Royal Pain: So Many Gifts
I have nothing against Libbey Dean. She’s beautiful. She’s talented. She’s the White House correspondent for NewsNation.
But she - and others like her, who are polluting our beautiful English language - make people like me crazy.
Dear Libbey, stop. Just stop, using “gift’ as a verb. I’m begging you. It’s a noun.
“Gifting” doesn't make you sound smart or sophisticated. No offense, but you sound like a pretentious grammar-class skipper.
Next time, try something like this:
The King gave the President a framed facsimile of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk.
The President gave His Majesty a custom facsimile of a letter written from John Adams to John Jay in 1785.
The First Lady gave Her Majesty six Tiffany’s English King Sterling Silver Teaspoons and White House Honey.
The Queen gave the First Lady a Fiona Rae brooch.
Ah, the elegance!
It’s not just Ms. Dean. This past week, with all the royal gift-giving, was a festival of noun abuse.
There was this, from Politico:
King gifts Trump 1879 framed plans for the Resolute Desk
The president gifted King Charles a custom facsimile of a letter written from John Adams to John Jay in 1785 in which Adams promised to restore the US-UK friendship.
And CBS “gifted” us this:
King Charles gifted President Trump a British World War II relic with his name on it, delivered rousing remarks to Congress, and cracked quite a few historical jokes during his state visit to Washington, D.C., alongside Queen Camilla
To its credit, the stuffy New York Times got it right:
King Charles III gave President Trump a framed, high-quality reproduction of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk, which is still in the Oval Office. Trump, in return, bestowed the king a framed copy of a 1785 letter written by former President John Adams.
See how easy that is?
Memo to the media: We have plenty of verbs. We don’t need new ones.
Gift is a noun, by the way. Unless it’s being used correctly as an adjective, as in a “gifted pianist” or a “gifted liar.”
Gift is not a verb. Neither is it a gerund. You don’t gift someone. You give them a gift. And “gifting?” Hell, no.
Honestly, this assault on the English language has to stop.
Before writing this and a similar post several years ago, I checked with Mignon Fogarty, AKA The Grammar Girl.
And if you have 11:02 minutes to spare, you can listen to her podcast where she discusses the new usages of the simple four-letter word, “gift.”
But who wants to spend that long listening to a grammarian?
Here’s a summary: As it happens, “gift” has been used as a verb for about 400 years.
IN SCOTLAND.
Look around. Do you see the Loch Ness monster? Did you eat haggis for Thanksgiving dinner? Are you wearing a kilt? Do you hear bagpipes? Is your name Sean Connery? If you answered no to all five of these questions, you are not Scottish and you’re not in Scotland. You have no reason to misuse the word “gift.”
So why the sudden outbreak of “gifting” far from the Highlands?
Forgarty blames a 1995 episode of “Seinfeld” called “The Label Maker.” In it, Jerry brags about a label maker he was given by a friend and Elaine says that she was the one who gave the label maker to the person who in turn gave it to Jerry.
“He’s a regifter!” Elaine exclaims.
And the next thing you knew, all of America was taking liberties with this workhorse word.
Ms. Fogarty also insists - although I believe she is wrong - that using gift as a verb is not wrong. It’s simply “grating.”
“Give” is still a much better choice,” concludes Grammar Girl.
I agree.
