Can someone tell me the meaning to the phrase Indian Giver?
Indian giver is a North American English expression used to describe a person who gives a gift (literal or figurative) and later wants it back, or something equivalent in return. The term “Indian gift” was first noted in 1765 by Thomas Hutchinson,and “Indian giver” was first cited in John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (1860)as “Indian giver. When an Indian gives any thing, he expects to receive an equivalent, or to have his gift returned.” The phrase is sometimes offensive, particularly to Native Americans. It is unclear exactly how this expression came to be, but the consensus is that it is based on Native Americans having a distinctly different sense of property ownership as opposed to those of European ancestry. One theory holds that early European settlers in North America misinterpreted aid and goods they received from Native Americans as “gifts,” when in fact they were intended to be offered in trade, as many tribes operated economically by some form of barter sys
