> Funny that in English gift is a word but entirely different meaning. In English it maintains its original Germanic meaning derived from the verb give. The s

> Funny that in English gift is a word but entirely different meaning. In English it maintains its original Germanic meaning derived from the verb give. The sense of "poison" in German comes from a euphemistic use of "gift". (Literally 'something given' but actually used to calque Greek "dosis", which also literally meant 'something given', but was used to mean 'dose [of medicine]'.) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gift#Etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gift#Etymology Summing up, the reason gift is a word in English with an entirely different meaning from what it has in German is that everyone in Germany forgot what gift meant. (The reason it's gift and not something more like yift is the Danelaw.)