Talent
figuratively: (1) A gift, endowment, or faculty; some peculiar faculty, ability, power, or accomplishment, natural or acquired (a metaphor borrowed from the parable in Matt. xxv: 14-30). (2) Mental endowments or capacities of a superior kind; general mental power (used in either the singular or the plural). (3) Hence, used for talented persons collectively; men of ability or talent. (4) Habitual backers of horses, or takers of odds, as opposed to the bookmakers, or layers of odds.
In Greek antiquity, the name of a weight and also of a denomination of money among the ancient Greeks, and also applied by Greek writers and their translators to various standard weights and denominations of money among different nations; the weight and value differing in the various nations and at various times. As a weight, those in general use were the Euboïc or Attic talent 56 pounds 11 ounces troy, and the = Æginetan about 824 pounds. The Attic talent contained 60 Attic minæ. As a denomination of money, it was a talent's weight of silver, or a sum of money equivalent to this; so that in our current coin the Attic talent would be worth $1,185.84. The great talent of the Romans was equal to $483.25, and the little talent to $364.872. The Hebrew talent (II Sam. xii: 30) was equal to 93 pounds 12 ounces avoirdupois; and as a denomination of money it has been variously estimated at from $1,520.31 to $1,926.54. The marginal note in the authorized version to Matt. xviii: 24, says that "a talent is 750 ounces of silver, which, at 5s. ($1.20) the ounce, is £187, 10s. ($900)."
Ministry of all the Talents, a ministry of which Lord Grenville was the head, and Fox his colleague and supporter. It was formed on Jan. 26, 1806, three days after the death of Pitt, and, after undergoing some changes was dissolved on March 25, 1807. Its nickname was given from the boast of Mr. Canning and others that it contained all the talent of the country-i. e., of both political parties in the State.