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However, it quickly developed the more general meaning of “present”, often with legal associations.

However the records of the Dictionary of the Scots Language reveal that there are also some subtly distinct developments in the word’s meaning in Scots that are not found in English. One such is to do with special powers of observation. Although gifts can be miraculous endowments in English, as in “the gift of tongues”, DSL offers a more specific citation from the Scots Magazine (1953): “Second Sight – Taibhsearachd – or sometimes just the Gift, is a phenomenon long associated with the Scottish Highlands.” There are hints of an older, less positive meaning in Scots. John Jamieson, in his great Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808), offered: “A disrespectful and contemptuous term for a person”. This meaning seems to have disappeared, which is just as well. At Christmas, it is good to be remembered for bringing, rather than being, a gift.