gifting vs. giving a gift

"Gift" as a verb - so ugly !

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Mr. Merton, you cannot "infer" anything to anyone. You infer when you draw a conclusion based upon observation; you imply when you wish to convey a message tacitly; you impute when you attribute or ascribe. As for "gifting," it sounds conversationally as acceptable as "ginormous," and I do not see that one going away anytime soon. And don't forget "commentating."

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Obviously "seldomly" is a word; if it were not, it wouldn't exist.

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"Seldomly" is not a word. "Seldom" is already an adverb.

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I understand gifting when it has the suffex re, as in 're-gifting unwanted Christmas presents', and as a legal term. But I don't understand my daughter getting it as a general english word to learn to spell in grade 2.

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There ain't a noun that can't be verbed.

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I recall that a "deed of gift" exists in real estate terminology, likely from the archaic usage mentioned above. We might transfer, register, or sign such a thing but even now I don't think anyone "gifts" a deed except perhaps on paper.
I am irritated by the use of "gifted" (when not used used to describe one who has skills or merits) and it is not simply an urban or contemporary "cool" term. Folks here in the backwoods of NC are fond of usage like, "My Uncle Joe gifted me this fine truck/guitar/fishin' pole/etc... when clearly they could say, "he gave me this fine truck". Either way, I suspect a large red bow was not involved nor would it have changed what I find easier on the ears.
You'd think that the homespun usage that brought us a "gift horse" wouldn't be twisted into, "Don't look a gifted horse in the mouth". :)
It is possible to give material gifts and positive things (kudos, love, reassurance) and it is possible to give other negative things (headaches, beatings, diseases) yet we don't confuse giving (neutral) with a gift or present (positive). Let's hope we don't get to "presented" (accent on first syllable) do describe what happened at last week's birthday party.

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I am reluctant to ever condemn an expression as "totally unnecessary." Usually if the language community invents something, there is a need, or at least a perceived use.

With respect to "to gift," I can see use for its past tense form ("the masterpiece was gifted to the museum by Mr Gates"). Yes, "given to us" is less pretentious, but sometimes one wants to be pretentious, if only for ironic or humorous effect. In my example the intent might be to infer a dignity and honor to the giver. I don't know that it succeeds--it would depend on the rest of the context, and I think I would avoid it, but we need to avoid building rulebook walls.

The problem with "conversating" is more serious (which is perhaps why I find "to gift" in my dictionary but not "to conversate." The "-ate" suffix can convert a noun into a verb, and is already an ending to some verbs, but "to converse" is already a verb. Converting a verb into a verb is of course redundant.

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You do a service pointing out the danger of using "gift" as a verb. There are of course times when "gift" as a verb would be OK, but I would tread carefully. Most of the time it would come across as pretentious or perhaps as flip.

There are of course many English nouns that also serve as verbs, and it may be that English will continue to move in an isolating direction (which would include weakening the distinctions between parts of speech).

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Yes "gifting" had been bothering me too. But then I just ran across it's evil cousin. "giftable" as an advertising term. It just sounds so cute and ugly.

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Like so many other American vogue words "Gifted" started in the modern era in an episode on Seinfeld

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I think this is mainly an American issue, but if I can just give a British angle (without making any judgements one way or the other).

On what goofy was saying, Burchfield in the New Fowler's supports him as to the antiquity of its use, but suggests that it has rather fallen out of favour among standard speakers in England (although perhaps not in Scotland), and best avoided. And although MWDEU says that it is treated with greater tolerance in BrE, I can't remember hearing it used much like this. MWDEU also says it is treated as standard in American and English dictionaries, but admit that most of their British references are Scottish, where the verb is used more in the sense of 'present'.

As to British dictionaries, I've just checked in seven online versions. Unfortunately I don't have access to the OED, but of the others only two British dictionaries (Oxford Online and Collins Online) seem to list gift as a verb in this sense (but see below), and they both suggest that this is rather formal use, especially to and from institutions - "give (something) as a gift, especially formally or as a donation or bequest" - with a meaning closer to 'present'. They also give the meaning goofy suggested of 'endow', which is absolutely standard, especially in its adjectival form - 'a gifted pianist'.

The fact that it doesn't appear as a verb in any of the other five, (mainly but not exclusively aimed at advanced learners), suggests that it isn't used very much like this in BrE, and my impression is that it is largely seen here as being either an Americanism or rather pretentious. I found a comment from one British EFL teacher who said he had been surprised to see a photo caption "Mr Kennedy, a fan of the water dog, is said to have gifted one to the Obamas" on the BBC website, and there are several references to this sentence on the web, but the only one I can find on the BBC the caption reads "given", so perhaps a sub later changed it.

The BBC, Economist and Telegraph style guides don''t seem to mention it but the Guardian Style Guide brooks no nonsense - "gift - not a verb (unless, perhaps, directly quoting a football manager or player: "We gifted Barnsley their fifth goal") " - (see below), not that the Guardian Style Guide (or any other newspaper style guide for that matter) should be taken as gospel.

That sports example is backed up by Oxford Online and the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary which give this meaning as informal and, I think, peculiarly British and popular in journalism - to give something to somebody without their having to make any effort to get it, or inadvertently allow (an opponent) to have something:

"They gifted their opponents a goal / a goal to their opponents"
"The goalkeeper gifted Liverpool their last-minute winner."

@PaulMcG - Not to belittle the effect of Seinfeld, but MWDEU rather suggests that the revival started in Hollywood glossy magazines of the fifties, if you include the fifties as being in the modern era. Follow goofy's link for more on that.

There's also a discussion (with that BBC quote) here - http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/ind...

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Doesn't anybody teach the rules for spelling its and it's any more? This thread has at least two misspelled itses. What's up with that? It's a pretty simple rule.

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"gift" has been a verb since at least the 1600s. Which means we've been in the end times for... 400 years. How will English survive?

"The recovery of a parcel of ground which the Queen had gifted to Mary Levinston." (a1639, in the OED)

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I meant prefix.

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And, regarding "gift" as a verb, I agree with a few other commentators here: it quite clearly means something different from plain old "give".

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Goofy: The vestigial existence of the past participle, "gifted", is not a reason to back-form a verb, " to gift" from it. This use is not standard, in spite of the abusive use it receives. The standard is "GIVE, GAVE, GIVEN" not "GIFT, GIFTED, GIFTED" I can only guess at the past participle. I am acutely aware of the early use of this word in this way. I refer you to my diatribe above on this too cute use. If this (ab)use continues, in my not so humble opinion, the English Language will be the poorer for it.

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David Teague: The verb "gift" is not a backformation from "gifted". "Gift" was a verb in the 15th century meaning "to endow with some power or attribute" and this is where the past participle "gifted" came from.

In the 17th century, the verb came to mean "to present", and it continues in this meaning today.

Simply stating that it is nonstandard does not make it so. I have cited a reference (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage). I recommend reading the entry: http://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&a...

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I liked that Goofy used the OED example of "gifting" land in the 17th century. It seems ridiculous to me to hear "gift" as a verb now, and I am shocked and appalled that we may hear it more often, but I wonder if the word (like "deed") used to mean something like, "gave of one's own volition, with no expectation of repayment." (i.e. "I 'gifted' Goofy the pencil" v. "After Jane lent me a pencil, I 'gave' Goofy the pencil and demanded that Goofy pay Jane ten cents.") It would be interesting to see what legal definitions of "gift" are, and I'd love to know whether the tech companies who "gift" games use "gift" because of legal reasons! (Separately, "conversate" is funny! It reminds me of a time I overheard someone say, "I'm so sleep DEPRIVATED!" It's a great word and I use it all the time: I "gift" it to you all in return for a fun read here...! ;)

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'Gift' as a verb is regularly used in the legal profession esp in juridicitions where inheritance taxes are significant. Wealthy people set up 'gifting programs' over a period of years to benefit next of kin and avoid death duty and gift duty.

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"Gifting" is horrible.

"Authoring" is worse.

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Living in Rome, and I've noticed that people speaking English as a second-language will often make this mistake. "Gifting", "conversating", and "photocopy-ating" are some of the ones I hear often.

Perhaps these mistakes come from "international English".

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David Teague: You're right that just because something was used in the 17th century, it doesn't make it correct. I cited the quote with "gift" from the 17th century because I was responding to someone who thought it was a new usage.

But you're wrong that "gift" is not a verb. It is a verb, and its first use was "to endow with some power or attribute", which we still find in the past participle "gifted". And you're wrong that it's nonstandard. Both British and American dictionaries treat it as standard. MWDEU on "gift": http://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&a...

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re: seldomly - it's in at least a couple of dictionaries:
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/eng...
http://www.wordnik.com/words/seldomly
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seldomly

The Wiktionary entry has attested examples from the Washington Post, both about sport.

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Goofy,
If you require it, I will coin the term, neo-backform. "Gift" as a verb assuredly came from a neo-backforming of "gift" (verb tense) from the existing past participle "gifted". I would bet that few persons who use "gift" as a verb are aware of its 17th century roots.
The use of "gift" as a verb is nonstandard, remains nonstandard, and as I pointed out, the English language is poorer for this use.
BTW, I would like to read the article you reference, but your link takes me to an advertisement and reviews for the Merriam Webster Dictionary, but no article.

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@David Teangue - it's not an advertisement, it's simply the book's page in Google Books. Until very recently the whole book was available to read online at Google Books, but unfortunately the publishers seem to have changed their policy. So at the time goofy's link was quite genuine. By the way, it's the best 28 dollars I've ever spent on a book. Here's some of the entry:

"A number of the critics acknowledge that such usage (i.e. - meaning to present) goes back to the 17th century .... Gift did not become a controversial verb until it began to appear with some regularity in American newspapers and magazines ... Most of the criticism of this verb has been from American sources ... [it has] a long history of respectable use in Scotland ..."

They go on - "Its detractors say the usual things about the impropriety of using a noun as a verb, but that obviously doesn't stand up against 400 years of historical evidence ..."

And they conclude - "There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the verb gift. It is, however, an uncommon word, and an unpopular one as well. Unless you're Scottish or a gossip columnist, you probably won't have much occasion to use it"

I'm Scottish, so that's OK, I'm allowed to use it. But seriously, you (and a lot of other people, admittedly) may not like it, but how on earth does its use impoverish the language? And how exactly is it an abuse? Is it an abuse every time somebody coins a new word, or starts using a word in a different way or with a new meaning? If people had stuck to that rule, English would indeed be a poorer language. The truth is only time will tell. If it catches on, they'll look aback in a hundred years and wonder what all the fuss was about. If not, as looks likely, you've nothing to worry about.

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re: its
three, still counting

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Obviously, "...nad..." = "...and..."

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In response to RKJ, i'd like to use another abomination of the information revolution -
LOL

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I agree with porsche that "gift" as a verb has it's place, and I'm surprised that it seems to give some people so much pain. If I were ever in a position to donate a million dollars to some foundation, I think I would like it to be "gifted", not merely "given". Don't know why.

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It might be a little late but, what about "handsel" or "hansel", my dictionary finds them as the translation of "obsequiar" (pretty much like gifting) Is it not right?

I will apologise for any previous and incoming mistakes, my mother language is Castillian.
The site is amazing, very very very interesting :)

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I hate to say it, but with the rising presence of digital distributors like Steam and iTunes, the word Gifting is here to stay.
The term Gift is used when you buy others games or songs and if anything will only be used more and more in todays technologically advanced world!

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I was always under the impression that "gift" as a verb was fine, and as porsche said, a more concise word. However, I do agree that it sounds old-fashioned and awkward. I'm also very interested in hearing that it's a "buzzword." Very seldomly do I hear "gift" as a verb, but I'm in a very rural area so it makes me wonder if this is a more urban "buzzword."

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I need to add something to what I said: perhaps "gift" as a verb can refer to paying for something that is chosen and bought by the recipient whereas "give" can refer to the giver choosing and buying the gift and presenting it.

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