{"id":6290,"date":"2018-08-14T11:03:03","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T11:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/?p=6290"},"modified":"2026-08-25T13:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:15:14","slug":"beware-of-german-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/en\/news\/beware-of-german-gifts","title":{"rendered":"Beware of German Gifts!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"509\" height=\"339\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6318\" src=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ThinkstockPhotos-859289284.jpg\" alt=\"The poison is a green liquid in a glass vial. A deadly potion with a skull and bones on the label. Copy space for text. 3D rendering\" srcset=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ThinkstockPhotos-859289284.jpg 509w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ThinkstockPhotos-859289284-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ThinkstockPhotos-859289284-120x80.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/>English speakers should be wary of receiving <em>ein Gift<\/em> from a German! That\u2019s because <em>Gift <\/em>just happens to be the German word for \u201cpoison\u201d! And more incredibly, both the English and German meanings stem from the exact same Proto-Germanic root \u2013 <em>giftiz<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Our friend and language guru Brian Loo Soon Hua explains all:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The word <i class=\"\">giftiz <\/i>originally meant \u201csomething given\u201d in Proto-Germanic and indeed, presents and poison are both given to somebody else, with completely different end-results in mind!<\/p>\n<p>In German, the word <em>Gift <\/em>has completely lost its ancient meaning and now only has the \u201cpoison\u201d connotation \u2013 except for the word <em>Mitgift <\/em>\u2013 meaning \u201cdowry\u201d or \u201cbridal presents\u201d. Since it is unlikely that poison would be part of a bride\u2019s wedding presents, this is indeed a survival of a much broader definition of the original word.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch, being more sensible in this regard, have separated both meanings and come up with two slightly different spellings \u2013 <em>gift <\/em>for \u201cpresent\u201d and <em>gif <\/em>for poison.<\/p>\n<p>Influenced by the German <em>Gift<\/em>, Scandinavian languages also employ <em>gift<\/em> with the notion of \u201cpoison\u201d. But interestingly enough, the Scandinavian <em>gift <\/em>could also mean \u201cmarried\u201d, a term deriving from the old custom of giving the bride away!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>English speakers should be wary of receiving ein Gift from a German! That\u2019s because Gift just happens to be the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[244],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-6290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learn-german","tag-culture"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":6290},"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":244,"label":"German"}],"post_tag":[{"value":46,"label":"culture"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Richard Howeson","author_link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/en\/news\/author\/richard"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":244,"name":"German","slug":"learn-german","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":244,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":32,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":244,"category_count":32,"category_description":"","cat_name":"German","category_nicename":"learn-german","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":46,"name":"culture","slug":"culture","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":46,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":48,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10420,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290\/revisions\/10420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}