As a verb, 500 years. Admittedly it is a more common usage in British English but it is a perfectly acceptable usage, even if derided by self-appointed usage Nazis as some recent form of devolution of the language.
But if it was good enough for both Louella Parsons and Henry Fielding then I'm ok with it.
As the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage says:
Quote:
Gift did not become a controversial verb until it began to appear with some regularity in American newspapers and magazines. Its adoption by Hollywood gossip columnists probably did not to help its reputation...
Most of the criticism of this verb has been from American sources. Usage panelists in particular cannot abide it...The British seem to regard it with somewhat greater tolerance...
Dictionaries, both British and American, treat it as standard. Its detractors say the usual things about the impropriety of using a noun as a verb, but that argument obviously does not stand up either against more than 400 years of historical evidence or against the many noun-verb pairs that draw absolutely not critical attention whatever. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the verb gift.
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So, long way of saying I'm sorry that you hate I used the word that way but maybe I've gifted you with a bit of knowledge as a result. And if not, then you've gifted me the opportunity to realize I'm not really sorry.