It’s GIVEN not GIFTED FFS !!!

[TriflePudding]

Oh god it’s all over Facebook and it’s driving me crazy - “I have here to gift ...a tatty old sofa I can’t be arsed to get rid of myself so I’m fobbing it off on someone else”
or “I have been gifted a bag of baby clothes but they are too small, does anyone know if anyone in need ?”
Or “looking to gift some donations to local women’s refuge/children’s hospital- who do I get in touch with ?”

JUST FUCK OFF !! Say “given” and while we are at it just donate stuff quietly without any fanfare !

YABU - it is perfectly acceptable to use “gifted” as a verb

Or

YANBU - the word “gifted” being used as a verb was invented by Beelzebub himself.

Please feel free to add your own !

I just have to quote from that article, because it really illustrates how pointless this gripe will seem in a few years.

“Don’t contact anyone: get in touch with him, call him, write him, find him, tell him.
-Sheridan Baker, The Complete Stylist, 1966”

Or how about this rant?

“ In terms of pure splenetic inventiveness, there have been few complaints that have matched the one by F. W. Lienau, an executive at Western Union, articulated in a memo sent to his staff: “Somewhere there cumbers this fair earth with his loathsome presence a man who, for the common good, should have been destroyed in early childhood. He is the originator of the hideous vulgarism of using contact as a verb. So long as we can meet, get in touch with, make the acquaintance of, be introduced to, call on, interview or talk to people, there can be no apology for contact.” We may all of us have some issues with the way the English language is progressing, but few of us have the requisite peevishness and poetry to begin our complaints with a line such as “somewhere there cumbers this fair earth with his loathsome presence....”

If you're lucky you can be gifted a deposit for a house, but otherwise it's 'given'.

Ooh and not quite the same corruption of language but an overextension with delusions of grandeur, why is everything ‘curated’ now? As in ‘my carefully curated ward robe of clothes’ or ‘I went in to Sainsbury’s and curated a trolley of food’ -
Ok the second example is pushing it

I hate seeing 'is anyone gifting' a sofa, bed, garden gnome, whatever.

Just ask... does anyone have a * I can have please.

I irrationally can not stand an "up do"! It's putting your hair up for fuck sake! Don't know why it annoys me so much.

And don't get me started on X and Y announced their pregnancy! He's pregnant is he?

"Reach out"
"We are pregnant" - no we are not
"Can I have a lend"
Brought instead of bought
"Curated collection" - it's a few shoes - you are not in a museum

Lots of American words and phrases are being used in the UK more.

Math, instead of maths
Take out, instead of take away
Store, instead of shop

I don’t like it

"Curating" unless you work in an actual museum.

Gonna. I'm gonna whip up a meal. I'm gonna show you a hack. I'm gonna read a book. No.... you are GOING. So many people make themselves sound so uneducated these days.

I can split hairs even further about the 'wanna' one. It feels instinctively like it is a corruption of 'want to', and not 'want a'. It seems quite jarring to see people writing 'I wanna sandwich' or whatever. 'I wanna go shopping' is bad enough, but at least it fits the form.

I also loathe Can I get instead of the May I have, we were in a little cafe in the Dales and someone said Can I get.....(something or other. The little old lady running the place single handed said No, stay there, I'll get it for you. The customer looked most put-out.

DS was confined to his room with Covid and we were fetching and carrying for him for the prescribed 10 days. Every time I got a message like "Please could I get a cup of tea?" the reply was always "No, you stay there - I'll get it for you." Drove him batty and he was very pleased to finally come out of isolation!

And actions rather than words; I hate the giving the finger, rather than a good old British Two Fingered Salute.

But language changes and evolves. I'm reading Thomas Hardy at the moment. We certainly no longer speak like he wrote. If he was alive it's likely they way you speak would annoy him.

@UrAWizHarry

Languages evolve shock.

True, which is why we must resolutely weed out the annoying mutations, before they take root.

I agree. I blame Instagram/Pinterest for all of this fluffy language wankery.

Yes yes yes! It grates on me. When i see a FB post - is anyone gifting a sofa or washing machine?

It's right up there for me with

Whoop whoop
Nom nom (in context of food)
Hubster
Famalam

Also why in estate agent speak and on C4 home programmes has "room" disappeared as a noun? Everything is a "space" now. Why? Just why?

I know my hatred is irrational. But I'm not sorry.

"We are pregnant" - no we are not
Agreed. Can get confusing sometimes :)

Expresso drives me mad.

[quote Honeybobbin]@NotFabulousDarling you're talking nonsense, invite is a verb, it can never be a noun. If I invite you by phone then it's a verbal invitation, never 'an invite'.
Also, yes, gifted is a verb, as in 'my child is gifted'. You don't gift someone something.[/quote]
You might want to read that last point again @Honeybobbin

Mozart was gifted. A bag of baby clothes is not gifted.

Although I worked for the tax office a very long time ago, and I have a vague feeling that "gift" as a verb exists in legal jargon. It still sounds all wrong in everyday language to me.

I think I've mentioned this here before, but somebody I work with has started using 'adaptions' instead of adaptations. Drives me berserk...

Also, when people say “sorry” instead of -excuse me or pardon. Why do so many people do that

"A big ask."

Get in the fucking bin with this.

I remember lecturing my grandmother many moons ago about how language is dynamic and to just deal with it. I'm now a grumpy mare heading for middle age, and I get it.