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Explanation: The reason why we use this as a noun in this way:"To give S.O. comfort" is because this is an expression. The person being comforted would then either "take" or "draw" comfort from the giver.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 3 hrs (2016-01-03 08:22:19 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
As Tony comment's below, using "have" with comfort is used in specific contexts. I would say it is used often for emphasis in this way.. Although "have comfort in knowing" something is a very commonly used expression.
Thanks to all, but I chose Lara's response because I think that "have/give" comfort is, in fact, correct gramatically, depending on the context. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
I was thinking of people who might consult the question later and get confused between the material and mental versions of comfort. Thinking about it again, however, what about "the comforts offered by religious belief"? The indefinite article is used with the mental type of comfort, as is the definite article e.g. "We have the comfort of knowing he is well looked after." In that example, the knowledge is a comfort.
It is in that "mental/spiritual sense" that the asker has posted her question. So I do not understand why you refer to my comment uncountable nouns: "Wrong! E.g. Home comforts. That is a comfort to me." I was trying to offer a suggestion to the answer's context.
I would say that in its abstract use, "comfort" is uncountable. It is this use of the word that the asker is querying (i.e. "to give comfort" is an uncountable concept).
He likes to have comfort, even luxury, when he travels.
The point of finding examples is to show that a context-free, generalising question about a short phrase, such as "have comfort," can easily produce misleading answers.
There is nothing grammatically wrong with saying "I have comfort", but it is usually idiomatically wrong, though I give an example below of it being idiomatically correct. The question would make more sense given a bit of context, rather than just giving the phrase on its own. For example, it would be perfectly correct, modern, idiomatic English to say "I have the comfort of knowing that the children are happy." As has already been pointed out by Charles and Tony, "comfort" can mean physical or mental comfort and the archaic examples as well as my example above relate to mental comfort (or spiritual comfort, if you believe in such things).
As an example of a sentence where the meaning is physical comfort and where "have comfort" is idiomatically correct: "There is something lacking in this care home; residents have comfort, but no mental stimulation." There is a slight difference in meaning between that and: "There is something lacking in this care home; residents are comfortable, but have no mental stimulation." The first example means they are provided with comfortable furniture, heating etc., while the second means that they experience comfort (inc. lack of pain).
“But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
But "have comfort" was possible in early modern English. It's found (almost inevitably) in Shakespeare:
"Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause. To wail the dimming of our shining star" (Richard III, II, 2)
And it's used in the so-called King James or Authorised version of the Bible (c. 1604-1611):
"Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One" (Job 6:10).
And indeed it was still usable in the mid-nineteenth century. Here's George Borrow:
But I don't recommend you imitate it. It's not idiomatic in modern English, though I don't think there is any grammatical reason to regard it as prohibited.
"take comfort" can also be used in the right context - "I take comfort from the fact that he didn't suffer too much" "I take comfort in the knowledge that I did my best".
And you can be comfortable or make someone comfortable....
Like so many words in the EN languags, there are just some verbs that are appropriate to use with this or that particular noun, and others that are not.
'Comfort' is an abstract noun for something that one cannot 'possess', hence any verb with a similar meaning such as 'to have' is also ruled out.
There are other abstract nouns that behave similarly, e.g. hunger: in EN (unlike some languages) we don't say 'I have hunger', but 'I am hungry'.
There is a dedicated expression for 'to have comfort', which is 'to be comfortable' — although note that this meaning is slightly different in some contexts; for example, we might say "She went to give comfort to the disaster victims" — but that doesn't mean to say that afterwards 'they were comfortable'! It's two related but subtly different meanings of the noun 'comfort' (see good dictionaries e.g. Oxford)
Sorry, I meant have/give comfort. You can say "Give comfort", but can you say "I have comfort"? It seems that you can't, but I don't understand why you can't.
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Answers
1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
have/give comfore
have comfort is grammatically wrong
Explanation: As you wrote above, you must either say I take comfort or I find comfort. Have comfort is not grammatically correct usage.
Or you can say "in comfort"
The only usage close to "have comfort" is in the following Shakespeare's sonnet.
Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still;
peer agreement (net): +5
