The verb donate is more specific than give. You can give your payment information to a website or give advice to a friend, but the verb donate instantly suggests supporting a cause or offering help to those in need. To donate something is to present it as a gift, grant, or contribution. This generous verb can be used with or without an object (you can donate clothes or donate to the Red Cross), and is particular to American English.

Every once in a while, we can all get a bit grumpy. When someone is grumpy on a regular basis or in a particularly argumentative way, they could be described as cantankerous. Cantankerous folks are disagreeable and often contentious. Being four syllables, cantankerous is a loftier-sounding word than grumpy, an expressive word akin to a grunt with origins in the phrase “humps and grumps.” Cantankerous, on the other hand, was probably formed from a Middle English word that meant “quarrel” or “contention.” A machine can be personified humorously as cantankerous if it does not operate smoothly, and similarly, so can an animal that displays opposition or irritableness.

Generosity refers to a readiness or liberality in giving, and sometimes to an overall spirit of kindness. Generous giving, when it involves gifts or money, can be called largess. Largess can also refer to the gifts themselves. At the root of largess is the word "large," so one way to think about it is that those who show largess are characterized by the largeness of their contributions, monetary or otherwise. Most commonly, you will see largess used in the public works sense, denoting a sense of superiority or higher rank on the part of those bestowing it.