Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Don’t Say It!


I read this today: "Business owners have been gifted a much-needed reprieve thanks to Donald Trump's swift action to reduce red tape." My comment has nothing to do with the political side of that statement.

One piece of twenty-first century jargon that needs to be hated is this idiotic word “gifted.”  A “gift” is “given.”  I understand inventing a word when one does not exist.  But what is the point of inventing a stupid-sounding word when a perfectly good one already fills the needed role?

In the sentence at the beginning, “given” does the job needed with elegance, style, and grace.  Those who insist on dropping the worthless jargon word “gifted” in such places need to whacked up side the head with a grammar stick.

There are some other examples of this sort of thing, but this one is perhaps the worst of them.