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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWould you use "gift" as a verb?
Because I write about art, I notice how many times I have seen the word "gift" used as a verb in articles about donated art by rich families to museums. I wonder if this is OK for charitable gifts but not for use in other contexts.
Your thoughts?
calguy
(5,315 posts)instead of saying giving or given.
Ocelot II
(115,735 posts)What's wrong with "give" or "gave"? To say "He gifted a donation to the museum" is just grating. Why not use "gave," the existing verb?
Septua
(2,256 posts)Nowadays, seems some people use all kinds of words in a manner not traditionally used; especially in politics, like 'woke'.
cbabe
(3,548 posts)It sounds wrong or tacky or affected to my ears. But has been in use for 400 years so I suppose Im behind the times.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/gift-as-a-verb
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)"classy" and graceful.
fierywoman
(7,686 posts)I did something similar in Italian, in Italy, when speaking to a very progressive Italian friend -- he got very upset, barely able to spit out the words, "You can't do that!" In English we have the word, the concept of, "freedom." In Italian they only have "liberty." Enjoy your freedom to use gift as a verb -- or feel free not to.
NoRethugFriends
(2,314 posts)Even bigger dislike is "grow" used in "grow a business"
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)ailsagirl
(22,897 posts)And I certainly agree
NoRethugFriends
(2,314 posts)ailsagirl
(22,897 posts)Wonder Why
(3,212 posts)Ocelot II
(115,735 posts)because you're saying that you might possibly (could) care less than you do. Isn't the correct expression "couldn't care less," meaning you are at the rock bottom of caring so it is not possible for you to care any less?
Wonder Why
(3,212 posts)hlthe2b
(102,294 posts)and newly created "words" in recent decades. Some doreally rankle me (as when Merriam Webster gave in to the Bushies* and included "NU-KU-Lar" as an alternative pronunciation for nuclear--just because GWB* and several others could not pronounce it.
So, I guess it gets filed under "pick your battles."
But in answer, "gifting" as a verb is not (for me) the most irritating noun newly accepted as a verb. Every few years another generation comes up with more examples and it falls to the rest of us to accept them--whether we want to or not. English is ever-changing. I am told the only language more rapidly changing is Japanese (I have a friend whose knowledge of her birth language stopped at age 5. Now she incites much laughter with her attempts to speak)
Gruenemann
(984 posts)Eisenhower pronounced it that way. I think Walter Cronkite did, too.
hlthe2b
(102,294 posts)bowing to RW pressure...
unblock
(52,253 posts)"Gift" is unambiguously charity.
"Give" is not. It *can* refer to a gift, but it could imply an expectation (at least) of something in return.
For instance, here, let me give you my lawn mower, I'm moving into an apartment and won't need it any more. But if you're not using your bread maker anymore, I'd love to have fresh bread now and again.
Sure, context usually makes it clear, but why not have an unambiguous word for it?
Especially given the modern use of "regifting". Should we say regiving instead?
"Gifting" carries an implication that it's associated with an event such as a birthday, or a holiday. "Giving" does not.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)But of course they also say "make your charitable gift today to...."
unblock
(52,253 posts)To me, anyway.
SarahD
(1,196 posts)Gifting and giving are each appropriate in a particular circumstance, but I don't see them as absolute synonyms. I think you drew the line where it belongs.
SarahD
(1,196 posts)Probably gift you a phone call at some future point in time.
LastDemocratInSC
(3,647 posts)Easterncedar
(2,298 posts)Is bothersome to me. I think when donated is the meaning, its a tad less annoying, but its so often just used, it seems, to avoid the irregular verb forms.
Like using impact as a verb to disguise your confusion between affect and effect.
SarahD
(1,196 posts)I enjoy a good gerund as much as anyone, but I try to control myself.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Since I write about art, "impactful" is a word I could easily use a lot. I try to stay away from it. The late, great art critic Peter Sjeldahl for The New Yorker magazine wrote terrific art reviews. He never got past a sophomore year in college but he hated writing anything pretentiously and his reviews were terrific. I have every book of reviews he published.
SarahD
(1,196 posts)I try to keep quiet, but I sometimes correct my friends when they try to run the gauntlet or throw down the gamut. They invariably blow me off anyway. As you would expect, I am not in favor of using gift as a verb, except when speaking of birthday presents and such..
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,460 posts)soldierant
(6,890 posts)but I do use "regift" as a verb - as in "If it doesn't work out, feel free to regift it."
ProfessorGAC
(65,076 posts)But, at this point I acknowledge that it's accepted usage now.
Croney
(4,661 posts)cachukis
(2,246 posts)long before dictionaries.
Ebonics is a much faster means of expression with those who use it.
Conversate is now in the dictionary because it's usage has been accepted by those who accept it.
randr
(12,412 posts)Mme. Defarge
(8,034 posts)Not in English, pas en français.
PJMcK
(22,037 posts)
I gifted you a heart for your posts.
Its an appalling evolution, in my opinion. But there are so many misused and misunderstood words in use today that I cant get too upset about it.
Paladin
(28,264 posts)malthaussen
(17,204 posts)Goes back quite a few centuries. It fell out of fashion, and now it's back in fashion.
-- Mal
Donkees
(31,420 posts)when there are negotiated strings attached on both sides.
swimboy
(7,284 posts)in favor of the noun loan as a verb.
Emile
(22,790 posts)I have a headache, thanks.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Not Heidi
(1,290 posts)Gift is a noun. Give is a verb.
She gifted me a necklace. NO.
She gave me a necklace. YES.
Simple.
sakabatou
(42,158 posts)It's either a noun or adjective.
LudwigPastorius
(9,155 posts)"Friend" is another one.
I'm not going to "friend" you, but I will "befriend" you.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,350 posts)Not that I would know anything about regifting, of course.
AnnaLee
(1,041 posts)Paladin
(28,264 posts)And I would have a poor opinion of anyone who did.
OldBaldy1701E
(5,137 posts)I see it as being used as a verb when someone wants to describe how they got the donation, or whatever it being referred to. (Yeah yeah, preposition.) Saying whatever was 'gifted' means it was given to someone without reparation or favor. As in I gifted the museum my grandfather's watch because of his involvement in some historical moment. Seeing this lets others know that the watch was given to the museum without a return. Otherwise, it was 'sold' to the museum, or it was 'loaned' to the museum.
That is just my thought about it.
Mr.Bill
(24,303 posts)using "party" as a verb.
Upthevibe
(8,053 posts)In my world/life....Gifted has always also been a verb (as well, of course, as a noun)
Emile
(22,790 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,010 posts)wnylib
(21,491 posts)a native German speaker, and would be cautious about even using it as a noun.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Dear_Prudence
(368 posts)"He was a gifted musician" uses "gifted" as an adjective, which is fine.
"He was gifted a musician" uses "gifted" as a verb, which is acceptable grammatically, but it is certainly unethical to give people as gifts. There is formal or academic language, and "gifted" sounds nonstandard or informal to my ear. I wouldn't recommend using it in a thesis. I wouldn't recommend that a minister paraphrase, "The three kings gifted the newborn King."
I won't start a new thread, but I really hated the sign on an exit door at work that read "This door is alarmed". I was an editor for one of the departments and I really wanted to deploy my red pen.
wnylib
(21,491 posts)a tranquilizer for the door.
In my post #52, I was referring to the fact that, in German, the word "gift" means "poison."
wnylib
(21,491 posts)a person whose first language is German and whether the musician was ill or dead.
In German, the word gift means "poison."
Thanks, I missed the German language implications.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,983 posts)It annoys the heck out of me, although not nearly as much as the current use of "shined" instead of "shone". That one totally burns my biscuits, and even more so the people who insist that it's correct! I also dislike the use of "impacted" as a verb and "impactful".
rsdsharp
(9,186 posts)and the trend of omitting to be drives me nuts. It needs cleaned, instead of It needs to be cleaned. When did that become a thing?
Harker
(14,024 posts)I lived in Western Pennsylvania for a couple years. Many people drop "to be" there.
I rarely heard it in the preceding sixty years spent in suburban Chicago and Colorado.
ailsagirl
(22,897 posts)https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/gift-as-a-verb#:~:text=Yes%2C%20Gift%20is%20a%20Verb&text=Gift%20has%20been%20used%20to,a%20gift%22%20for%20400%20years.
Dulcinea
(6,643 posts)I'm in a Facebook Buy Nothing group. In that setting, people say "I'm gifting (whatever they're giving away)" or "This object has been gifted." Not other than that for me, though.