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Verbing nouns

kenny

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Example ... Gift.
Only recently have I noticed gift used as a verb.

Examples: "This sweater was gifted to me. This is a gifted diamond."

Am I nuts, or was gift always a verb?

What other nouns have you noticed been verbed?

... I love it ... verbing verb.

On a related note, I think language can change faster now now since much of what most people read was written by by the public.
Only a generation ago most of what we read was published, and went through an professional editor.
I'm finding more and more spelling and grammar mistakes even on major news sites.

Today it's a free for all.
 

Karl_K

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gifted is actually an adjective.
gift·ed
ˈɡiftəd/
adjective
adjective: gifted

having exceptional talent or natural ability.
"a gifted amateur musician"
 

monarch64

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I cringe every time I see someone use "gifted" as a verb. So pretentious.
 

kenny

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This is very interesting.
I stand corrected.
After Karl's post of proof that gift can be used as a verb or a noun I checked the oldest paper dictionary I had ... suspecting it was a recent thing.

My dictionary is dated 1991 and it says gift is a noun and a verb.

Yet Monarch also cringes when she sees gift used as a verb.
I wonder if it is a regional thing ... like pop, soda and Coke.

Now that we all hang out with people from all over we are exposed to a fuller range of word usage.
 

kenny

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dk168

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I only started to use the word "gifted" recently when I started to post on PS.

DK :))
 

chrono

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I take it that it is likely the first formal recorded use of "gift" as a verb.
 

kenny

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dk168|1416345533|3785941 said:
I only started to use the word "gifted" recently when I started to post on PS.

DK :))

AHA!
That makes 3 of us.
So I'm not crazy. :dance:
 

AGBF

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Chrono|1416344642|3785934 said:
Kenny,
Gift was used as a verb supposedly since the 1950s.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gift

I looked at the link and cannot see where it says that it was used as a verb in the 1950's. Please show me exactly where on the site it says that!

I did see the reference to the 1550's on the site. I understand that an old English verb is in the family history of "gift". But it is ever so hard to swallow that "to gift" has been used since the 1950's! I just want to see where Merriam-Webster wrote it and in exactly what language!

Deb
:read:
 

kenny

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telephone89|1416347554|3785953 said:
I accept 're-gifted' but just 'gifted' in your sense sounds wrong.

That makes 4, so far, for whom the dictionary feels wrong.
 

kenny

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I suspect text started out as a noun, "I'm going to send you a text."
It quickly got shortened to, "I'm going to text you."


Though dictionaries state gift is also a verb it is not without controversy.

http://english.stackexchange.c...t-accepted-as-a-verb

SNIP,
"I think the question to be asked with all backformed verbs — fragmentate, benefact, gift, etc. — is how does a new verb formed from a noun differ from the original root verb? What does gift connote that give does not?

One argument is that gift has a limited legitimate use when it refers to a large donation left by a benefactor. For example:

The new wing was gifted to the hospital by the estate of John Q. Smith.
For the most part, though, gift, as a verb, is just a meme — a mind-virus that has infected the language through unreasoned repetition."


I'm looking for evidence of use varying with geography.
 

kenny

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telephone89|1416347805|3785956 said:
http://grammarpartyblog.com/2012/08/08/gifting-a-rant/

A lot of people on the internets seem to hate this haha


LOL!
I thought I was all alone.
 

AGBF

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What is below is an excerpt. Here is a link to the website...http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/is-gifting-a-word

"Is 'Gifting' a Word?

By
Mignon Fogarty,
Grammar Girl
December 16, 2011

It’s the holidays, which means I’m starting to get complaints about people who use 'gift' You may be surprised to learn that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, 'gift' has been used as a verb for nearly 400 years. Here’s an example from 1801 from the 'History of France' (1): Parents were prohibited from selling, gifting, or pledging their children. Nice place, that France, huh?

Even though they were talking about pledging and gifting children in the 1800s, “gifting” had fallen out of common use as a verb until the tax code changed and people started talking about the gift tax sometime around the late 1930s. Since it was called the gift tax, people started talking about gifting money (instead of giving money).


Technically, it’s not wrong to use 'gifting' as a verb. Even so, 'gifting' was mostly limited to tax conversations until a 1995 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld called 'The Label Maker,' in which Elaine called a minor character a 'regifter.' After that Seinfeld episode, people seemed to start using 'gift' as a verb more often. Given the history of the word 'gifting,' it’s not technically wrong to say something such as 'I'm gifting her a label maker this year,' but it does still bother a lot of people.

I get e-mail about it, so I have to say that "give" is still a much better choice. It’s going to be less distracting."
 

LLJsmom

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We use the word "gifting" as a verb in the tax and estate planning world all the time. Have for many years as far as I know.
 

JewelFreak

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Add another one to the cringers who hate "gift" as a verb. it grates on me worse than chalk on a blackboard.

I first noticed the usage about 10 yrs ago -- all of a sudden everybody I worked with at Tiffany's was selling pieces to be gifted by their clients. Screech! It's not better: it's longer -- my mother gave me a scarf. My mother gifted me with a scarf. It is awkward. It does not add to or clarify meaning, despite Merriam W. And I never heard it in the 50s, 60s, 70s, or 80s!
 

kenny

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5 now.
This is amazing.
I really thought I was all alone.
 

packrat

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luckily I'm in the Iowan backwoods and we're bassackwards with our language here so nobody gifts nothin ta nobody. And sometimes ta not nobody. We give things or we gave something. sometimes someone "gave it t'me." and sometimes someone "gay-me-it". Gifted sounds fancy and hoity toity.
 

kenny

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stracci2000

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Jerry Seinfeld once re-gifted a label maker to me
 

kenny

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stracci2000|1416361913|3786123 said:
Jerry Seinfeld once re-gifted a label maker to me

Wow, I'm impressed.
Label makers are really cool. :lol:
 

Trekkie

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Ugh. This annoys me too! It sounds uneducated.

Off topic, but another word that annoys me is... Burglarized! I see it in US newspapers all the time. Wtf? When did that become acceptable? What's wrong with just saying burgled?
 

kenny

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kenny

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Misused words that make my teeth itch:

DisorienTAted, instead of disoriented.

Insure vs. ensure.
Insure is the business of insurance ... I insure my car.
Ensure is to make something certain ... I drive Jonny to school to ensure he gets there.
This mistake is so common I even see it on professional published articles. :wall:

Your vs. you're.
Your is about what belongs to you ... Is this your coat?
You're is short for "you are" ... If you don't hurry you're going to be late.


Than vs. then.
Then is about time ... I arrived first, then Jane showed up.
Than is about comparing things ... I'm taller than John.

I confess I am not capable of getting lain, lay, laid etc. right.
I gave up on those. :knockout:
 

Trekkie

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kenny|1416371207|3786205 said:
Misused words that make my teeth itch:

DisorienTAted, instead of disoriented.

Insure vs. ensure.
Insurance is the business ... I insure my car.
Ensure is to make something certain ... I drive Jonny to school to ensure he gets there.
This mistake is so common I even see it on professional published articles. :wall:

Your vs. you're.
Your is about what belongs to you ... Is this your coat?
You're is the abbreviation for you are ... If you don't hurry you're going to be late.


Than vs. then.
Then is about time ... I arrived first, then Jane showed up.
Than is about comparing things ... I'm taller than John.

I confess I am not capable of getting lain, lay, laid etc. right.
I gave up on those. :knockout:


Do you think we might be getting old?!

ETA: I say that because the issues you've highlighted above annoy me too! And whenever I talk about them I get told it's because I'm getting cranky in my old age! I'm 30!

I promise I don't usually use this many exclamations - I just get really worked up about this topic.
 

Dee*Jay

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Trekkie|1416371815|3786215 said:
kenny|1416371207|3786205 said:
I confess I am not capable of getting lain, lay, laid etc. right.
I gave up on those. :knockout:


Do you think we might be getting old?!

Incapable and/or (especially!!!) giving up on getting laid right is BEYOND old. Methinks it crosses straight over to DEAD.
 

kenny

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Dee*Jay|1416372266|3786221 said:
Trekkie|1416371815|3786215 said:
kenny|1416371207|3786205 said:
I confess I am not capable of getting lain, lay, laid etc. right.
I gave up on those. :knockout:


Do you think we might be getting old?!

Incapable and/or (especially!!!) giving up on getting laid right is BEYOND old. Methinks it crosses straight over to DEAD.

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