Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

Ethelred

Member Since

November 7, 2014

Total number of comments

1

Total number of votes received

0

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Latest Comments

Meaningless Use of “key”

  • November 7, 2014, 4:37am

I too find 'gifted' when used to mean 'given' intensely irritating.
I suspect the rise of the usage derives from word processors which by default pounce on the passive, and flag 'given' as unacceptable.
'She was a gifted child' is OK in my mind, and I can tolerate 'the Guggenheim has been gifted the works of the artist by his estate' as there is to me something institutional about 'gifting.'
But I start jumping up and down when I hear or see something of the order of 'my mother has gifted us a box of biscuits this Christmas.'
It seems pompous, clunky, and to not improve upon 'mum gave us biscuits.'