[Ads-l] Talent

[Alice Faber]

On 7/27/18 8:43 AM, victor steinbok wrote:
> I might be splitting hairs but I've been wondering if the use of talent in
> "on-air talent" has evolved/narrowed well beyond the OED Talent III.6.d.
> definition and needs its own entry, something like "high-profile employees
> or recruits (collectively or individually)". It's also always collective
> and excludes administrative/executive. Certainly needs updated examples.
> 
> I'm looking at this piece https://goo.gl/tWCLgq and here are the relevant
> lines
> 
> "Guilfoyle called female on-air talent at Fox News in the summer of 2016
> and asked them to make supportive statements about Ailes publicly, sources
> said." (6.d.)
> 
> "Sources said 21st Century Fox prefers that problematic employees retire or
> resign rather than be terminated ― the company has taken this approach with
> Fox News talent and executives in the past, as well as with Guilfoyle, who
> was not formally terminated. This method gives talent and executives a
> quieter way to exit and the network avoids a contentious departure." (Not
> 6.d.)
> 
> I've heard similar use in tech start-ups HR context, so it's not limited to
> broadcasting/entertainment industry.
> 

My cousin, whose first career as a sportscaster ended some 25 years ago, 
used to use "talent" for any camera-facing staff member.
> VS-)
> 
> OED entry
> d. Talent as embodied in the talented; sometimes approaching or passing
> into the sense: Persons of talent or ability collectively; as singular, a
> person of talent. By the sporting press, applied to backers of horses, as
> distinguished from the 'layers' or bookmakers, the implication being that
> those whose investments make a horse a 'favourite' are supposed to be 'the
> clever ones'.
> (Administration of) All the Talents (English History), an ironical
> appellation of the Ministry of Lord Grenville, 1806–7, implying that it
> combined in its members all the talents.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org