simply displaying a belief on the part of the speaker or serving some social function, for instance, designating someone as the centre of a certain kind of attention. Today, this multiplicity of meanings is typically seen as a terminological strength in talent management research and practice.