Other forms: talons
A talon is the hooked claw of a bird that hunts — an eagle, a hawk, an owl. The word belongs to birds of prey specifically; a sparrow has claws, an eagle has talons, and the difference is that talons are for catching and killing.
It has spread to dinosaurs and to dragons, and by extension to a person's long curved fingernails, which is always a slightly unkind description. Note that talons is usually plural: a bird sinks its talons in, and the singular turns up mostly when one is being described on its own. Compare claw, which is the general word, and nail, which is what humans have.
1nountalonThe hooked claw of a hunting bird.
“The owl carried the mouse away in its talons.”
synonyms: claw
2nounlongA long curved fingernail, said with some disapproval.
“She typed with a set of scarlet talons.”
talon is a claw.
Old French talon meant a heel, from Latin talus, an ankle bone. The word walked forward along the foot: from the back of a human heel, to the spur on the back of a bird's leg, to the hooked claws at the front of it.
Latin
tālus — ankle
roa-pro
*tālōnis
Medieval Latin
tālōnem
Old French
talon — heel, spur
Middle English
talon
English, today
talon
From Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon (“heel, spur”), from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from roa-pro tālōnis, from Latin tālus (“ankle”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA