debian-release glossary
The debian-release mailing list and the IRC channel frequently use their own terminology.
Giveback
Related to buildd states. Packages are "taken" by the buildd when they try to build them. They stay taken by that buildd until the admin either signs a changes file and they get uploaded or the build is marked failed/dep-wait/not-for-us/... A lot of build failures a due to missing build deps or similiar problems, so simply trying to build it again somewhere after a few days is enough to solve it.
A give-back removes the "taken" flag from the package in the wanna-build db and it gets back into the normal needs-build queue.