IS IT BETTER TO GIFT THAN TO GIVE?

Discussing his latest book, Unabridged: The Thrill of and Threat to the Modern Dictionary, Stefan Fatsis notes, “I still have the Webster’s New World dictionary my mom gifted me on my 11th birthday.”

As the holiday season approaches and we shop for gifts, I wonder when and why we started “gifting” and stopped merely “giving” presents to others.

I first noticed people regularly using “to gift” as a verb 15 or so years ago. It’s a good example of what linguists call “conversion,” a process in which a verb becomes a noun (as in “that’s a big ask”) or more commonly, a noun becomes a verb (“to gift”). The latter case is frequent enough that many nonlinguists call it “verbing,” itself an example of conversion.

Recent examples of verbing I’ve noticed include “to caveat,” instead of “to warn,” and “to niche,” from a YouTuber stating, “I don’t want to niche anymore.”

According to merriam-webster.com, the verb “to gift” dates back 400 years. After going in and out of fashion, its current popularity is often credited to the sitcom Seinfeld in which the characters “regifted” and “degifted” unappreciated gifts. Indeed, usage of “to gift” climbed in the late 1990s and rose dramatically around 2020.

As often happens when two words compete for the same meaning, either one word ceases to be used or the two words take on divergent meanings, rearranging the semantic space for both to coexist.

In such cases, one retains a general meaning and the other takes on a more specific one. Centuries ago, the words “meat” and “food” both meant “food,” but because we don’t need two words for the same concept, “food” remained the general term and “meat” became the word for food from protein. This is what’s happening with “give” and “gift.”

Members of Generation Z, growing up with both verbs in circulation, find distinctions between them: “to gift” means something is for the recipient to keep and “give” is for all other scenarios.

Even those of us who think “to gift” is unnecessary must admit there are times we need to specify “Are you giving this to me to keep or just to borrow?” If the person has “gifted” it to you, there’s no need to ask.

If you’re worried that “to gift” is replacing “give,” ask yourself if you have heard anyone say, “Just gift me a minute,” or offer to “gift you a lift” to the station? But language changes. Maybe one day we’ll say, “To gift is better than to receipt.” To wrap this up, I have a simple ask: as you present gifts and gift presents this holiday season, please note any interesting language uses and email me your takes at languagematters@mattersmagazine.com.

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Kristen di Gennaro teaches linguistics at Pace University. She lives in Maplewood and gathers language data during her daily encounters. A poster in her office reads, “Keep your mouth open – linguists need data!”