# When did "giving" become "gifting" and why isn't the latter a capital offense? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596 "2011-12-18T00:18:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/21 "2011-12-18T17:14:44Z")
> [@Strinka](#): > > I really don’t understand why people make a big deal about this. It’s not like synonyms are evil. No one ever complains if someone says bequeath, bestow, donate, endow or grant instead of give. None of those mean exactly the same thing as give does, but then neither does gift. Gift means to give something _as a gift_. It’s closer in meaning to donate than give. The thing is, I learned way back in grade school that “give” was a verb, the act of taking something and passing it to another person, and that “gift” was a noun, the object of that action. To me, using “gift” as a verb is the same annoying mis-usage as saying “I bequest my home and fortune to my loving wife Betty” or “I donation $500 to the Red Cross every year” rather than the verb forms bequeath or donate. Oddly “re-gift” (and other made up words like google and tweet [like on Twitter]) don’t bother me at all, probably because they were made up out of whole cloth and there weren’t words used to describe taking those actions before. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/22 "2011-12-18T20:24:05Z")
Well, yeah. One gives a gift. One doesn’t gift a give. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/23 "2011-12-20T04:14:43Z")
It IS a capital offense. I’m just waiting…biding my time…gathering my ammo…waiting…waiting… hh ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/24 "2011-12-20T04:51:10Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Joke or smiley, doesn’t matter, **dzero** — changing the text of people’s posts in a quote tag is strictly forbidden. Do not do this again\*\*, please.\*\* > > Ellen Fixed that for you. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/25 "2011-12-20T05:09:26Z")
It’s just as bad as saying birthing a baby instead of bearing a baby. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/26 "2011-12-20T09:00:18Z")
Sorry, guys, but gifting is already in the Firefox spelling dictionary. It’s already a word. Oh, and I just thought it meant “giving as a gift,” which is more specific than give. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/27 "2011-12-20T14:00:17Z")
When the Romans started saying [dō/dare](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/do#Latin) and [dōnō/donare](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dono#Latin). Seriously, it’s as old as dirt. ---
**Author:** ![mattwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@mattwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattwan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/28 "2011-12-21T04:29:49Z")
The first time I heard “gifting” as a verb was in relation to the “gifting club” pyramid schemes that were big a decade or so ago. That’s another possibility for the word’s entry into wider usage. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/29 "2011-12-21T21:34:34Z")
Google results: giving: 206,000,000 gifting: 25,900,000 We must nuke it from space. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/30 "2011-12-21T21:56:22Z")
I first saw it in writing in text written by someone in India. I was proofreading the text and changed it. The writer changed it back and (politely) asked me WTF, as it is apparently perfectly normal Indian English and had been for some time. This was in 2001 or 2002 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Enocavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e480ec/32.png) [@Enocavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enocavy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596/31 "2011-12-22T00:33:24Z")
The earliest I remember gift and gifting used as verbs was around 1989. A department store chain was using it in its Christmas advertising in the newspaper and on TV. I remember people mocking the usage around that time but never noticed anyone using it for real until the past few years. It’s a plague. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-giving-become-gifting-and-why-isnt-the-latter-a-capital-offense/606596.md?page=1)