"Gifted" as a verb

[JimandPam]

I've seen 3 threads just this week with 'gifted' as a verb

e.g. My father was gifted a house

I'm not sure if this word is normal American English or a new usage that has crept in over time (I know there is a history of the word as a verb). I've seen it used widely even in formal pieces of writing recently.

It just makes me cringe and feels wrong compared to 'my father was given a house'

Am I the only one who twitches when they read it on here?

Completely agree. I thought it meant specifically if something was passed to someone in a will. And, yes, the use of 'myself' instead of 'me' is really abnnoying. I think people do it to make themselves sound posh, but it has the opposite effect. Genuinely 'posh' or well-educated people would never say it, in fact, I noticed Princess Kate recently said something along the lines of 'William and me' - I think it was on 'on behalf of William and me' or something like that.

It's either because people think it sounds more formal, or a hypercorrection. They've been told that "me and Jane went out' is incorrect and that it should be "Jane and I", but they haven't been told why it's incorrect in that context. So they always put "Jane and I" even where it should be "Jane and me". They likewise interpret the correction as thinking that "me" is informal and that "I" and "myself" must therefore be more appropriate if they want to sound more formal.

The "myself"/"yourself" thing is also, I think, a confusion with expressions like "your good self". So "I went out with your good self" would be gramatically correct (if rather old-fashioned/pompous!) but "I went out with yourself" is not. "You went out by yourself" would be the only correct use of the reflexive pronoun in this example.

I would get out more but baby DC is napping on me .

I really don’t like ‘gifting’, especially on signs in John Lewis, who ought to know better!

I’ve always preferred ‘presents’, as in Christmas/birthday/any other anyway.

I do use the word gifted/gifting in my work, but that's because a gift has a specific meaning (i.e free of conditions).

Then again, I'm not sure how often I use it as an actual verb, as it's usually 'making a gift' for future or 'made a gift' as a past tense, depending on what has happened.

or "...to Sarah and myself"

Just to add to the myself/yourself issue, listen to Arthur in the Cabin Pressure radio series who mangles the language in a brilliantly funny way.

I have found my people 😀 no idea why the use of this word irks me so much, it just does.

It's not new usage though.

From the OED fsctsheet for the verb form of gift:

The earliest known use of the verb gift is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for gift is from before 1600, in Wife in Morel's Skin.

It is also recorded as a noun from the Middle English period (1150—1500)."

"Gifted" is exactly the right word in legal/formal/tax situations, such as transferring ownership of a business or property. It's the wording as per the Acts of Parliament and conveys a specific/clear meaning, of legally transferring the ownership of something. Far more formal and clear than someone "giving" a piece of advice, or giving a birthday present.

It's been in the English language as a verb since the 16th century. It's fine.

I know language is fluid but this one does annoy me for no sensible reason. But I hear gifted and hear ' a person has a talent '.

Something about this reminds me of disinterested/uninterested. These now seem to be largely interchangeable when once they had distinct meanings. That removes the ability to communicate your intended meaning unambiguously, I think that's a shame.

Just to clarify, I don't have a problem with language changing per se, but when a change muddies something that was previously clear it leaves us all worse off. It's not pedantry to regret losing something useful.

For me, you gift something you already own, rather than something you’ve bought, made or otherwise acquired especially for that person.