Other forms: gifts
A gift is something nice you give somebody. A birthday gift, wrap the gift, a gift from a friend.
Present is the everyday British word and gift the slightly more formal one, though gift is standard in shops: gift shop, gift voucher, gift wrap. A gift is also a natural talent: a gift for languages, a gifted child. In British informal use, a gift is something absurdly easy: that goal was a gift. Note the gift of the gab, meaning fluent persuasive speech; and do not look a gift horse in the mouth.
1noungiftSomething nice given to somebody.
“Thank you for the lovely gift; I'll wear the scarf every day.”
synonyms: present
2nounnaturalA natural talent.
“She has a gift for music and can play any song after hearing it once.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
gift is something given, or a talent.
Also accepted in games: present
Old Norse gipt reinforced the Old English gift, which meant a payment for a wife rather than a present. The word for a bride price became the word for a birthday present, which is a considerable softening.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰebʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*giftiz — gift
Old Norse
gipt — gift, present, wedding
Old English
ġift
Middle English
yifte
English, today
gift
Built from
From Middle English yifte, ȝift, partly from Old English ġift, ġyft (“giving, consideration, dowry, wedding”) and Old Norse gipt (“gift, present, wedding”); both from Proto-Germanic giftiz (“gift”). Equivalent to give + -t (etymologically yive + -t). 2 Cognate with West Frisian jefte (“gift”), Dutch gift (“gift”) and its doublet gif (“poison”), German Gift (“poison”), lb Gëft (“poison”), wym gejft, gyjft (“poison”), Yiddish גיפֿט (“poison”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish gift (“poison”), Icelandic gift (“gift”). a doublet of yift. Distantly related to English habit, from Latin habitus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA