Faith & RitualGreek → English
Talisman
/ˈtælɪsmən/noun
An object believed to carry protective or magical power.
The Greek roots
τέλεσμα
télesma
completed rite, consecrated object
τελεῖν
teleîn
to complete, perform
Literally: “a thing that has been consecrated”
The story of the word
In Byzantine Greek a τέλεσμα was a rite carried through to completion, then the object left charged by it. Arabic borrowed the word as ṭilsam, and it came back into Europe through Spanish and French in the seventeenth century, its Greek face no longer recognisable. The same τέλος is in teleology, so the charm in a footballer's sock carries a word for finishing a ceremony properly.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Byzantine Greek → Arabic → French → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
teleologytelosentelechy
In a sentence
He kept his grandfather's coin as a talisman and never spent it.