ʒere-ʒiftes

n. (pl.)

'New Year's gifts'

(Modern English gift)

Etymology

ME ʒift(e) formally continues OE gift, gyft.  It is often assumed that the sense ‘gift’ shows input from ON, cp. OIcel gift ‘gift’, probably via the loan gifte (thus Bj. (tentatively), TGD, GDS, McGee 335).  But there are (relatively rare) instances of the OE word in a compatible sense, and the more general meaning is also found with the Gmc cognates (cp. Go fragifts, OFris ieft, OS, OHG gift; see gifte).  A further alternative is that ME forms of the n. in /j-/ are  new formations from the v. (OED).

PGmc Ancestor

*geftiz

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

gift ‘gift’
(ONP gift (n.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far gift, Icel gift, Norw gift, Dan gift, Sw gift

OE Cognate

gift, gyft ‘gift to a woman at marriage, dowry; (pl.) marriage’

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CC3a

Attestation

Forms indicating initial /j-/ are widespread in the sense ‘gift’ in ME.  

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 67

Often printed as two words, without a hyphen at Gaw 67 (thus Madden, Morris, M(G), GDS, AW);  Rynell (187) notes a proposed emendation to -giftes.

Bibliography

MED yift(e (n.) (sense 6) (and yēr (n.2), sense 2b (c)) , OED gift (n.1) , HTOED , Dance ʒere-ʒiftes, Bj. 156, de Vries gipt, gift, Mag. gift, Orel *ʒeftiz, AEW gift, DOE gyft, gift