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Gift, usually in the literal sense of something given. I would avoid reading or writing donum on its own to mean talent (this would be ingenium). Donum, when qualified by a genitive or possibly an adjective, sometimes can refer to a positive personal trait (haec Musarum dona - Horace.Epist.2.I.243). Even then, it is not completely abstract (i.e. you can literally read "these things given by the Muses").
Of course you can be the recipient of a donum, a divine gift: that's when it becomes a talent. This is true in Ecclesiastical Latin where we have the septem dona Spiritus sancti, donum prophetiae, donum linguarum, etc.
by Banana tree » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:48 pm 
