Gift is Norse, and the hard g gives it away — the native English form would have softened, as give nearly did. English took it in the 1200s from Old Norse gift, "gift, good luck." Old English had its own cognate, but only in the narrow sense of a bride-price or dowry; the ordinary Old English word for a gift was giefu, a relative of the Norse word rather than the same one.
There is a warning attached to this word for anyone reading German. German Gift, and the Danish and Swedish forms too, mean poison — the same Germanic root for giving, narrowed to the thing given to someone with intent to harm. English went the other way, extending the word to a natural talent by about 1300, on the idea that such things are conferred rather than earned, as in the biblical gift of tongues.
gift (n.) mid-13c. "that which is given" (c. 1100 in surnames), from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse gift , gipt "gift; good luck," from Proto-Germanic *geftiz (source also of Old Saxon gift , Old Frisian jefte , Middle Dutch ghifte "gift," German Mitgift "dowry"), from *geb- "to give," from PIE root *ghabh- "to give or receive." For German Gift , Dutch, Danish, Swedish gift "poison," see poison (n.). Sense of "natural talent" (regarded as conferred) is from c. 1300, perhaps from earlier sense of "inspiration, power miraculously bestowed" (late 12c.), as in the Biblical gift of tongues. Old English cognate gift is recorded only in the sense "bride-price, marriage gift (by the groom), dowry" (hence gifta (pl.) "a marriage, nuptials"). The Old English noun for "a giving, gift" was giefu , which is related to the Old Norse word. Sense of "natural talent" is c. 1300, perhaps from earlier sense of "inspiration" (late 12c.). The proverbial gift horse was earlier given horse : No man ought to looke a geuen hors in the mouth. [Heywood, 1546] The modern form perhaps traces to Butler's "Hudibras" (1663), where the tight iambic tetrameter required a shorter phrase: He ne'er consider'd it, as loth To look a Gift-horse in the mouth. also from mid-13c. gift (v.) "bestow a gift," 16c., from gift (n.). Related: Gifted ; gifting . also from 16c.
gift came in through Old Norse, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| hard /g/ or /k/ before e or i | plain g or k. A native word would have softened here, so the hard sound is the loanget, give, gift, kid |
What gives it away on the page
| hard g or k before e/i | Native words palatalised here — the same root gives yield, yell.get, give, gift, kid |
Old Norse in the spelling guide · guess another word's family