Call me old-fashioned, but I have had my fill of the (mis)use of the word “gifted” Gifted indicates someone has talents. But it seems to be routinely used instead of “given” or even “gave”. I hate to pick on my own church but I recently received an email that said, in part, “God has gifted each of us with a variety of skills, interests, and talents.” No! God has “given” each of with a variety of skills, interests, and talents and we are therefore “gifted”.

I also give people presents on special occasions. I do not “gift” them. Now, if someone gives me a gift and I then, in turn, give it to someone else, I can accept saying that I “re-gifted” the item, but that is about as far along as I can go.

For the record, I have similarly strong feelings about the misuse of “invite” and “invitation”. I simply refuse to send someone an “invite”. However, I am more than happy to send someone an “invitation” and “invite” them to dinner.

So go ahead and call be old-fashioned, but I still believe in the parts of speech and I am quite comfortable dealing with verbs, nouns, and adjectives and knowing the difference between them.