charisma
/kəˈɹɪzmə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.34 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Example Sentences
Etymology
From Ancient Greek χᾰ́ρῐσμᾰ (khắrĭsmă, “grace, favour, gift”), from χᾰρῐ́ζομαι (khărĭ́zomai, “to show favor”), from χᾰ́ρῐς (khắrĭs, “grace”), from the same root χαρ- (khar-) as χαίρω (khaírō, “to be happy”). Doublet of charism. First attested in 1875. Outside of theology, as early as 1930, charisma was found in a translation of a book written by German sociologist Max Weber, which OED and Etymonline regards as a semantic loan from German Charisma, denoting the special ability of certain leaders to inspire devotion (sense 1). By the 1940s and more clearly in the 1950s, the term was used more loosely to refer to personal charm in general (sense 1.1).
Origin
- Source language: Ancient Greek
- First known use: First attested in 1875
Word Breakdown
- Root: χάρισμα