This is less of a single etymology and more of a bunch of sexist linguistic connections that aren't intricate enough to get their own stories, but definitely worth sharing, nonetheless:
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Berna
12/3/2018 07:34:01 am
'Gift' doesn't mean 'marriage' in Dutch. It does mean 'poison', though 'vergif' or 'gif' are more usual words for that, and 'gift, donation'; and it's an old word for 'dose', like of a medicine. I've read something like this before, though, but I can't remember which language it was that 'gift' means 'marriage' – maybe something Scandinavian?
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12/3/2018 11:58:26 am
Thank you for the correction! It seems like the word died out and was only present in older versions of Dutch. There does seem to be a Scandinavian ancestor.
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AUTHORHello! I'm Adam Aleksic. This year, I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Government and Linguistics. There, I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society and wrote a thesis on Serbo-Croatian language policy, magna cum laude. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy trivia, politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law.
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