Charisma is a natural pull some people have: they attract others, hold their interest, and make people admire them, often without trying in an obvious way. We say a teacher, a singer, or a leader has charisma. It feels like a gift, not a trick you can fully learn from a book — though actually, people argue about that, and some of it can be practised. The word is older in church Greek, where it meant a gift of grace. The everyday “magnetic leader” meaning grew in the 1900s, helped by German thinking about special leaders (Max Weber’s work was translated into English around 1930). By the mid-1900s ordinary English was using it more loosely for anyone who lights up a room. It is not the same as being pretty, and it is not the same as charm, which can be polite manners. Charisma can be warm, but it can also be dangerous: people follow, even when they should not.