Editor's Corner

When I first started writing Editor’s Corner, I’d often write about things like serial commas, two spaces after periods, and words that I saw having a heyday (such as leverage) that made my hair stand on end. The older I get, the more I see the bigger picture and that language has all kinds of aspects that wax and wane.

Where am I going with this? Well, it’s the holiday season and I was reading about the word “gift.” When I was growing up, you would say, “How much should we spend on the Secret Santa gift?” “Did she receive an anniversary gift?” Gift was a noun—a present you gave to someone.

Now, gift is used as a verb.

This is where the article surprised me. I was expecting to hear that “gift-as-a-verb” was an invention of a newer generation, but I was wrong. Here is some information from the article in Merriam-Webster:

Yes, Gift Is a Verb

First things first: there are some among you who are asking, "Is the verb gift even a word?"

It’s a good question, and we have a good answer for you, which is, sorry, YES. Gift has been used to mean "to present someone with a gift" for 400 years.

To which you might well reply: "OK, fine, but do we really need it? What’s wrong with using plain, old, utilitarian give?"

And of course there’s nothing wrong with using give. It’s a great word, as is evidenced by the frequency with which we use it and the variety of meanings we’ve bestowed on it…. But a word that has such frequent and varied use can also be ambiguous. Take the sentence "She gave me the book." Without getting more information, we don’t know if the book was a gift or if she simply handed it to the speaker. But in "She gifted me the book" the meaning is instantly clear: the book was a gift.

…

While it’s true that gift has meant "to present someone with a gift" for 400 years, the verb has never been so widely used as it is now. It’s impossible to say exactly why this is, but we may be able to place a smidgen of the blame on a certain comedian.

Maybe you’ve seen the rerun: in a Seinfeld episode from January 1995 Tim Whatley "regifts" a label maker that Elaine gives him, and then Jerry wants to "degift" some Super Bowl tickets that he gave Tim when he thought he couldn’t use them.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to say that I “gifted my Mom a pair of socks,” or “My husband will be happy if I gift him coffee from Kauai,” but I’ve learned my lesson that it’s okay if someone else uses gift as a verb. As M-W explained, “She gifted me the book" makes it instantly clearer that the book was a present, not just a loan.

And now, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, a lovely Kwanza, a festive Winter Solstice, a crazy Festivus, and joy celebrating whatever winter holiday comes your way.

Sylvie just likes getting dressed up in a little bit of everything:

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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