Etymologically
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gift

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:30. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡɪft/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gift,[2] borrowed from Old Norse gift (“gift; good luck”), also written gipt,[3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *geftiz,[3][5] from *geb- (“to give”),[3] the base of give,[5][4] from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to give or receive”).[3] The Old English cognate gift is recorded only as “payment for a wife, bride-price”, and did not last.[4][3][5] Other cognates are Old Saxon gift, Middle Dutch ghifte, Old High German gift and Gothic fragifts “espousal”, and German Gift and Dutch gif now mean “poison”, while German Mitgift is “dowry”.[4][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thing given, a present: about 1250, in Genesis and Exodus,[4][6] the mid-13th century in Etymonline.[3] It is found in surnames, such as Witegift, by about 1100.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

A natural talent, regarded as given by God, is from about 1300, perhaps from the earlier sense of a power miraculously bestowed (late 12th century), as in the biblical gift of tongues.[3] The action of giving is from about 1300,[6] and the legal transfer of property without payment from 1480.[6] The proverb about not looking a gift horse in the mouth is in Heywood (1546) as “a given horse”,[3] and goes back to a Latin version in St Jerome; the modern form may come from Butler's Hudibras (1663).[7][3] The verb, “to endow with gifts”, is from the 16th century,[3][6] and “to give as a present” from 1619.[6] An acronym GIFT (1984) names a fertility technique.[6][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – in surnames.[3]
  • c. 1250 – a present.[4][6]
  • c. 1300 – a natural talent.[3]
  • 1480 – a legal transfer of property.[6]
  • 1546 – “a given horse”.[3]
  • 1619 – verb, to give as a present.[6]
  • 1663 – “gift-horse”.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Something given freely; a present.
  2. The act or power of giving.
  3. A natural talent or ability: a gift for music.
  4. (informal) Something very easy to get or do.

Verb

  1. To give as a present.
  2. To endow with.

Word family

  • giftee
  • giftless
  • foregift
  • giftware
  • gift-wrap
  • gift-wrapping
  • gift certificate
  • gift of gab
  • giftable
  • give
  • gifted
  • poison
  • dose

Usage notes

The verb gift has a long history, and the American Heritage panel notes that it can avoid the ambiguity of give, which may mean only a physical handing over; many still object to it as an unnecessary substitute for give.[9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin