A GIFT freely given — from charis, grace, with the -ma ending that makes a Greek noun mean the RESULT of the action: not the giving but the thing given. English borrowed it for personal magnetism, which is very nearly the opposite: a charisma is by definition not an achievement, which is why Paul can use it to knock the legs out from under the Corinthians' boasting ('what do you have that you did not receive?', 4:7). The gifts he lists in chapters 12-14 are all charismata. → first discussed at 1 Corinthians 1:7