The etymological path of gift starts in latin debĭta, which translates as "debts" . From that word emerged dativum (“Donation” ), which resulted in dative. A gift, as indicated by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE ) in your dictionary, it's something that is delivered for free .
For example: “The old billionaire was loved by the neighbors thanks to his constant gifts”, “The artist made several gifts during his stay in the country”, “People do not want gifts to survive: they need genuine work”.
Although it is not their main meaning, the term gift is also associated with a gift, something that a person gives to another to congratulate them on an important achievement or event in their life. As a wedding gift, for example, some people usually give the newlyweds an envelope with money so that they decide quietly on what to invest, and this type of gift is usually called a gift.
The idea of giving, however, usually appears linked to a crime: bribery , which consists of delivering a bribery or one coima To corrupt someone. The act of bribing involves the granting of gifts to an official or an authority to perform or stop taking any action, thus acting illegally.
Take the case of an inspector who must travel the restaurants of a city to analyze its bromatological situation. If this official finds something that puts the health of the guests at risk, he has to close the establishment. One day, when arriving at a certain restaurant, observe that there are cockroaches walking on food and even find a rat in the middle of the kitchen. The owner of the premises, to avoid the closure, decides to try to bribe the inspector with a gift : an envelope with 5000 pesos inside. The official accepts the bribe and leaves the restaurant without taking any action. As you can see, by accepting the gift this man incurred a fault since he did not fulfill his obligations.
It is important to note that usually the public official or authority requires a gift to ignore one of its obligations . This nuance makes this crime more serious than an exchange totally outside of professional activity, since bribery often leads to the harm of many innocent people , either directly or indirectly; In the previous example, those owners who keep their businesses in order or who pay the fines imposed on them, are treated harder than those who give a gift to the inspectors.
When the public official asks for or accepts the gift in exchange for a certain action that can be carried out by his function, the bribe is called simple; on the other hand, if the remuneration is used to stop fulfilling one of its obligations or to prevent another official from doing its job correctly, we talk about bribery qualified. This last act does not always constitute a crime .
The bribery can also take place between individuals, outside the governmental sphere, where the word is also used bribery, mentioned above. In this case, for example, the employee of a company privately you can accept a gift from a third party in exchange for convincing your employer to make a decision that favors it, such as signing a sales contract.
Already in Ancient Rome there were examples of similar crimes, such as the delivery of gifts and other gifts in order to buy the votes of citizens, something they tried to ban through the law called Cornelia Fulvia.
