What does this phrase mean?

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What does it mean if someone has not got a ‘gift for words’?

I think gift for words means you have a good vocabulary and are well spoken. So saying someone does not have a gift for words would mean the opposite. I think this is right, I couldn't find a clear definition on Google.

Last edited by Dragnet on 31 Aug 2020, 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I agree with Dragnet.

If someone does not have a gift for words, it means that they aren't very good with words. They don't use words with much skill. Someone with a gift for words would be eloquent, speaking fluently, clearly, persuasively.

As far as what the intent is if someone says this, I am not sure. Is it a veiled insult? I guess it depends on the context. I do not have a gift for words in spontaneous conversation, that's for sure!

Thats actually kind of ambiguous as to what the person meant. You would have to go by the context of what was happening when you heard someone use the phrase (I assume that they used it to describe you).

It is obviously like "he is not exactly a Rhodes scholar". It's probably meant as an exaggerated understatement.

Rhodes scholars are folks who get rewarded with scholarships for being bright students. So if someone describes you as not being "not exactly" worthy of a Rhodes Scholarship then theyre calling you a dumb cluck.

But the Rhodes Scholar expression is about just one dichotomy:smart vs dumb. And if you're on the wrong side of that it aint good.

Not having "a gift for words" could mean one of several different things. And the possibilities arent necessarily as bad as being a dumb cluck.

It could mean that you're just silent. You sit in a crowded room and never speak. That you dont have "the gift of gab" (that you dont mix with folks, and easily go into conversations). That inability is common among autistics.


Or...

It could mean you DO talk, and that you may even say something intelligent. But its too blunt, or too insensitive. That you speak in a way that rubs folks the wrong way.


or...

it could mean that you speak incoherently.

or...

That you just aren't persuasive, and/or eloquent.

or..

maybe other things.

The person is ineloquent.

There you go.

Fnord is most correct BUT it could mean that a person doesn't have the "gift of gab" meaning that person isn't a good conversationalist.

Fnord is "the most correct" because he just parroted what I said above him?

If you say so.

Its true that if its used in the positive then it does mean that. "You are eloguent".

But if the OP heard it used in the negative it could mean a number of different things.