a. [f. TALENT sb. + -ED2.]
I. From obs. senses of TALENT sb.
† 1. Naturally inclined or disposed to something.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 228. Tho that haue grete Noosys lyghtely bene talentid to couetise, and bene desposyd to concupiscence.
† 2. Her. = BEZANTY. Obs. rare.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., E iij. A certan bordure talentit as here, and it is not necessari here to expres the colowre of the talentis or besantis: for thay be euer of golde.
II. From existing sense of TALENT sb.
3. Endowed with talent or talents; possessing talent; gifted, clever, accomplished.
[a. 1633–: see Talented as pa. pple. in TALENT v. 2.]
1827. Lytton, Falkland, I. 16. I smiled at the kindness of the fathers who, hearing I was talented … looked to my support.
1828. Southey, in Corr. w. C. Bowles (1881), 134. Unprincipled people, too many of them talented and clever and most agreeable.
1829. Herschel, Ess. (1857), 515. Those numerous and talented individuals throughout the continent, and in England.
1830. W. Taylor, Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry, III. 406. His eye, though indicating a talented mind, was restless and unsteady.
1832. Coleridge, Table-t., 8 July. 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.
1842. Pusey, Crisis Eng. Ch., 99. A talented writer, who has been one great instrument in its restoration.
1853. Whittier, Prose Wks. (1889), II. 418. A successful advocate at the bar, talented, affable, eloquent.
1889. J. Sully, George Sand’s Childhood, in Longman’s Mag., XV. Dec., 156. The jealousy which had first directed itself to the father now found a new object in his talented child.
1920. W. E. B. Du Bois, Darkwater, viii. 209–10. Without a more careful conservation of human ability and talent the world cannot secure the services which its greater needs call for. Yet today who goes to college, the Talented or the Rich?
