Questions tagged [gerund]
For questions about gerunds (not to be confused with gerundives).
12
questions
7
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Nunc est bibendum: gerund or gerundive?
When providing answers to some apparently basic questions (e.g., cf. Tom Cotton's and mine in Mihi legendum/legenda est? & Why use nominative in Coniugatio periphrastica passiva? , respectively), ...
- 6,925
8
votes
2
answers
809
views
When can the gerund take an object?
Typically the gerundive is employed when one using a gerund with an object seems possible.
For example, I have understood that aqua bibenda est and rei faciendae causa are preferable to aquam bibendum ...
- 109k
9
votes
1
answer
349
views
Is the nominative gerund attested?
I'd always heard that the gerund had no nominative, with the present active infinitive taking the place of the missing form: volāre difficile est, rather than *volāndum.
However, in the comments on ...
- 59.9k
3
votes
0
answers
140
views
When and how did the distinction between the gerund and the gerundive develop?
The gerund and the gerundive look similar and have similar meanings, but they are still distinct as any Latin grammar will tell us.
But how did classical Latin come to have these two close but ...
- 109k
20
votes
7
answers
4k
views
"Miserando atque eligendo"
There seem to be two schools of thought about the meaning of the motto on Pope Francis's coat of arms:
miserando atque eligendo
These words are taken from the 21st homily of the Venerable Bede, ...
- 15.5k
7
votes
2
answers
203
views
How to say "desire of being loved, praised, etc." in latin?
This is the first time I ask a question here. I am trying to translate into latin the phrase "the desire of being loved (or praised, respected, etc.)". If what is desired were in active ...
- 121
9
votes
2
answers
212
views
Can we use the gerund passively?
In a recent question it was pointed out that there is no passive gerund, and cupido amandi can't mean the desire of being loved. But I'm not sure that this is the case. I tend to view the gerund as ...
- 9,085
9
votes
1
answer
123
views
Passive verbal noun, oblique cases
As far as I know, present infinitive is used as verbal noun for the nominative and accusative, and gerund is used as verbal noun in other oblique cases (genitive, dative and ablative).
I would like to ...
- 201
7
votes
1
answer
187
views
Short vowels in lucubrando
I came across a poem from 1621 written in Sapphic stanza.
It contains this line:
pervigil Christi, lucubrando sudans
To scan that, the third word must be lŭcŭbrandŏ.
L&S ...
- 109k
6
votes
1
answer
213
views
Vocative Gerund
I am 99.9999% confident there is no purpose for a vocative gerund. Yet nothing seems to specifically disallow for such a construction. In theory something such as "odi te currendum" (in English, "I ...
- 1,633
5
votes
1
answer
269
views
Can a gerund stand alone?
In response to a question e.g. "How will you maintain order?" (= "quomodo tu disciplinam sustentabis?"), the answer could be, "By ruling." In Latin, an ablative of the ...
- 7,999
2
votes
0
answers
101
views
On the syntactic distribution of ablative gerund and nominative present participle
I've always taken it for granted that in Classical Latin nominative present participles cannot be replaced by ablative gerunds without a meaning change. For example, in the following case the ...
- 6,925