Talisman

How to spell talisman

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce talisman

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does talisman mean?

1. nounAn object believed to bring good luck or protection to its owner.

Talisman in a sentence

• She kept her grandmother's coin as a talisman during every exam.

• The old sailor wore a small carved talisman around his neck for safe voyages.

Where does talisman come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

The word arrived in English in the early 1600s from French talisman, which in turn borrowed it from Arabic tilsam (plural tilsaman), meaning a magic figure or charm engraved on an object. The Arabic word itself came from the late Greek telesma, which originally meant a completion, a payment, or a religious rite, built on the verb telein, 'to complete or to perform a sacred ceremony', and ultimately on telos, meaning 'end' or 'result'. Over time the sense narrowed from the performing of a consecrating rite to the consecrated object itself, the charm believed to carry protective power. A useful memory hook is that the final syllable is not the English word 'man' at all but a leftover of the Arabic ending, which is why the plural is talismans and never 'talismen'. The same Greek telos that lies at the root also gives us 'teleology' and 'telescope', words concerned with ends and distant goals.

How the word is built

• talis- (from Arabic tilsam, a charm or amulet)
• -man (final syllable, not the word 'man'; plural is talismans, not talismen)