SCOOTTSSWWORODRODF

GIFT

“GIFT” is an ancient word, with related forms found in all those varieties – like English and Scots – derived from Common Germanic, the language spoken in northern Europe around 500 BC. The word has developed many meanings since then; in present-day German, for instance, the word has come to mean “poison” or “virus”. In the Anglo-saxon ancestor of both English and Scots, used in England and southern Scotland until around 1100 AD, “gift” originally meant “bridal offering”, the payment made by a husband to the wife’s family.