can 'gift' be a verb?

[MrsAtticus]

I've noticed on my local freecycle, people are writing emails saying they have e.g. 'a sofa to gift'. This really annoys me. Is it a valid use of the word gift? I am thinking it's either correct and old fashioned and being brought back into common usage (in which case I'll endeavor not to be annoyed anymore) OR people are being stupid

[ouryve]

I think gifting someone something might be more usual in American usage, but is one of those terms that's catching on over here.

[MrsAtticus]

Oh I see.

[StealthPolarBear]

Along with "not in my gift" which is a flowery way of saying "can't"

[MrsAtticus]

Never heard that one!

[AuntieStella]

OED has first recorded use as a verb in 1608.

And I know it was in ordinary use from at least the 1980s.

[Lottiegal]

This makes me mad too and am hearing it everywhere

[KatieKaye]

"to gift" is not uncommon in legal documents and is well-established as a verb.

[lougle]

Definitely a verb.

[SanityClause]

In English, all nouns can be verbed.

[StealthPolarBear]

Really? What about carrot?

[StealthPolarBear]

I gift you...
I carrot you..
rude

[springlamb]

Doesn't the verb 'to carrot' refer to the act of home dyeing one sister's hair?
Sorry, as you were...

[StealthPolarBear]

:o

[springlamb]

My deepest apologies, i broccolied you quite by mistake.

Draw your own conclusions. I really had best to retire to bed, I have brain wobble.

[puzzlepiecebehindthecouch]

I have heard 'to gift' quite often in Indian English....

And I quite like the idea of 'to carrot' as a synonym for 'to bribe', perhaps one for desperate parents, eg 'I'm carroting the DCs with the promise of an ice cream if they behave in the supermarket'

[StealthPolarBear]

Often I can just be walking along minding my own business when all of a sudden I get asparagused by a passer by

[springlamb]

What a night, I laughed so much I tomatoed myself. Then Alice strawberried up the kerb and fractured her marrow.

I shall arise now and take myself to bed. This is silly.

[StealthPolarBear]

:o

now parsnip off, I'm trying to work

[NigellasDealer]

but can be verbs be nouned?

actually the flexibility of being able to turn nouns into verbs is one of the English language's greatest strengths as an international language.

You have been mangoed

[StealthPolarBear]

I still want to know how all nouns can be a verb

[Elsiequadrille]

New, no. Overused, yes.

[SanityClause]

If you not stop going on about it, Stealth, I'll carrot you up the nose!

[StealthPolarBear]

Ill fennel you, right where it hurts