Word of the Week
by Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words, with recordings by speechinaction
regift verb [I/T] 
, noun [C]
regifted adjective 
regifter noun [C] 
‘They say there’s really only one fruitcake in the world and it just gets passed from person to person. Call it recycling or regifting, but passing on gifts we don’t want or need is becoming a more acceptable part of our culture, experts say … Many Americans are devoted regifters. Nearly a third of shoppers have regifted at least one or more times, according to the 2003 American Express Retail Index on holiday shopping. On average, those who regift have done so at least three times. About 60 percent of women regift and 40 percent of men.
The Beacon Journal 21st December 2003
Christmas is almost upon us, the culmination of several weeks of frenzied shopping activity, with many of us trying very hard to make the dreams of important people in our lives come true. If, however, Christmas shopping is your worst nightmare, have you ever been tempted to search your bottom drawer for an effortless solution which is free of expenditure? On the other hand, have you ever opened a present and thought that its contents looked strangely familiar? If the answer to either of these questions is ‘yes’, then you’re likely to have been a participant or victim in the increasingly popular activity of regifting.
Though the phenomenon of regifting is probably something that has existed since gift-giving began, the lexical gap for a description of this activity was only filled in the mid-nineties. Into the noughties, the phenomenon of regifting is becoming more and more established with the popularity of Internet sites such as eBay™, which reinforce the idea of recycling unwanted goods.
The verb regift has likewise now entered at least one online dictionary with the definition ‘to resell or auction an unwanted gift on the Internet’. This verb often occurs intransitively as illustrated in the citation above, but it can also be used transitively - I regifted that pasta maker - and frequently ditransitively or with a prepositional object - I regifted her that pasta maker or I regifted that pasta maker to my mother-in-law. Other derivatives include an adjective regifted - a regifted pasta maker - a noun regift, referring to the regiven gift itself, and an agent nominalization regifter for people who participate in the activity, a rather derogatory way of describing someone during the festive season!
Background
The word regifting is a synthesis of the gerund deriving from the verb gift (‘to give something as a gift’), and the prefix re- meaning ‘again’. The first use of the term and its derivatives is attributed to the American comedian Jerry Seinfeld. In a 1995 TV show, Superbowl tickets and a label maker were regifted, and the episode took a light-hearted look at the mistakes people make while trying to conceal the fact that something is a regift.
When it first appeared, the phenomenon of regifting took on rather negative overtones due to its association with deception, i.e. the idea that by regifting you were not only deceiving the recipient, but also the person who originally gave you the gift by not being honest about the fact that you didn’t want it. However, the increasing popularity of the word and its more recent link to Internet-based auctions has made the phenomenon of regifting more acceptable, and brought with it more light-hearted, humorous overtones.
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This article was first published on 20th December 2004.
Subject archive: holidays, leisure