/ˈtælən/
OriginFrom Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon (“heel, spur”), from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from Proto-Romance *tālōnis, from Latin tālus (“ankle”).
- A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.
“and now doth gaſtly death
With greedie talients gripe my bleeding hart,
And like a Harpye tires on my life.”
“It may be tried also whether birds may not have something done to them when they are young , whereby they may be made to have greater or longer bills , or greater and longer talons ?”
- One of certain small prominences on the hind part of the face of an elephant's tooth.
- A kind of moulding, concave at the bottom and convex at the top; an ogee. (When the concave part is at the top, it is called an inverted talon.)
- The shoulder of the bolt of a lock on which the key acts to shoot the bolt.
“The locks were constructed with two or three levers, and sometimes with a common tumbler. The talon is the secret; for after locking the bolt out, the key is turned round again quietly to catch the ni”
- The remaining stock of undealt cards.
- historicalA document that could be detached and presented in exchange for a block of further coupons on a bond, when the original block had been used up.
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
- A male given name from English of modern usage.
“'Very well, I shall call you Talon from now on. What does the name mean, in the tongue of the small folk?' 'It is a claw, like that found on a hawk,' Talon said.”
Formstalons(plural)