Gifts? GIFTED??? Neither of those is a (reasonable) verb (IMO)!
Why in the world isn't "gives" or "donated" or "awarded" or any of the other existing synonyms for "give" just fine here? Seriously, The American Bazaar, you need to find yourself a new writing team.
#grammarnazi
You're right that it's a noun, not a verb, but things change.
ReplyDeleteOr, perhaps idelicately, kicks back?
ReplyDeleteLanguage evolves. Don't be a prescriptivist. :)
ReplyDeleteThis modern use of the word gift as a verb has only been with us for 400 years.
ReplyDeleteIn English, all nouns can be verbed. And yes, verbing weirds language.
ReplyDeleteBut that's been true since at least Shakespeare's day (I think some of the nouns that he verbed have since fallen out of use as nouns, and only the verbs remain in circulation...)
Every time I see the word "gift" I think of the German word Gift, which means poison.
ReplyDeleteJohn Hardy not a Turnbull fan It's a nice tribute to the awesome fluidity of our lingua franca.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Pam Exactly.
ReplyDeleteFirst time I've ever seen one of your rants to be just plain wrong. Perhaps you'll apply a a little oversight in future.
ReplyDeleteLots of words have documented uses; that doesn't make them good uses. While any noun can be used as a verb, most shouldn't (at least not unless you're trying to be ironic or cute) and certainly not in a news article.
ReplyDelete"Gift" sucks as a verb.
Craig Froehle You've gifted us with this tots cray example of language verbing and extentionalisation.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite the performant post.
John Hardy not a Turnbull fan Citation?
ReplyDeletehttp://grammarist.com/usage/gift/
ReplyDeleteJohn Hardy not a Turnbull fan In that last sentence -- "She is gifted with great musical ability." -- I take the word "gifted" to be an adjective (replace it with "talented" and it works just fine, and I don't think anyone has starting using "talent" as a verb yet).
ReplyDeleteI'm far from rigid in my appreciation and use of language, but some cases just seem lazy (at best) or diminishing in the same way Orwell's Newspeak was (at worst), and this (IMO) is one of them.
Craig Froehle Don't make me talent you!
ReplyDeleteThese days, you should be happy that it's spelled correctly and that there's no argument to whether it's pronounced with a hard or soft g.
ReplyDeleteDamn auto-correct. It gifts me lots of trouble too.
ReplyDeleteThe world must love and fear him Whom I gift with heart and hand.
ReplyDelete—Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1844
http://www.bartleby.com/293/75.html
The friendes that were together met He gyfted them richely with right good speede.
ReplyDelete—A merry jeste of a shrewde and curst Wyfe 1580
http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/jest.html
John Hardy not a Turnbull fan See? They didn't even spell it right in 1580! ;-)
ReplyDeleteFor a pedant point, the original Nazis had a slightly different meaning for das Gift.
ReplyDeleteAndres Soolo Godwin win :)
ReplyDeleteToday, on This American Life (NPR), I heard Ira Glass say someone "got identity-thefted." I was so shocked and appalled, I almost ran over my foot with the lawnmower.
ReplyDeleteYou nearly apoplecticed your foot off.
ReplyDeleteJohn Hardy not a Turnbull fan galblamit!
ReplyDelete