Testing the waters . . .

Welcome to my very first blog posting! I love to write (some even tell me I have a talent for it -- you be the judge!), and blogging seems like the most natural outlet. So here I am, on my maiden voyage, so to speak (I think I detect a theme here). This is a work in progress, so please bear with me as I (insert posting title) . . .

So I was reading a column in the paper this morning in which the columnist described (and apologized for) her children's restless behavior on the airplane en route to the Magic Kingdom. It was very tongue-in-cheek, although I'm sure there was a grain of truth to her reports of children shouting to each other ten rows apart, hurling fruit snacks over the seats, and, well, hurling in general. I can relate. I am now the parent of a very polite, mature, well-mannered high school senior, but he wasn't always that way. In his younger youth, he, too was known to scream, throw things, and -- yes -- hurl.

But here's what bothered me about the column. The columnist wrote that she and her husband "gifted" their children with this trip. "Gifted"??? Since when is gift used as a verb? So I did what any good writer (or blogger) would do -- I consulted my 30+-year-old American Heritage Dictionary. While AHD acknowledged that gift may be used as a verb, the editors took a dim view of this practice: "The recent use of gift as a transitive verb, though not incorrect, has not established itself on a formal level. The following representative example involving the active voice is termed unacceptable by 94 per cent of the Usage Panel: He gifted each of his nephews." Aha!

But wait -- a search of AHD's online dictionary revealed that this use of gift as a transitive verb is , uh, well (it pains me to say it) . . . acceptable. So I guess I stand corrected. Call me old-fashioned, but I think it makes more sense to say I gave my children a gift.

And now you know one of my pet peeves -- the decline of the English language as we (used to) know it. You won't see me using gift as a verb in my blogs! Ditto my all-time favorite noun-verb mutant . . . impact.