I started hearing people use "gifted" at the college where I used to teach--referring to donors who "gifted" something to the school. It clashed in my ears, but "verbing" words does have an old history, as David D. points out. Another Shakespeare example: In the old morality plays, Herod, king of Israel, was depicted as a loud-mouth buffoon. Hamlet says of the speech of bad actors, "It out-Herods Herod."
dwl
|