Etymograph

English

gift

Gift comes from Old English ġift and Old Norse gipt, from Proto-Germanic *giftiz ‘gift’, from *gebaną ‘to give’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰebʰ-1‘to give; to take’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gebaną1‘to give’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*giftiz2‘giving, gift’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*gifti3reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġift2‘marriage payment, dowry’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500yifte2
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1910gift2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *giftiz
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English gift
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Old English gift
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1910, Emerson Hough, Indianapolis: ““[…] it is not fair of you to bring…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰebʰ-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *giftiz‘to give; to take’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gebanąWiktionary, Proto-Germanic *giftiz‘to give’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*giftizWiktionary, English gift‘giving, gift’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*giftiWiktionary, Old English giftreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġiftWiktionary, English gift‘marriage payment, dowry’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500yifteWiktionary, English gift
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1910giftWiktionary, English gift. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1910, Emerson Hough, Indianapolis: ““[…] it is not fair of you to bring…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with gift, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ- ‘to give’

  • forgive ← foryiven ← forġiefan ← *frageban ← *fragebaną
  • gavel ← gafol ← *gabul ← *gebaną ← *gʰebʰ-e-ti
  • hydrocephalus ← ὑδροκέφαλον ← κεφαλή ← *kʰepʰəlā́ ← *gʰebʰ-l̥
  • cephalic ← céphalique ← cephalicus ← κεφαλικός ← κεφαλή

through Proto-Germanic *gebaną ‘to give’

  • give ← yiven ← ġiefan ← *geban
  • gave ← gaf ← ġiefan ← *geban

22 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun Something given to another voluntarily, without charge.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “gift”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *giftiz, Old English gift. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ- / gift