gift economy

noun

A traditional economy where valuable goods are not traded or sold, but rather given away, sometimes with the expectation that they (or goods of equivalent or higher value) will later be given back.

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Meanings

noungift economy (plural gift economies)

plural gift economies

  1. A traditional economy where valuable goods are not traded or sold, but rather given away, sometimes with the expectation that they (or goods of equivalent or higher value) will later be given back.

    Community activists will increasingly use hypermedia to replace corporate capitalism and big government with a hi-tech ‘gift economy’ in which information is freely exchanged between participants.

    1995 September, Richard Barbrook, Andy Cameron, “The Californian Ideology”, in Mute, volume 1, number 3, →ISSN, archived from the original on 19 Oct 2021

Translations

Finnish lahjatalous
  • lahjataloustype of economy
German Schenkökonomie
  • Schenkökonomietype of economy
Cite this entry
APA

gift economy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gift%20economy

MLA

“gift economy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gift%20economy. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gift economy,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gift%20economy.

Source: gift economy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.